Hi, Like to know if there are any Mini Nikkei traders, maybe we can have some discussion on this index? OSE/SGX/CME traders all welcome to participate, looking forward to your participation.
While other futures are my bread and butter, I have traded it since it was listed. Found LMT orders were more easily executed than with the large Nikkei which I had been trading. I haven't checked lately but I guess individuals still account for the majority of the trading in the Mini. Newedge is the major trader among the brokers making up a third or so of the volume. I don't know if they're trading just for their own account or acting as a market maker. But more than likely both. Dinner time, gotta go.
To continue, there is no liquidity problem with the Mini trading just under 500,000 contracts lately. The spread is always 1 tick. Most announcements of any importance are made before the market opens at 8:30 and 8:50. Those not living in Japan have been limited to IB as a broker to the best of my knowledge. However I just read that a Japanese broker, Aizawa, has tied up with TradingScreen to offer Japanese products to investors outside Japan. I don't know if they cater to individual investors or not. Those who are looking for an alternative to IB might want to contact TradingScreen. Here's what I read: http://www.tradingscreen.com/press_rel_081809.html Regarding IB, even though I'm in Japan, in addition to Japanese brokers I also use IB to trade Japanese futures and I can say that there is no problem with their data, and executions are done in half a second or less. Hope this helps.
Hi, Thanks alot for the information. I guessed there will be a market maker, just not sure who they are. Is it true that when trading Nikkei futures(large/mini), majority of the movements is in the gaps from previous market close to market open? Especially when market has been quiet recently, I do not observe significant intraday movements, usually in the region of 1% or below.
It's a rare day that the Nikkei doesn't open with a gap. And as with all markets there are days where it moves in a narrow range following the gap. But these also are rare. Pretty much in line with many other markets the Nikkei's daily range has been around 1% for the last few months with a spread of 100 yen or so. However I think you will find the normal average daily range to be around 250 yen.
I believe if you trade using IB, you could subsribe to live data from IB. so how do you do the charting? which charting software are you using? IB platform wouldn't give you tick by tick or 1 min or 5 mins charting capability.
I use eSignal among others. IB does have interval settings for its charts, but the quality and functionality are still having growing pains. You could use NinjaTrader for free with IB's data. It will miss a tick here and there.
You can use Sierra Chart to chart all the different N225s. The potentially missed ticks are caused because of IB's snapshot data (last price of the 100ms sample). They also have a 5 second (thus delayed) bar feed that misses no prices. With SC you can combine the two to give responsiveness with no missed prices.
Just curious, Are there certain periods where the mini Nikkei is less quiet than other periods? I noticed the presence of the market maker, but the market maker is more active during the morning session. The afternoon session is really quiet and no volatility. If that is true, appreciate if anybody can clarify whether it is not appropriate to take up a position in the afternoon session. Thanks.