To trade YM you only need lease an IDEM seat for around $161 a month which should bring round trip costs down to around $1.50 per lot all in, for a small retail trader doing 1000 lots per month, depending on broker. If you do big volume you should be able to knock this down a lot further. http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,1042,00.html http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,936,00.html Unfortunately for those that use IB this option is untenable as they won't agree to sign the clearing part of the member lease form, so you'll have to move broker to someone like Transact or Velocity. Although the below would be an option perhaps - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=801812&highlight=IDEM#post801812 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46312&highlight=IDEM
thanks frugit. outr of the $1.50 you quoted me what are the exhange fee's of that. so if one even does 1000 r/t's amonth its a savings. so once you lease a seat you got back to your broker rigtht. lets say a broker charges $4 r/t. out of that $4 i think $1.64 is exhange fee's the rest is commission to the broker. how do you get $1.50 or less r/t. do you ahve to be a corp or can you lease in an indivudual name?
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/CBOT.php?ib_entity=uk The exchange fee is $0.90 per side + $0.02 regulatory fee for a non-member. For a member it is $0.10 per side. As a non-member doing 1000 rts/month I was quoted $2.94 r/t by Transact, worked out like this: $1.10 commission + $1.80 non-member exchange fee + $0.04 reg fee As a member I assume it would be $1.10 commission + $0.20 members' exchange/clearing fee = $1.30 r/t. Again that $1.10 could I assume be brought a lot lower with decent volume. There may be other fees involved of which I am unaware. e.g I think there is a once off payment to set up the IDEM lease.
I like YM (as a proxy for a 0.1tick ES), but its fees are truly exorbitant. I believe YM is the most expensive electronic futures product of all markets I follow. Right now I'm paying 4.04r/t via IB (unbundled, so it drops later in the month), which really adds up (several thousands of dollars every month). That's DOUBLE or more than what I pay in other markets. And unlike CME, CBOT doesn't even have the incentive programs for LLCs etc. The best option would be what you described.
Anyone here uses market profile successfully? Since I had nothing better to do I tested a very simple idea - entering in the direction of point of control (poc). I did it for two four-week periods. Since entry has to be discretionary I replayed the charts on high speed. Used 30p stop, exited at 16.00 if target or stop not hit. No trailing (though I think it might be good). Generated in 23 trades in 40 days. First period: +165 usd. Second period: +1135 usd. Not claiming that this is of any statistical interest whatsoever, just did it for fun. So, anyone uses market profile as their main analysing method or in combination with other stuff? /Stalker