I want to trade the far end of the delivery curve, 2012 or later, for a long term position. How can I find liquidity in those contracts? I am looking at the Nymex CL and NG contracts on IB, and most of the far contracts don't even have a two sided quote. There's doesn't seem to be anyone trading them, at least not electronically. How do I send an order to the pits & get a reasonable execution? Should I be looking at a different exchange or contract? Thanks, Martin
Here's an idea ... (although I don't trade this way) You can enter them via a calendar spread ... sometimes the spreads trade tighter than the bid/ask appears. Then you can exit the liquid front month outright.
For NYMEX CL, there is decent liquidity for the futures out to Dec 12. Even Dec 13 and 15 have a decent amount of liquidity. There is really only liquidity in the December contracts beyond 2008. You can trade these electronically without much of a problem. For NYMEX NG, you are out of luck beyond the next few months, and would probably have to trade those longer dated contracts through the pit. I have no idea how much slippage you would get but they are criminal down there in the pit.