smooth/liquid intraday market for futs beginner

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powerfade

Hello everyone

I hope this isn’t too newbie-ish. I have a question about the most appropriate markets for intraday futures trading for beginners. I’ll try to make this short, and I'll expect some flame. :)

Obviously one of the most liquid contracts is the E-Mini S & P. I read about people trying to trade it with i.e. 3-5 ticks stops because they're trying to limit risk in a small account, and to me, this is a very difficult proposition. The noise can take you out of trades quite easily with these stops.

I found this list (I hope the link works)

http://www.traders.com/Documentation/FEEDbk_docs/Liquidity/FutLiq.html

Now, this shows the most liquid futures contracts. However, I have read that, for example, the bond bid/ask is very high and will ‘eat you for lunch’. Also, I read that the Eurodollar is not tradable in the front month and that the volatility exists in the back months, but that there can occur huge violent swings which can decimate your equity.

My question is this. Here is a list of the most liquid contracts as calculated by Futures Magazine

1. Eurodollar Interest Rate
2. 3 Month Euribor Interest Rate
3. S & P 500 big
4. DJ Euro Stox 50
5. Short Sterling
6. S & P E-Mini
7. Crude Oil – Light Sweet
8. 30 Day Fed Funds
9. Xetra Dax
10. Natural Gas
11. 10 Year T-Notes
12. 10 Year German Euro Bond
13. FT-Se 100
14. Brent Crude
15. Mini-Nasdaq
16. 5 Year German Euro BOBL
17. CAC 40
18. Australia Share Price Index
19. US T-Bonds
20. 5 Yr T-Notes
21. 2 Year T-Notes
22. Euro Currency
23. Nasdaq 100
24. Soybeans 5000 Bushels
25. Corn
26. Gold 100 Oz
27. Heating Oil
28. Russel 2000
29. Japanese Yen
30. British Pound
31. Canadian Dollar

Can anyone tell me which of these are most popular with private intraday traders? Also, which could be described as the ‘smoothest moving’ contracts? I assume it is the Currencies. In my research, my systems seem to work well on the Currencies and I am wondering if there are traders who trade i.e. the Yen and the British Pound exclusively.

My location is USA but I can trade at any time of day or night.

Are there any contracts in this list which, although showing large liquidity, are not tradable by private guys like me, for whatever reason?

Basically, I did a lot of searching for the answer to the question "Aside from the S & P 500 (Mini or Big), what are the majority of intraday futures guys trading? I know that the answer, to some degree, is "They are trading whatever they have become good at'".

Hope this is clear. Thanks for any information
 
I would start with the ER2 if I was you...that is a decent product to start off trading (and the YM and NQ are good too). The primary concern if your "mind" is right to start trading is what type of method do have ready to execute.
 
ER2 for a newbie? I guess if you like wild whipsaws and a contract that is moving exchanges, then yes, the ER2 is a good fit.

I would suggest the YM or NQ. Both are good contracts with good volume, good movements, etc.
 
for pete's sake.

you are a beginner

so, i assume you are not trading 50 to 100 lots?

then, liquidity is NOT the primary issue

spread size is MUCH important, given enough liquidity.

iow, YM

it never ceases to amaze me how many (mostly unprofitable) retail traders gravitate towards ES.

YM is superior for a # of reasons that have been hashed out before

i trade between 6-12 contracts of my own money and 4-8 additional of OPM per trade, and YM can easily handle that fwiw.
 
Should be paper / sim trading for quite some time on whichever of those you choose. On a side note ER2 suggestion seems rediculous as brownsfan suggested.

~Cx
 
Quote from Cxinvest:

Should be paper / sim trading for quite some time on whichever of those you choose. On a side note ER2 suggestion seems rediculous as brownsfan suggested.

~Cx
More...
Fear of something like trading the ER2 is ridiculous..what limiting beliefs. The thought that one product or another is safer than another one is not true imo (off all the products discussed here so far).
 
Quote from whitster:

you are a beginner

then, liquidity is NOT the primary issue

spread size is MUCH important, given enough liquidity.

iow, YM
More...

I should have included some more info in my post. Absolutely, spread size is the issue, and I had been wondering whether the currencies, which seem a bit smoother on many days than the indices (based on an examination of historical intraday charts), have a tradable spread, i.e. can I expect to get tradable fills (not expecting ES type fills, but hopefully you know what I mean).

My account size is $25K to start.

To be honest I did not expect the suggestion that the ER2 was the instrument for me, based on reading I have done here.

I have been watching the ES intraday for the past 3 weeks (eSignal CME E-Mini package only). Next week I will subscribe to the Globex Currencies to watch them for a while.

Since I have the ability to trade any time, day or night, I guess I was wondering if any of the instruments that aren't traded during North American hours hold an attraction for beginners, but might not be talked about because they trade in the dead of night over here.

Thanks for replying, guys. I'll be following the YM next week as well.
 
the ES is 90% correlated with the YM, yet has a significantly inferior spread.

thus, the advantages in YM over ES for intraday traders is quite noticeable. depending on your profitability factor, SOLELY by switching to YM vs. ES could make the difference between profitability and loss

controlling costs is very important
 
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