OK, I guess I stand corrected. I just meant that some vendors just formatted their symbols differently. I did not mean the basic symbol was different. I am not sure we disagree about that. I guess I just did not make myself clear. The qualifier for Globex in the system I use just requires a "dot" + "GX" added to the regular quote. So for Sept S&P's, I would type SPU.Z for regular contract, and SPU.GX for globex. So a "dot Z designates it as a futures contract. Similarly, for corporate bonds, a "dot F" is the qualifier. (Not that I have looked at one of those in the last million years). I have never paid for quotes directly, so I cannot address your concerns with that stuff. Yeah, I pay, but by giving up part of my profits. I have never been a "customer" in a trading account. I do have some software that charts futures with different formats than my quote provider (Reuters). And I always forget the format. The answer to your last question....the market will, I am pretty sure, fluctuate.
When I pull up a futures montage on AT I only get 12 issues... I thought there were a lot of symbols for the ES? ES ES2U ES2Z ESK ESK2U etc... Some are are .L and others .M. Is this the exchange denoter? Which exchanges trade the e-mini (ES and NQ) It also shows a bid and ask? Is this a specialist or market maker? Or is it just the bids and offers from the rest of the world? Will there be eletronic executions on these? Or is it open outcry? Does anyone have a .jpg of the screens they see in the pits on the floor (not real time of course just an old photo)? It also shows the trades... is that the number of contracts traded? Or the number of trades no matter what the size? Right now it say 50,755 for the ES2U Thanks... sorry for all the remedial questions...
this is the only place in the world where ES & NQ are traded ... electronically only www.cme.com/products/index/index.cfm
rake, the bid and ask is from the rest of the world. The size 55,000 is probably the volume. Daily volume is reset to zero at 3:15 Chicago Time. Average trade size is one or two lots. If the bid or ask size is at least 7, you can usually get filled with a mkt order at that price. only the current contract is traded actively. that's why you only need one symbol. The trick is figuring out what symybol your quote vendor uses. Feel free to ask questions. We've got nothing better to do.