Hello all, I am looking into daytrading ES mini futures. Do some brokerages charge for the live data feed from the CME, and others do not? I've noticed a few brokerages don't seem to have any note of live data fees? Thanks...
You have to ask the broker and see. For example, Open ECry does not charge for live data to customers that are trading a live account. Very nice to save all those data fees. http://www.openecry.com
Thanks. I also wanted to ask, there are of course a ton of futures brokerages out there. My main mission is to trade with 1-2 contracts maximum, since I'll be starting with a small account. There are some brokers there that offer very low commissions, but they may of course not be the best out there. If I'm just trading a pair of emini ES contracts during peak liquidity, will slippage be something to worry about or no?
Most futures brokers that have a free platform do not charge for a live CME data feed. What do you consider very low commissions? There are a number of futures brokers that have all-in ES commissions for $4.00 or lower RT for low volume. The lowest all-in rate for low volume is $3.30 RT. Unless you are trading during news events, doing large size or very unlucky you will not see much slippage occuring in the ES. Do be aware the the market can move quite rapidly at times. If your reaction time is slow you will be left in the dust.
I signed up for a demo account on gofutures.com, and they apparently offer you $0.99 per side on commissions if you have $5K or more deposited with them. That's pretty cheap imho. I was just wondering, does this mean bad execution? I would figure with just one or two contracts it should be fairly easy to get a good fill. The way I'm starting to see it, with the mini ES you basically need to make 2 ticks just to get ahead of commissions and the spread. It seems most people who are short term try to go for 2 handles per move. Also, do you think $5,000 is an adequate starting size for short term intraday, trading one contract, or is it probably a better idea to use $10K? Thanks again!
That $0.99 per side is without exchange fees and can easily be beat. $0.99 per side amounts to $4.28 RT for ES. You can get $3.80 RT from futuresbroker.com and $3.30 RT from LightSpeed. The more trading capital the better as you will be losing it quickly.
Okay, I probably have the pricing wrong. When they say "per side" they are probably talking about the CME's fees, then the broker puts on a fee on top of that? I used to think 1 round trip = 2 sides...
Unsolicited advice from someone who has been there....... I was hopeful you would begin with a demo account somewhere because asking if slippage will be a problem is a sign you are not ready to enter the arena where the professionals roam. Stay on demo until you are profitable or until you cannot stand it and have a burning need to donate your money to the pros. All demos are not created equal. you need a demo that doesn't trigger a limit on touch like some do, you need one like the transact/infinity sim that makes price trade through your limit for more realistic sim(harder than real life cuz it assumes you are always last in the queue). of course if your only using market orders you will learn quickly about slippage. Happy Trading