<i>"For 3 days now I've entered TF only to see myself immediately underwater as much as $160. due to the spreads on 5 cars. And that wasn't during any periods of high volatility"</i> This whole entire week has been one of extreme volatility. The ER used to do exact-same thing, albeit with slightly less slippage. When tapes got extreme, volume waned to nothing and the dome freaked out. We cannot judge what TF will/won't do normally while inside a historical, absolutely outlier week. In my case I work a 500-tick chart, and today the TF blew thru signals on that like a speeding bullet. It was functionally untradable, execution-wise. But that's just today. Monday could be a +10pt ~ +20pt profit day thru smooth swings. Welcome to Russellville... it's a wild west show most times.
Sucks is right. As soon as TF started trading it was obvious it was different in a suck ass way. I moved from ER2 to ES months ago. I had a feeling this was going to happen. And the fact that TF is trading the way it is now has nothing to do with recent volatility. It traded like this right away when things weren't as volatile as they are right now. ER2 died. TF took it's place. TF sucks. And I bet it gets worse from here.
Response to my concerns about TF spreads: Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 3:10 PM Subject: RE: Spreads on Russell emini Mr. _______; I'm sorry that you've been disappointed with the markets in mini Russell 2000 (TF) since the contract moved exclusively to ICE on Sep 19. I'm looking at a one tick market right now in the mini Russell 2000 contract, and our own observations here at ICE have been that the markets we're showing have been one tick wide in normal market conditions. Obviously our perceptions are not the same as yours have been, and we're working continuously on market quality. In general, the feedback we've gotten about the transition of the Russell contract to ICE has been quite positive, and we're seeing more and wider participation all the time. Our goal is to have at least the quality of markets that market participants have experienced at the CME. The market environment lately has been challenging, hitting arbitrage activity in Russell 2000 contracts particularly hard because of the limitations on short selling a number of stock included in the Russell 2000 Index. Perhaps you're seeing some of the results of this market dislocation more often than we have. I assure you that we are working very hard to make sure that the Russell contract stays alive and well at ICE. We welcome your feedback to help us improve our offering. Best, Barbara Barbara Richards ICE Futures US (Chicago) 312-214-2016
I traded the old ER2 for at least for 3 years (from 2005 I think.) Tried trading outright posiions in TF since the move to ICE. I'm glad for those who find the new TF contract working and my best to them. In my experience, the new TF contract: SUCKS... BIG TIME. Spreads and depth aren't even close to how ER2 traded. I've spent enough time to give it a try. (At least I sold 653 today, so it paid me for my time...of course I took the risk.) It's time for me to stay away from this. I'll check it out in a few months to see if there are any improvements.
I found the TF fine for trading till the end of the day and then I switched to the EMD where the charts were more smooth.
I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that this last week the bid ask spreads were a lot more reasonable and less jumpy.
Wow... I'm really dissapointed in this TF. Most of my experience is with the old ER2. The past few days, I've been trading the ES... very smooth. I cannot believe the moves we've been getting too. My 4 tick stops are working like a charm on my tick charts. Chris Dunn