Are any of you trading oex? I used to do it and I have developed a "system" for market timing. What I mean by market timing - I have a 70% of technical indicators(mainly sentiment and chart), 20% tape reading, 10% fundemental marco-economics system. 90% mechanized but not 100% - as a proverbial tape reader I don't buy into the school of total mechanical system ! (but that's only me... My dilemma is a trading vehicle. My system is based on SP and sentiment. Time frame is 3/4 days to 2-3 weeks, of a move trailing stops of course work funny in OEX. (I could use futures just that minis are not my forte never traded them. I have traded the real thing/Dow futures at the CBOT. (and NYFE while there) I think I may post some free signals - but I have not yet made up my mind nor I have tested the system fully.(my free posts would be part of my testing I am thinking first I start off with ATM OEX or even spreads. What do you think ?????
If you've never traded the e-mini's you don't know what you're missing. I've been trading stocks full-time for about 2 years and have been trading the e-mini's for a couple of weeks. I was in the process of joining a prop firm to get access to bullets and higher leverage on stocks, but after trading the e-mini's I can't seem to justify paying the desk fee at a prop firm to trade what I now consider to be an inferior daytrading instrument. In my opinion, the e-mini index futures are the intraday-trading instrument par excellence. Leverage, liquidity, volatility, transparency, low commissions--they're all there.
I agree completely about e-minis being a superb trading instruments ---- far and away in a class by themselves. For miniscule spreads, total fungibility (instant reversal ability), low commissions, high volatility, enormous liquidity, nearly instantaneous executions, the absense of any deceitful and/or manipulative middlemen or specialists, and nearly round-the-clock trading capability, they blow everything else out of the water. The introduction of the e-mini marked a new milestone in daytrading, and they continue to be the state of the art. The only drawback is that to succeed with them, mastery of technical analysis is the inescapable price of admission.
Icarus and Armaniman what brokers and charting packages are the 2 of you using to trade the mini's? Thanx
armaniman : could not say it better myself. see.. I don't even try. The futures section of this forum is getting more active as more and more traders move to this type of trading. It looks like the same effect than when electronic daytrading started on Naz and ECN became big. Same kind of new opportunities. Well.. I stop before I try more.. Really, futures rule for daytrading.. For swing or multi month trading (core trading) stocks are still the way to go (you can swing futures though), otherwise I think any technical analysis inclined trader should trade futures. There is nothing wrong with stocks. But there are many things right with futures. neo