Elitetraders, Who here trades treasury futures or its corresponding options actively? What has your personal experience with that market been like. Is it exciting, boring? Any kinks with it that you've noticed with respect to price movements? -A
Well, the ZB (30 year bond future) has gone down 5 points in 10 calendar days. I suppose that is exciting? *shrugs* I've been watching it a bit the past few weeks, and it has gotten exciting through that time, but normally it is a dog. But these are extraordinary times.
I see, interesting... I just got started playing around with the options on the 10-year futures. Like you, just watching it a bit. Thanks for your comment.
Like watching paint dry. Massive volumes for tiny edge. Then, maybe most annoying of all. Anytime you want to explain things to people you have to speak backwards because everyone thinks in terms of rates. "Hey, the 10yr rallied to 97 15/32" <--- means nuthin' to no one.
Rate futures are the best it gets. I wish there was more liquidity further out in the curve sometimes though. Ultra bonds kick ass. Spreading the back half of the curve is probably the best opportunity in the market. The guys who say there is no action in the bonds are clueless. Also if you are a real quant jock then you will spread the bonds and indexes. Negatively correlated and all that. I agree with the quote when you look at any duration closer than ZB. You have to lever the shit out of them. But it's pretty cool how you can do just that. And you can spread the rates inter market in a million different ways. Unreal leverage is available. Makes the leverage on index futures look conservative by comparison.
The treasuries are as good as it gets for swing trading. I sure am a fan of the Ultra-bond, some of my largest gains have been on this symbol & I trade just about everything. The UBs tick price in relation to it's average price range is on par with the ES, which is a very good thing. The UB makes the top 12 list of over 60 futures symbols making the largest price range over the last 20 months. The UB, at times will sustain an avg price range more than twice that of the ES. I gather that pro scalpers focus mainly on the treasuries. * ATR = avg of the 5 & 20 day
Hello, Thank you for all the responses. Can someone explain to me how to read the price? For instance, ZN is currently(10:12pm PST) at 128’150. What do I call the (‘) and how do I express the numbers in English. (Ex: One hundred twenty eight dollars and ???) Using the same example, ZN being at 128’150, the frontmonth ATM strike is 128.50. How do I convert it to get the appropriate strike price? They’re priced in different formats. I acknowledge these are noobie questions that I, frankly, feel embarrassed to ask. -A