I have been trading the SPY exclusively with some good results, but have never traded the e-mini`s. What I was wondering is if anytrader out there has compared the daily range/volatility of the two? I realize that they are similar, but does one offer more than the other in terms of action? Thanks, Chris.
I'll state the obvious that 777 was talking about that I discovered. Liquidity in SPY actually got worse when they decided to pull its live market from ECN venders. It was actually an OK electronic market on Island and Instinet. Unfortunately, since it was invented by the AMEX, in a rare 'screw the public for the sake of the exchange's profits' it doesn't trade that way anymore. The specialists use the e-mini to hedge and arb the SPY all day long. Since they control the market in SPY and can print wherever they want to, it is the worst kind of monopoly. The market maker can buy on one exchange, convert it, mark it up nicely, and sell it to you. Why not go right to the horse's mouth and but the futures yourself?? One other thing. For lets say $860,000 of exposure you would need 10,000 SPY at 86.00. That's $430,000 on margin or $215,000 on intra-day margin. For E-mini - 20 cars or $43,000 of intra-day margin is all thats required. More favorable tax treatment with mini. No comparison as to which to trade, it's E-mini hands down.
I could not agree more. I used to exclusively trade QQQ's and SPY's and use Minis as a Hedge . After they removed Q's and Spyders off of ISLD and ARCA trading after 4Pm is not as liquid. Now I position Q's but trade minis. Intra day there is much faster volaility on the minis. The taxation is better and I find commission on Minis is probably 2/3 or less of what I was paying to trade ETF's. These also trade almost 24 hours. I will be logging on Sunday night. Rock on, ebo
Do most futures brokers allow you to trade index futures 24/7 ? It is my impression that brokers like IB only allow 10 or 12 hours trading per day and no weekends.
E minis trade from Sunday night at 6:30PM ET around the clock until Friday at 4:15PM. They take a small break M-F from 4:15PM - 4:45PM ET. How is that for liquidity?
But what firms allow trading during these times? Unfortunately, MB Trading does not have extended trading hours for the futures and IB is still limited.
Actually, there isn't really much difference in the SPY pricing vs the ES. There is plenty of liquidity on INCA and ARCA , unless prices are moving wildly. Statistically, I'd say SPY and ES are 99.99 correlated. You are probably better off trading the ES, but not always.
What do you mean IB is still limited? Our US and European servers only shut down for a short time during the globex nightly reset. (Our HK server resets at a different time). In addition to Globex you can trade after hour equities as well as other global futures and equities round the clock.