another question... just trying to understand everything. if i were to buy 1000 shares of qqq and 1000 shares of spy and made one point in each, this would be $2k profit before commission. how many contracts of each emini would i have to purchase to gain the same $$$ amount?
[Number of Contracts] x [Number of Points] x 50 = $2,000 So, whatever variables you know, you just substitute in. If you trade 5 contracts, you make $250 per point, so you would need 8 points to make a $2,000 profit. Similarly, if you trade 10 contracts, you only need 4 points of movement since you are leveraged at $500 per point. aphie
i guess i should've asked how big is a one point move in ES and NQ relatively to SPY and QQQ? feeling kind of brain dead today... maybe i'm missing something that you already explained.
aphie, Your formula only works for the ES. If he wants to use the calculation with the NQ he should substitute 20 where you have 50 above.
I have 3 IB accounts with 2 consolidated in the Universal account now, and figured the software wasn't working with the Universal account so I shut it down. It wouldn't give any info like executions or account info so I figured it wasn't able to do trades. Since there was no position showing either, I figured nothing happened. No big deal, I made it back today and then some. It looks like the Universal account sweeps from your stock account the amount you need to meet margin requirements for futures. It is nice not to have at risk more than you need in the futures account (in case IB folds). I'm not sure if it sweeps it back when your done for the day though?
lets say i'm trading in and out of qqq all day... making 12 cents, losing a few cents and buy the end of the day i've made one point. how many points would that be in the NQ? and the same question in ES. thanks in advance. the reason i ask is i see people writing things like all you have to do is make x amount of points per day. i've traded a lot of QQQ and SPY and making one point per day is not easy. i'm just trying to gauge how difficult a task it is when someone says they're making x amount of points per day in eminis, and the only way i could gauge this is relative to something that i've traded.
ddefina, about your question in regards to the sweep, yes. The idea is to move as much cash out of the futures account each day and sweep it to the equity account which effectively ensures your futures trading with SIPC and the additional insurance. The same will happen if you trade overseas products with one exception. Any profits/losses will be remain in the foreign currency until you decide to repatriate it.
Def, I presently have approx $25,500 split between futures and stkopt. If i get a universal account, can I daytrade stocks if I am not doing futures that day? Thanks,