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I used Man for lumber options, and they were terrible (I mean, they handled the lumber market fine, but Man as a whole is terrible). I'd echo some of the previous comments on the liquidity of the lumber options market. If you're trading ATM options, you can expect reasonably quick (and not...

www.pinnacledata.com has pretty good (and low priced) historical data. They can give you a continuous contract using any rolling method you'd like.

"Longwinded"? Ha! This is probably the most useful post on ET this week.

The Market Maker is *never* working "against you". You're confusing Specialist with Market Maker. In any case, just don't trade NYSE stocks if the specialist bothers you. Anything on NASDAQ or an ECN should be fine. I'm certain NASDAQ is price/time priority, and I'd imagine most ECNs (if not...

They don't halt trading in corn unless it's a limit move. Limit is 20 points. And actually, they don't "halt", they just don't allow trades outside of that range. From your posting time, it was just the normal close of the day. One other thought--if you're still trading May corn, beware...

That's the Euro (the currency), not Eurodollars (the fixed income deposit).

Be careful with this though, the settle doesn't mean you could have gotten a fill anywhere near there. The only people standing near expiration are the commercials who *know* you're desperate to get out. They're not going to cut you a break. The Quaker Oat guy is just waiting for your call. :-)

Actually, that's not true either. Arbitrage is different from a scalper. This is particularly true in physically settled commodities. If you can sell a July contract for above the cost of carry, you can head to a grain elevator and buy 5000 bushels of corn to be delivered against it. The...

Huh? Read again. There is nothing "in the system" (meaning Globex, CBOT, CME, or anything else) requiring the cost of carry to be accounted for. Only arbitrageurs do that. You're just full of misinformation today. Of course futures markets have Market Makers. CBOT designated FCStone for...

Never mind I think an easing cycle is insane, but there are many ways to play Eurodollars with lower risk. :-) Look at mid-curve options, for example. You could buy a EDZ8 1-year mid-curve call. It will expire this December on next December's contract. Mini Eurodollars also exist. They...

5.25% interest on $70k for one quarter is $918. This represents 18 ES points. So, on the first day of the quarter, cash of 1400 would have a fair value ES of 1418. For other commodities, storage, financing, insurance can add up to quite a bit.

Well, the futures contract has to settle at something. Both nothing in the "system" is forcing the prices in line before expiration. Only arbitrage does that.

Yes, with some minor caveats. Read the link I posted earlier for more details. You bought at 800, you sold at 805, you would make 5x$50. Keep in mind, you did not actually pay 800x$50, so you will not be receiving 805x$50. Instead, you simply posted a performance bond and will make the...

Right, much like you would own 5000 bushels of corn if you did not sell a long corn contract before expiration.

Because, at expiration, ES settles at the cash value of SPX. http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/equity/settlement.html In other words, if you bought ES today at 50 points below the cash index, cash did not move at all between now and expiration, you would pocket 50 points. Your cash example...

The margin is set by the exchanges, in general, through SPAN. So, the margin charged to TS or IB by the exchange should be the same margin charged to you. In other words, I'd definitely ask, but IB just gives you the proper margin automatically. I do get substantially reduced margins on my...

You're absolutely right. One does not affect the other. If arbitrage were difficult or impossible to perform, it's conceivable that ES would float in *dramatically* different directions from SPX. In the case of ES, arbitrage is dead simple. If any derivative floats too far from fair value...

I assume you mean spread trades, not pairs. ("Pair trade" generally refers to statistical arbitrage, "Spread Trade" generally refers to relative performance trades) Everyone should offer dramatically reduced margin on futures spreads. CBOT and CME post their schedules of margin breaks for...

The most simplistic (but unrealistic) way to do this is to: 1) Buy ES 2) Sell stock in all 500 members of the S&P 500 index in the proper ratios. Other (more realistic) alternatives: 1) Buy June ES, sell a September ES contract 2) Buy ES, sell SPY 3) Buy ES, sell full sized S&P futures...

You would buy the futures contract, take delivery of the corn, drive it to the nearest grain silo, and drop it off at the spot price. If you can do this whole thing profitably, any difference between spot and futures (taking into account delivery and storage) is free money. (More realistically...