Perfectly said. Why everyone who lives outside of the US think they have to trade that market because it is the biggest is a mistake imho. I'm from Australia and trade the options and futures on the main index xjo.
I live in the UK but prefer the US option market: liquidity, spread, products, analitycal tool's availability... and I love the hours, 14.30 to 21:00, with future and indices tradable nearly 24hr.
Peter Hoadley's software is superb, and I would have used it rather than create my own, except he stopped importing FTSE Options a long time ago, when they moved from being traded on LIFFE to Euronext
My Tasty Trade account was all set to be funded when the S&P shot up 6.5% in a day. If you think trading the US has an advantage, good luck with that. I started trading covered calls like most people. That was in 1999. After 2 years of paper trading strangles on the S&P, I decided it was much easier to trade FTSE, which I have done in size since 2003. I have a blog and I post real trades weekly -it's just for fun and education( andclearly mine was lacking as I thought our prices were 15 min delayed) optionsinvesting.co.uk -Currently on trade 320. Now if I can continually make good profits with my tiny brain, you have to think you smarter people can make ££££
If anyone needs specific historical data I have screenshots going back many years in pdf form. And YES, this was live on Monday morning. Doh! In my defence live to the minute data pretty irrelevant as my positions are traded using my broker's prices, by phone. I get a quote on a spread and set a limit. I get overnight emails, and they confirm settlement prices too. Whe I first got interested in 1995 there was little to no info/help. Have a look at optionsinvesting.co.uk that proves that an idiot can make £££
Hi James. While you're talking about vol strategies, does the UK have the have the equivalent of vix futures options like the US?
Interesting conversation, thanks! I will take a good look at the footsie! At a first glance, I see some large bid ask spread and no weekly options. Is that correct?
So now there are two of you, who motivate me to look into those FTSE100 options again. But as a practical question: which brokers are considered to be the usual suspects and which platform could be used to paint at least a rough picture of this trade? I was a customer of Sa.. and left after costly pricing misquotes. So IB, Stone, Swissquote or who? Thanks to both of you