I am probably going to chicago this week for the forthcoming traders expo. The main reason i would be going is to go on the CME mock trading course. I listen to a squawk box and feel it could give me more insight in to what i am listening to. Has anyone been on this course,if so was it helpful to you? I have a long way to travel from England,do you think it is worth while just to go on the CME floor? cheers
Agreed, my Brother... such events should be regarded more as a social occasion, enabling the manifestation of our closet conviviality... propitiously, this is as good a reason as any to attend
Actually, I'm interested in meeting some brother ETers. Who's down for some Friday Brunch after the Trading Duel?
Go! you'll see who's running the show in e-brokerage. Believe half of what you see and a quarter of what you hear. It can't hurt your trading.
Long way to go just to see the CME floor. If you're not standing in a real pit during life trading (of course they'd only let you watch, not actually trade in that case), it'll probably be kind of anti-climactic. But snce it's mock trading - that means it'll either be after the trading day (or on the weekend) or on their secondary floor (used as backup and for training exercises and tests). How long do people expect the floor to survive realistically? The pit guys will fight it's extinction with tooth and nail, but it'll eventually have to go the Globex route completely. Lots of non-US exchanges did it quite a while ago with the members at the US exchanges holding out trying to avoid it (they tried to prevent Globex all together in it's early days). Then again, with the stream of screwups in the S&P, NDX, and Dow eminis over the last year or so...
I really doubt that the floor is going away for a couple of reasons.. First, as we all know, seat prices are rising, not falling. Obviously demand for a seat would sag if there was any indication that floor trading is going away. Secondly, arbing between the pit and the eminis is a huge business, and i suspect the lifeblood of many of the floor. I don't have any percentages, but a large part of the emini volume (so i hear) is purely because of the arbs.
looking forward to chicago. a great chance to get out of NYC to commiserate with my trading brethren. the CME visit will be fun. mock pit trading is a riot. it's not the "real thing".......who cares. i, and many others, have zero desire to spend their life in the ring. and indeed, if you speak to people within the governing body of CME, NYMEX, etc...it becomes clear that pit trading has more time behind it than it does ahead. if anyone would like to get a group together during the expo, please pm or post.