To be honest mate, if you can see the ladder you'll be able to see the first three in action all day everyday. I've heard Igor has had a good run in this bull market. I haven't seen the Big Bear for a while, I presume he's a short only trader for the reasons I gave in that post and I imagine he has been smoked by this bull rally of 2 years. He used to boss it, but I rarely notice him there these days. It would be good if anyone else could name a few big traders in the ES. It's hard to believe that it is being dominated by so few people, but apart form the funds, I only see Igor and The Bear fighting it out, and now without the Big Bear Igor is left to rule it as he wishes:eek:
I know that some of the larger orders are pit traders liquidating their positions on the big contract. These are basically market makers or 'micro-scalpers' who flip 100-lots of the big S&P all day long. At least this is what I was told by a friend of mine who is the wife of a pit trader and a former S&P trader herself.
Definitely not, look at the volumes. ES volume >>> 5 x SP volume. http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/index.html On your other question, position limits apply to how much can be held at one time, but don't restrict volume. You can turn over your position as fast as you want, so in theory you could have many at the position limits but a few making up the majority of the volume. But I don't have any reason to think that is the case.
hi black diamond, thanks for the info. i am well aware of the huge ES volume vs the big contract. i am of the opinion that big volume means that it is not as susceptible to being dominated by a small group of traders. maybe you could comment on that... also, correct me if i'm wrong, your opinion is that majority of the volume is made up by traders taking positions (aka hedge funds & other institutions etc.), as opposed to a handful of locals?