stick to currencies. globex euro futures makes you $12.50 a tick. Your 1200 tick trade would have translated to $15,000 on one contract. IB requires $2560 to trade 1 contract. Also I find currency futures contracts trend *a lot* better and the trends are *much more* predictive than other futures and commodities. If you are used to holding a position 1 year to wait out a 1000 pips draw down you'll be smoked long before you can make your 80 pips profit.
See, I'm basically used to hitting a bid or offer price and having my order filled at the same time, and that is with market orders. That's how fast my forex broker is. But I guess it's not the same with trading corn futures? In the "pit" some guys get their orders filled and some don't...? So, with guys trying to trade e-minis, getting market orders filled would be, like, way off the current market rates? Pit traders really don't want to hassle filling orders for micro-amounts?
I don't get "smoked," bro. I got a EUR/AUD long trade sitting almost 12-cents down. It was sitting 300-points lower. That doesn't even phase me. I have Deep Hole trading strategies. My question is, how far off current market prices can I expect to be filled in the pit (market orders) even if they don't like me?
I'd do it in a second... if I knew how to access the market. Where can I get a chart like that to watch the moment-to-moment price fluctuations?
I was enjoying a cold lager and you made me dig through your old posts. This is not the one I had in mind, but it'll do. You think u can "ride out" a 1000 tick stop in eur globex futs? u might end up hanging yourself instead. Well regardless, good luck in your new trading forays. sKaLpZ Registered: Apr 2005 Posts: 434 06-01-05 06:02 AM I mean, my shorts can handle a 1000-tic ride back up, no problemo. this new system I got is smokin'. it's just that, I don't have it kicked in on my longs yet.... *whew* I'd be glad if I could get my euro longs cleared out. oh well. why do you think they call it "currency trading." http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=759786#post759786
Oil markets are easy to access. You can trade the Nymex crude emini and IPE Brent Crude Oil futures through most futures brokers. They are both electronic and fills are instantaneous.
With EUR/USD... I (or you, or we, or us, or whatever, any person under the sun...) can open a long trade, say, currently at 1.2166. Now, if it doesn't go up in price, but rather falls, you can hold it. You can hold your position for 40+ years if you want, and can withstand the drawdown (read what Bill Gates and Buffett are now having to do with their short USD trades). That's just how the forex cash or spot market works. But I am starting to gather that with futures trading, corn and oil in particular, you cannot buy and hold a position till hell freezes over. There are "delivery" dates (???) or something like that, so does this mean you MUST get out of a position by a certain time?
You can roll your position over to the next contract when the one you have a position in is about to expire. It just consists of closing one side and opening another. Pretty easy to do in oil as the calendar spreads trade as their own markets.
Thank you, Okwon, well, at least I know I can get into oil trading... Do you trade oil by any chance? So brent crude and regular crude are different? Are they sold by the bbl? someone told me a "mini" is 400 bbls and a stardard "contract"(?) is 1000 bbls. is this so?
hm... so... "rolling" means I can stay indefinitely in a position?? does it happen automatically or do I have to do something?