I am looking to start daytrading some of the European futures markets. Most of my trading thus far has been end of day, due to the fact that I work 9-5. I am looking for advice regarding European markets with regular sessions that I can trade before I go to work (I live in New York). I make a little money trading, generally, and would like to throw my hat into the ring and try to do it for a living. But I'm not a daytrader (yet!) and certainly am not going to quit my day job until I've proven to myself that I can pull some money out of the markets on a regular basis. I know the European markets vary quite a bit, and hear things like 'you'll get killed trading the DAX,' so I'm looking for advice from people who are successfully trading European indexes. Which European based futures markets are good places to start, where I can find similar movement, liquidity and volitility to the usual American index futures I am used to (ES, ER2, YM, etc)? I would like to find markets with good, tradeable action between about 3 am and 7 am eastern time. Any other advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated, such as preferred brokers, exchanges/platforms, etc. Thanks, Scott
If your account size is large enough, you won't get klilled trading the DAX. Most traders killed by the DAX were undercapitalized. To trade off 5min charts with 1 contract, I wouldn't start with anything less that $15k. Try Eurostoxx50. Much more forgiving, and you can start with $5k, single contract, and 10pts max risk. SMI might do also. Not very forgiving though.
Scottomatic, Welcome to my world. I am doing exactly what you are trying to do. I also live in New York, have 9-5 and trade between 3am-7am. Building grub stake for full time trading. European markets are where the volatility and liquidity are at these hours. I trade DAX futures, they are not dangerous of you have some what decent stake and know what you are doing. Minimum between 10-15k. Euro Stoxx are much less volatile, though more liquid, and their tick value is smaller than DAX. Bund which is the most liquid unfortunately sleeps most of the time. SMI has a small volume. Regards, redduke
Thanks RedDuke and KS96. The info is much appreciated. Any opinions on CAC, FTSE or Gilt? Regards, Scott
gilt is pants, you never get the fills you want. AEX is worth looking at - not dissimilar to DAX and 20 euro tick value.
Never traded those. I would also appreciate any opinions on CAC or FTSE futures. The AEX future is ok. It trades 9:00-17:27 CET though (same as the SMI, not the extensive hours of DAX or ESTX50).
would anyone know if institutions on the european indices eg, ftse,dax, aex use futures to prevent slippage when buying stocks in the same manner as outlined by gutsytrader in this thread http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77376&perpage=6&pagenumber=16
Wondering if anyone else can comment on the brokerages that they are using. It seems hard to get a good brokerage that has all of the foreign markets you want to trade AND a decent trading platform/ladder AND decent commission AND low Day Trading Margins.