Use strategy Runner and I am fairly new to trading YM. Been starting to fad premarket Gaps at the cash open for short term gap fills. I have been using CNBC at about 9:15 am to see if dow futures are gapping up or down. And base the fade trade on this. Is there another place I can find whether dow futures are gapping up or down from previous day close ?? And when fading at the opening is it alright to base it on the dow futures or do I need to base my gap play on the actual YM and whether it is gapping down or up in premarket ?? If so where do I find this?? I Cant find the exact number at Strategy Runner when looking at historical charts for the day. In otherwards I cant find the YM price at the previous day's close of the cash market. I know this is simple stuff I should know and pardon my naivete !! thnkx
JGold, Ym closing price is here along with other data: http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,1560,00.html There are several dow fut contracts. Which do you want to trade? ... rj
So that previous settle of 12787 is where the YM closed Friday ?? And the Net change +2 is the premarket gap up price (so to speak) ?? Also is the change in YM price determined by the Dow Index itself or is the price directly affected by the supply and demand of the actual YM future contracts that are traded ? I hear YM follows the flow of the Dow 30. But then I hear it follows Volume of the YM contracts traded. Confused to which one
Why use CNBC? Your broker should supply you with quotes if you are trading. Use this page from CBOT if you don't have live quotes : http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page1/1,3248,432,00.html Its the live book for the YM and DD. You can also find a live option book in the same area. In regards to YM movement, in my opinion (others may want to correct me) , YM movement in the short term (seconds-minutes) is changed by supply/demand of YM contracts, however over a longer period minutes/hours/days it follows the dow cash. If the dow is up +50, the YM may only be up +45, or +55, but not exactly +50 . This is because the YM quits trading an hour after cash stops, so say they are trading identical to each other, but then after hours a big dow component releases bad earnings. Well YM is going to move lower, but cash is already closed. Futures will never be extremely above or below fair value, because if they were, arbitrage opportunities would take place. See indexarb.com . Hope that helps a little bit.
<i>I have been using CNBC at about 9:15 am to see if dow futures are gapping up or down. And base the fade trade on this. Is there another place I can find whether dow futures are gapping up or down from previous day close ?? And when fading at the opening is it alright to base it on the dow futures or do I need to base my gap play on the actual YM and whether it is gapping down or up in premarket ?? If so where do I find this?? I Cant find the exact number at Strategy Runner when looking at historical charts for the day. In otherwards I cant find the YM price at the previous day's close of the cash market. I know this is simple stuff I should know and pardon my naivete !!</i> ** <b>jimmygold</b>, just so we have this straight: you are trading with real money using an approach you don't fully understand thru all possible scenarios, without the visual aspect of live charts? In other words, you are taking blind potshots in the dark at a general concept you vaguely understand? With real money in the process? Right now I'm short ES 1457.75 = stop 57.75 with price action +1pt in favor. I know all parameters of this trade and its management without question. Can you say the same with every live trade of yours? Unless you are playing in demo mode for purely educational sake, I think you need far better advice than what's been given here already. If you are in 100% demo mode with strategyrunner, that's a start. If real money, disastrous.
Yes just doing similulator right now. And I am basing entry and exit points using real live charts for 1 minute and 5 minute at Strategy Runner . And yes I do have paticular paramaters implemented in each trade. Particularly a target price set for profit taking and a sell stop to mitigate losses. Each loss on each trade does not exceed more than 1.5 % of my total equity balance. (Which is about$10,000 when I start live trading next month) I think I was just confused about what constitutied a Gap Up or down in premarket and how to go about finding that figure. And apply it to the "fade the gap" strategy. Ive got a grip on it now Thanks. BTW, it took the YM Gap down today about 2 hours to be filled. Unfortunately, many were probably stopped out as it continued to tread lower and lower minutes after the Bell.