Copper and Base Metals Liquidity

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Iceman14

I've always been interested how the trade in copper and other base metals works. I know precious has quite good liquidity via COMEX/CBOT, but from my research copper looks quite thin both on daily volume and OI.

Is it possible to day-trade HG or is this more a position-traders market? Where do the commercial and physical players hedge(?): at COMEX or LME, maybe swaps? And the aluminum trade looks non-existent at the COMEX, so what's the story there?
 
Iceman, that is a fantastic question and I'm disappointed that it has gone unanswered. I wonder the same.

I have noticed some interesting phenomenon in trading volume both on outrights and exchange traded calendars - volume tends to be 10 times as much on Fridays. Also, the majority of the open interest is on the December (Z) and March (H) contracts shortly after the March / May contract is when the contango begins to go into backwardation in the forward curve so I assume there is some seasonal considerations at this point. Can anyone please comment on this and Iceman's question?
 
I used to trade copper spreads quite a bit, near months liquidity was awesome and margins were dirt cheap (100 a sprd) I haven't traded them for about a year though, interesting on the friday vol. thing. I have traded the outrights less than a handful of times, so I can't really help you there. Shagi would be a good guy to ask, I know he trades copper a lot.
 
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