The one you want is: US Securities & Commodities Non-Professional Bundle (Includes all Stock, Options, Futures and Bond markets) The price is $10/mo if you have less than $30 commish per month, and free otherwise. You mentioned SP options. In the literal sense, SP options are options on the pit traded SP futures contract. Just avoid that mess altogether. ES (and other Globex products) are all you need to mess with.
ES options quotes fall within the non-professional us equities bundle which pretty much has all the electronically traded instruments you will need. I dont think you can do better than the price you mentioned. If you have any more specific questions about the platform, feel free to ask and i will see if i can answer them. EDIT: i see someone already answered that one
Thanks, Jeff: I just completed the application. Plan to paper trade for a while before I actually trade options on futures.
I like trading support/resistance type of setups on indices as I find index moves predictable moreso than individuals. Also for whatever reason, support/resistance levels tend to mean much more to indices than they mean to individuals in my opinion. Yes, its pretty much a sell the rallies buy the dips kind of a system. Whether you decide to use bollinger bands, ma crossovers, stochs or simple highs and lows as your trigger, it all pretty much comes down to the same thing and that is can you call the direction right at or close to the right time LOL As far as martingale, yes you have to start small and have some safe guards in place to keep you out of the painful breakouts that can blow you out. I am not a big advocate of size increase or roll up/down/outs but indices do tend to revert to the mean alot for whatever reason
Here is my secret tip for those of you using slow stochs. If you have Tradestation, overlay the 10,15,20 and 25 period slow stoch on the same charting line so they overlap. Look for times when all 4 stochs are pinned high or low for reversals. Look at a daily or intraday chart over a long period of time and see how the multiple time-frame slow stochs work...
i'll try to post a tradestation report tomorrow. I don't use the model to trade as it is too correlated to my options model, I just know when it takes a sognal it is right 70 percent of the time. the entries need to be cleaned up but I haven't found the time. .
Alot of discussion lately on use of TA to call direction on the SPX. For those interested, I thought i'd post exactly what i am usually looking at when i place my SPX trades. Is it perfect? Certainly not, but is very manageable. I have personally placed a trade at each and every point i have outlined on that chart except maybe once in april or may. I even drew my next trade LOL Looking at the chart one can argue why i didnt go long/short the futures instead and make a killing. Well, it just isnt my style. We are all good at our own things. I consider other things when i open a trade not just TA but it certainly is an important part of my trading. Here it is: Excuse my messy picture, apparently those drawing lessons i took in 3rd grade were a waste of my time, should have been studying stocks instead LOL
I'm sure your smarter than me but my options software is saying something slightly different. I'm showing the ratio spread you mentioned (1200x1175) as being long .05 futures. If I look at the same ratio spread atm (1250x1225) then it is long .15 futures, at least with 31 calendar days left. Granted these numbers will improve as time passes. Probably what is most perplexing to me is if everything remains constant and vols went to 26 the position would immediately lose $3500 (pit sp). While vega is less than a naked 1175, it appears to be substantial. Thoughts? I'm actually looking at the 1225x1200 3x2 ratio spread for about even as I show the position is slightly short when laid on. The expiration break even is still down near yours and the max profit is large. Still, the vega exposure is similar to your 2x1.