Toughest trade in the world: S & P 500?

It's not so difficult to trade S&P - if you do it long-term. And look at the fundamentals.

 

No it's not, if you're willing to accept shitty returns.

 

I wonder what ES volume would look like if broken out by individual trader. That is, are there a few large traders who make up say, 80%-90% of volume and 1000's of mom-n-pops who make up the rest?

Anyone care to speculate on this and what affect it has if any?

Also, is the GLOBEX exchange FAIR and fully transparent? Is it possible to hide your order (i.e. something like iceburg orders.)

 

The starting point of my comment is that I have an intraday, daytrading mentality... I have been daytrading stocks with fair success for a while...

Some time ago, I decided that I was becoming somewhat jaded with the constant scanning for daytrading plays on NYSE and Nasdaq... I figured it would be great to daytrade just one instrument... I tried hard to develop a profitable intraday trading approach for the ES, since I don't like longer timeframes...

I could not get my head around the moves that ES made... it's a faders market, and I am not a fader... its a market for the reversal players, but this goes psychologically against my trading mentality...

For me, the ES is untradeable intraday... I know there are people here doing ES successfully (e.g. OldTrader -- who takes longer term positions -- and NihabaAshi -- who trades reversals and fades moves)... but longer timeframes and reversals are areas that I am not comfortable with...

After a brief experimental forray into the intraday world of ES, I just could not get daytrading it to work for me... this is in contrast to stocks, which are perfect daytrading vehicles for me...

 

Hi candletrader,

As you point out, it's all a matter of personal skill. Some years ago, I went through the same reasoning as you about switching from stocks to futures. I decided to stick with futures.

To succeed, I think one must first abandon all illusions about either trend following or fading. Doesn't make sense to me. It is sufficient to buy and sell at the right moment. The art of course is to figure out what is right for you and what minimizes your probability to go broke.

nononsense

 

I think I will stick with what I am good at... the intraday trading of NYSE and Nasdaq! The ES was a failed experiment from my perspective...

 

Incorrect.

 

Also very incorrect.

 

So then what is the leading indicator?

 

Why are you so hung up on "indicators"? Perhaps ktmexc20 doesn't have any need for your "indicators". This is the way I read it.

nononsense