Which to look at for relative strength--futures or .SPA/.SPX?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by snowbren, May 7, 2010.

  1. snowbren

    snowbren

    Hi everyone,

    Just wanted to get your consensus. I am currently paying for the futures stream on Lightspeed. I like to look at the e-mini S+P for market direction, and have it up as a separate line chart, with MACD and RSI indicators. I also have .SPA and .SPX on my Watchlist. The .SPA seems to correspond exactly to the /ESM0 levels.

    Is there any advantage to watching the futures contract to see whether the stock is weaker or stronger? Or is comparing it to either .SPA or .SPX just as good? If so, I might cancel the futures data and just use these.

    Thanks!
     
  2. snowbren

    snowbren

    Just to clarify, I would like to look for morning pre-market setups based on gaps and use the futures or .SPX to help compare relative strength and provide a basis of comparison to the price direction of a particular stock. I am interested in knowing which index people have found to be particularly useful (and also might save me some money if I could use the .SPX instead of paying for the e-mini futures stream).

    Thanks!
     
  3. Get a mentor if you want to save money and use their set-up
     
  4. snowbren

    snowbren

    Thanks, I am doing the best I can to learn by layering...but wanted to check with some other traders out there and see what they use to monitor the overall market.

    Another indicator I see is .INX, the S&P 500 INDEX,RTH per Google Finance.

    So I have the following options:
    1) e-mini futures contract
    2) .SPA
    3) .SPX
    4) .INX

    I have SPY on my Watchlist, but don't look at it all day. I thought it would be better to have the e-mini futures up or the overall index.

    Any thoughts on which is best?
     
  5. snowbren

    snowbren

    Hi, just to update...I asked an experienced day trader and he felt the e-minis have about a five second lead on the regular .SPA or .SPX indices, so maybe I will keep them after all.

    Gonna look for some ETFs now that match Google Finance Sector performance (right on the home screen of Google Finance), so I can keep track of the 12 sectors during the course of the trading day.