Number of traders in futures markets

  • Thread starter Thread starter lukas
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For me it is more important of number of contracts than number of traders, if I went long 100 ES and buddy went short 100, that is one trade. But if I go long 100 and the que in Globex has 100 traders doing a one lot each then considered 100 trades, and if I was exiting, still be 100 trades. I don't see how any of them would help or make a difference? I certainly use volume for some signals, but number of traders never cross my mind, I wouldn't even know how the information would help.
 
Especially once you start factoring in iceberg orders, which I believe count as separate orders, the exact population gets obfuscated.

Assuming volume stays constant, the difference between one 1000 lot trade and 100 10 lot trades or 1000 1 lot trades is a problem left to the reader...it could be a big player making a move, it could be one person iceberging a 1000 lot order, it could be a large amount of small traders jumping in simultaneously. You'd need more info to make use of this information.
 
You guys really need to try some MGC, especially in a forward month, to see the stark reality of what volume and "number of traders" and/or "number of trades" means compared with each other. A fascinating study.

Do it live! Let's give that micro contract it's due! Let's increase it's volume! Everyone pisses and moans about losing so much money day-trading, but nobody wants to invest a hundred bucks or so in a market that is hard to lose that much in to try to make shit happen, because it is a "wimpy market"?

Maddening I tell you.
 
The most important thing you ALL need to be aware of is the vast and immeasurably enormous amount of money that can join in at any time.
 
How many traders are actively trading on an average day in futures markets like ES, ZN? Is this data publicly available?
I once saw an advert of EUREX boasting over 7,000 traders around the world. It seems it is indeed an elite world and I can only hope there will be enough participants to keep it going - what do you think about the prospect of liquidity and volatility drying up?


If you google search it you should be able to snag some of the papers put out directly by the exchanges with average data points worked out over years. I've seen some good papers that breakdown what times are most participants in xx market, what days have the most participants on average, how many and any increases or declines tracked over years.

If you can't find those using google, search through the exchanges website or contact them directly if you get really stuck.

Its surprising some of the research papers they have available when you go looking.
 
A quick read, with some user counts, about IM services used by energy traders specifically.

"All three messaging platforms have gained new users since Yahoo stopped serving traders. Of the three messaging leaders, ICE Messenger seems to have experienced the largest growth so far in 2016, with an increase of up to 250% after seeing users rise from 10,000 to 30,000. CME Pivot has also grown, according to a CME spokesman. The number of users on Pivot has climbed by 900 this summer, from 8,500 to 9,600. Thomson Reuters Eikon, however, remains the most popular service, with 288,000 users worldwide. The total number of users has grown by 7% (roughly 20,000) since the beginning of the year, according to an Aug. 5 release."

Full article here... http://marketvoicemag.org/?q=content/instant-messaging-shift
 
As long as you have markets, you will have stock markets. Futures markets based on equity indexes in developed countries tend to have significant volume and liquidity. As long as there remains significant interest in the market in which the futures contract is based upon, there will be significant interest in the futures contract.
 
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