Well its not been a bad summer all in all. What was looking like a crap year suddenly turned around and I was on track for a good year. The second week of August this year came about with a complete change in fixed income for those of us who trade eurex and liffe. The markets booted off, the algos and systems pulled out and hey presto - a genuine market appeared. Like the survivors of the titanic floating in the atlantic a ship was seen on the horizon. Its name the HMS MARKET FREE ALGO. Edges were back, bids and offers traded fully , prices stood their ground and could be hit. What a difference this was compared to the last few years of flipped prices, cant hit anything because it is pulled when hit in a one lot, profiled spreads trades squeezed to imposssible levels one way by machines geared with so much leverage and money you cant compete. The exchanges were wondering what the fuck happened. Where did all our friends go who promised us millions of round trips because we gave them the exchange order book and five pence a round trip fees with their servers cosily next door to the exchange. Well I have not received one phone call or email from the exchange to thank me for turning up and putting in my prices. The volumes for eurex fixed income futures are down 11.36% year on year. The shatz volume alone fell month on month 17.9%. The volumes when the machines pulled out were actually quite healthy bearing in mine not many people were playing. Now they have been running again for a couple of weeks the volumes look quite bad. I think in the long run liffe and eurex particularly on fixed income will have lower and lower volumes. These machines are killing off long term volume not increasing it. The statistics back up this. Hopefully the credit crunch that I firmly believe has infected the market through out will create lots of volatility and these algos will not be able to play due to so many variables of emergency rate cuts/hikes and institution failure etc. But I fear this may be some time in the making and I fear 2008 will be a long slog. Anyway as my title thread says - back to the grind. Yawn Yawn as another spread I have on is squeezed one way until everybody pukes. Wake up exchanges and get with the programme.
I have a big problem with what you said What was looking like a crap year suddenly turned around and I was on track for a good year. What do you mean by this Why are you trading like this When will you stop and use your head the only way EVER you should use this excuse is when you are trading SO large that you have no choice but be position trader shame on you, beaker, you can do better
Just a heads up please stop putting blank lines in between every sentence enhances readability a lot makes you look a lot less stupid, too
WOW 59 posts in at most 5 days is impressive, and already shaming beaker for his post. Let me guess algo's on again and all the time in the world to read and post?
to elaborate on the usual boring replies of adjust your trading style nonsense. my trading style makes money. my problem is my slippage, my speed execution, my fees etc. how can i adjust style that requires me to spend infinite amounts of money on equipment, how can i adjust my trading style to refuce my fees because i will never trade a million trips a week. how can i rent an office next to the exchange to place my company server so i can hit prices and pull prices quicker. this is not a a debate about profitable trading style and how to evolve them. my system makes money. am i a bad trader because i want to buy at 10's in my spread but a machine did it quicker than me and in so much size offers run away. i will trade against any body on a level playing field and win or lose accept the results. my whole point and has been my point for years is this is not a level playing field.
Agree 100% with the beaker. I use to consider the Bund the king of all indicators for the us bond market during a good chunk of the day, now it has dropped several rungs on the importance ladder as far as my trading goes. The lack of volume (and participation) in that contract is very noticable. Many of the algos have been turned off on the ZN, ZB but the trading volume has increased on average. Interesting times.
This is a good analogy.The funds running the models really are killing off the smaller traders,I hardly ever speak to anyone these days who has good news.They move in,take over and it's game over.People who say'oh just change your trading style' are comedians,most small traders have the same positions and all get screwed together because they can only afford to run them so far.This is not about strategy,it's about deep pockets. Now,where's that Wal-Mart job application form?