Proper order entry?

Two things.

One, the exchanges won't be of much help because the formatting can be specific to the trading platform or the routing software. All they can tell you is how they do it, your platform may be very different.

Two, at $55 a pop, why wouldn't he help you? That's what you're paying him for.
 
It is $55 per rt.

I am looking into getting a different broker. I originally went with them because they had no account minimums but I have built the account to the point where I have more options open to me now.

If anyone has a broker that they would like to recommend that would be great. Id still like to have a broker that can place my trades if I so choose, but Id rather be paying $30 rt max., and more like $15 rt max. for online trades into the pits.

I recently got an email back from my broker saying they have no list of the different formats but they would be willing to help me and gave me a phone #. So at least that is good news.

Trav
 
The Alaron thing looks to me like Rolfe & Nolan (RAN) order entry.

For RAN there IS a VERY GOOD manual available.

Give your broker a KICK IN THE ASS !
 
Dear FX

I took a look at the RAN manual, it does a good job of explaining what all the buttons and boxes do, but it says nothing about the format of the numbers to actually place in the boxes lol.

With all the futures traders on here I dont understand why I havent gotten any specific responses to how you learned the formats. Either everyone is trading the electronic markets and its point and click or they are calling their broker and he or she is entering it??

If anyone out there is currently placing options on futures orders I would be very intereseted how you figured the proper format for your particular system.

At this point I will just ask my broker on Monday the specifics for the trade I want to put on at that particular time and as I add contracts I guess I will learn them one by one over a period of time.

Maybe someday Ill put together a table so that everyone can have the info on one page. I might even send it to the exchanges....since they seem to have forgotten to get around to it.

Trav
 
Either everyone is trading the electronic markets and its point and click
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Yes, I think this is the main reason.

With J-Trader or IB TWS I cannot enter any non-electronic order at the moment. I would have to open a new account with another broker. There are very few pit-traded commodities that I might want to trade: energy (crude oil, natural gas), what else ?

For currency trading I have access to the FX spot market thru a FX dealer like MG Forex, Gain Capital, Saxobank etc.

Have a nice weekend !
 
I didn't understand the questions at first but I think you are just wanting to know the basics of symbols, expiration months etc.

I only look at 2 futures contracts: ES and NQ - both of which trade on the CME. The info for these contracts is set by the exchange so that is the place to start (and it is on the web site I'll see if I can find a link.)

There are 4 dates each year (March, June, Sept, Dec) where the active or front month contract expires. Right now we are trading the June contracts. These contracts expire on the 3rd Friday in the expiration month. So the June contract will expire on June 21. The March (old contract) just expired on the 3rd Fri of March - the 15th.

Rollover:
Rollover is the date when you switch from the old expiring contract to the next month's contract. You do this because the professionals do this and so the liquidity switches to the new contract. The rollover from the March to the June occurred on Thursday March 7th. The rule is that the 3rd Fri is expiration, and the day before the 2nd Friday is the rollover day (it is always a Thursday).

The contract expiration dates carry with them number and letter symbols that are used in the ticker symbol. ES is the base symbol for the EMINI S&P 500. The ticker we are trading now is ES2M. The 2 is the last digit in the year 2002. Last year at this time we would be trading ES1M for 2001. The contract expiration months have a 1 letter symbol:

March = H
June = M
Sept = U
December = Z

So the 4 contracts for ES that will be active this year are ES2H, ES2M, ES2U, ES2Z.

Does this help? I'll post a link to the CME site if I find it.
 
Contract specs for CME index products (follow the links for each product for detailed info on contract expiration and other useful info):

http://www.cme.com/httpwrapper.cfm?wrap=/wrappedpages/clearing/spex/equityGroup.htm


Also some basic info on the ES is located at:

http://www.cme.com/products/index/products_index_esp500.cfm

There is a lot more info there you just may have to search for it. If you are trading products listed on other exchanges, be aware that rules vary from exchange to exchange especially for contract expiration and rollover. Lots of stuff to learn...
 
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