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A couple of points: 1) If QQQ and SPY did not precisely track the futures, arbitrageuers would immediately step in to profit and then make sure the two did move in virtual lockstep. 2) Please backtest your strategy on the futures themselves, not the indices (because the futures represent...

The odds are you've already missed the bulk of the good profit opportunity in the futures' close well below fair value (at a discount) today. As other posters point out, a lot can happen between today's close and the reopening of futures trading on Sunday and the cash index itself on Monday...

Let me try to put this market in perspective from the point of view of the only instrument I trade ---- ES (E-mini S&P). Probably the best gauges of a market's volatility are its average true range over a 10-20 day period, and its total average daily travel range (defined as the daily sum of...

A limit-down level is like a circuit breaker, at least on one side of the contract. When ES or NQ first goes down 5% (currently 55 points for ES and 80 points for NQ), limit-down is reached and trading can occur only at or above the limit price for a 10-minute period. After that trading...

A few clarifications: 1) ES tracks/leads S&P cash index, but NQ tracks/leads not the NASDAQ Compositie ($COMPQ), but the NASDAQ 100 ($NDX). There is a difference, though $COMPQ and $NDX generally move roughly in tandem. NDX is the largest 100 Nasdaq stocks, COMPQ represents a broader...

In my view, e-minis are definitely superior trading vehicles to any stock, including a tracking stock like the cubes. To answer your points one by one: 1) NQ has significantly cheaper commissions (keeping the broker constant) than QQQ and you nearly always give up less to the spread. Don't...

Just to let the cat out of the bag: For what it's worth (and IMO, not too much) the Value Area is the range within which around around 70% of yesterday's trades occurred. (If you look at all of yesterday's trades and prices, you'll generally see somewhat of a bell-curve distribution ----- lop...

Babak ---- If you check that link, you will find below *click here for the most recent data*, a line reading *VIX Data Textfile for 1986-2001*. The CBOE's own statement in the paragraph above is either inaccurate or the equivalent of VIX data was maintained and collected by some other source...

I have VIX data going back to 1986, and over that entire period of time, the average VIX reading was indeed around 17-18, based on calculating 50-month MAs ----- figures range from around 21 in 1989, down to 13 or so in 1996, and now are around 26. It is completely true, however, that since...

From William R Gallacher's *Winner Take All* ----- to my knowledge the first and most articulate statement of tntneo's very valid point: "If losing were strictly a matter of chance, the losing rate of traders would be determined by commission charges, since winning and losing trades would...

IB's e-mini data feed is definitely real-time and is outstanding. The past 3 days running, my esignal quotes have lagged up to 80 seconds between 10AM and 10:30AM ET when release of economic data has resulted in some very fast and very heavily traded markets. Esignal has posted bulletins...

Dano ----- I've also been able to use an Intel Pro/100 S, goes for between $50 and $55. That and the 3COM 905C are the ONLY cards I can successfully log onto TWS with, having tried at least 5 other ones! It seems you basically get what you pay for when it comes to NIC cards!

Thanks so much guys. It was the NIC, and now I'm up and running fine. Could have never figured it out without your help. Thanks again.

I opened an IB account this week, and after nearly 100 tries, I am still unable to access the trading screen for the account. I've talked with IB support nearly a dozen times ----- they have been very helpful, but are stumped as well. I feel the problem may lie somewhere in the Java applet...

Various studies over a 50-year period show that 80-90% of futures traders lose money. Most of those suggest that about two-thirds wash out within a year or two of trading. I personally don't think a greater percentage of futures traders lose money than those who trade momentum stocks, but the...

TradeStation 2000i, IB primary broker, eSignal primary data feed.

I don't think it's just you Babak. I've read a couple of Williams interviews that I thought were very insightful and helpful, but his books are another story altogether. After extensive testing and comparisons, I found all of his methodologies to be much less than optimal, and I don't use or...

I agree completely about e-minis being a superb trading instruments ---- far and away in a class by themselves. For miniscule spreads, total fungibility (instant reversal ability), low commissions, high volatility, enormous liquidity, nearly instantaneous executions, the absense of any...

To me there are whipsaws and then there are other whipsaws. For the first time in many months, we saw what I call (courtesy of Joe DiNapoli) railroad track bars in the futures ------ what you might call gigantic, ultra-rapid whipsaws. These are not that hard to trade with tick-by-tick tightly...

I must agree with short 'n fool. I too would like to hear a sane rationale for going long BVSN. The fact that it's already fallen a great deal and is somehow *due* to bounce is one of the weakest justifications for a trade that exists. By any technical analysis measurement ----- very much...