Hey boys and girls. I have been trading for about a dozen years on and off and am comfortable with my technical trading methodology. I am looking to get away from the noise of the amateurs in markets like the e mini SP, noise there just too stressful and random, at least it was. So I am looking for a commodity to day trade where it moves but I can reasonably trade it with say a 15 tick stop. So far the best future for what I am looking for is CL. Wondering what any of you might trade where I can risk maybe $150 per contract with my fifteen tick stop on average. Gold and futures minis have very expensive data but seem to be a good fit. I am trading through Interactive brokers. Just hopping to make 5 or so trades a day and generate even $100 then increase size as I become comfortable with whatever commodity I end up trading. So ok, flame away, I expect that, but hopefully I can be pointed in a few directions I have not been able to find yet. Thanks.
Could always try the pot futures, HO and RB. They gots some severe price action even more than CL, if that is your bag.
There is a monstrous difference between ES and CL or GC in terms of market action. The way the bids and offers trade out, the choppiness, the liquidity traps, the washouts and the subsequent DOM re-populations, the way CL acts during an EIA release versus the way ES acts during an economic release... I mean, I could go on and on. Also, there is a substantial bilateral and financially cleared swaps market in WTI (and all hydrocarbons for that matter). What you see on the CME Nymex futures screen is an incomplete picture of what is trading. There is a substantial spread market between CL and a number of other hydrocarbons. That affects the price action of CL and order flows. There is a substantial arbitrage between Comex Gold and LME Gold. That affects the price action of GC and order flows. There is a modest spread trade between GC and SL. I personally would not even consider day trading GC or CL outright without the Trading Technologies platform, a dedicated WorkStation, 100x100M Fiber or better, and direct ECN to a major Chicago FCM with collocated servers. Be very aware of how many nodes your orders are being routed through. Interactive Brokers will not cut it IMHO. You don't want to be cheap when it comes to day trading CL or GC - you can lose a hell of a lot of money in a hurry on those names. It is a speed game in those names. And if you keep missing orders because of your ECN and Clearing latency the slippage will eat you alive.
spinn, I solely day trade CL with decent size stop loss. So far so good, just need to make more money. I don't have any issues with slippage or none of that stuff. It moves really fast on certain days, but who cares, just use a stop loss market order and get out at whatever price you get out at. But I am not scalping for a few ticks. I want that big money, +20ticks a trade a day. I do like the movement.
I only trade natural gas (NG) and gold (GC). The nat gas contracts are cheap and you could try MGC for cheap gold contracts. I love the volatility and emotion of these instuments...good luck!
Actually, it seems to me that smaller retail traders would gravitate more towards futures because of the low-cost for entry. At least, logically it would follow.
how are you guys daytrading RB, HO, NG or GC? Trend following? Counter-Trend? Support/Resistance breakouts or reversion?
Bone, You talk latency in your post and the importance of the right infrastructure. I trade with limit order entrances and exits only. (IB is the broker) With that being said is the ultra obvious answer in my case, my latency and infrastructure does not really matter because my orders are already at my broker waiting to get filled? I honestly feel like I get excellent fills most of the time.
And you’re quite frankly trading differently than most ‘day traders’. Which is probably a good thing. Most day traders I’ve seen personally or taken on as clients are trading many round turns per day. It was more towards them that I was concerned about execution slippage.