
Quote from shark:
Does anyone know what exactly keeps the prices of the ES and the S&P so close to each other?
Quote from Stosh:
Remember that ES trades almost 24 hrs per day, but the stock market which the S & P Index measures, only trades about a fourth of that time (6 1/2 hrs). So, most of the time (17 hrs or so) the ES futures traders don't have that benchmark to guide them, they are just guessing about the "future". Stosh
Quote from uexkuell:
Maybe "guessing" is a strong word.
You may want to look at other indices around the world (Nikkei, Dax..). They are following each other very closely.
And those indices are not based on guessing but on their own stock markets.
Btw arbitrageurs are also using small differences between ES and the other indices.
StoshQuote from Stosh:
Remember that ES trades almost 24 hrs per day, but the stock market which the S & P Index measures, only trades about a fourth of that time (6 1/2 hrs). So, most of the time (17 hrs or so) the ES futures traders don't have that benchmark to guide them, they are just guessing about the "future". Stosh