I was PM'd a question about forward curve open interest and "tradeability". Look at the exchange settlements and the individual expiry OI. If there is more than several thousand OI listed for and expiry, you can assume that there will be an exchange spread market for a spread combination that includes that particular expiry. Keep in mind that many of these forward curve months will constantly have a bid-ask but it might only print a trade a few to several times per day - charts can be very deceiving in this regard. If you have a futures broker, you can call up the execution desk or look on your trade execution platform for the current bid-ask on a futures spread that you might be interested in.
SpreadProfessor Clients - Thanks !
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Do you give freebies or free trials , samples of trades etc?
What are the main instruments you concentrate on?
What are the main instruments you concentrate on?
Two webinars distributed to clients today: one regarding Gold Calendar Spreads - and the other regarding a client who has been paper trading for a little over a year, has excellent performance metrics, and he wanted to discuss a good approach for opening a live account after the New Year and his best execution options.
I wanted to comment on the relative merit of the independent speculator somehow becoming privy to the intimate details of block trades - and if that constitutes an edge.
Having personally taken part in block trades with respect to commercial energy and having witnessed many in the interest rate markets, block trades present a likely illusion as an edge identifier. The executing parties ( let's say GS or MS or BoA or Knight, et al ) are frequently executing orders for institutional clients. So, arguendo just because GS bought 5K ES, does not necessarily mean that the Goldman Sachs proprietary desk is making a bullish bet on the S&P 500 per se. More times than not, they are executing for a client. And to take the logical next step, there is an equally enthusiastic counter party taking the other side of that trade.
As of May, 2016, this is the amount of customer segregated funds Goldman Sachs had on hand:
"13. Total amount in segregation (add lines 7 through 12) $21,431,978,499"
Personally, I would be scared shitless to know who took the other side of my trades. For me, price trumps everything. A block trade, to me at least, simply means two or more parties agreed on a fair price valuation at that space in time. What I am personally much more interested in would be a new price discovery in a new trading range that holds up over time - that tells me that the market has accepted that new valuation and therein the speculator can profit from that information. That's just what I've come to believe over a long period of time, just my 2 cents, YMMV.
Having personally taken part in block trades with respect to commercial energy and having witnessed many in the interest rate markets, block trades present a likely illusion as an edge identifier. The executing parties ( let's say GS or MS or BoA or Knight, et al ) are frequently executing orders for institutional clients. So, arguendo just because GS bought 5K ES, does not necessarily mean that the Goldman Sachs proprietary desk is making a bullish bet on the S&P 500 per se. More times than not, they are executing for a client. And to take the logical next step, there is an equally enthusiastic counter party taking the other side of that trade.
As of May, 2016, this is the amount of customer segregated funds Goldman Sachs had on hand:
"13. Total amount in segregation (add lines 7 through 12) $21,431,978,499"
Personally, I would be scared shitless to know who took the other side of my trades. For me, price trumps everything. A block trade, to me at least, simply means two or more parties agreed on a fair price valuation at that space in time. What I am personally much more interested in would be a new price discovery in a new trading range that holds up over time - that tells me that the market has accepted that new valuation and therein the speculator can profit from that information. That's just what I've come to believe over a long period of time, just my 2 cents, YMMV.
"Personally, I would be scared shitless to know who took the other side of my trades."
That's priceless,love your sense of humor where do I sign up?
Back in the early to mid 1990's, when the CBOT was in the process of giving away the entire enterprise to CME and Globex, the CBOT had an off hour electronic trading system called "Project A". There was a scrolling ticker banner on the bottom of the screen that listed trader's acronym and clearing firm. For example, I was "NUK/325", which meant that I was the local NUK and I cleared Transmarket Group. Now, I was spreading between 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s, and Cantor Fitzgerald cash. And God's honest truth, I would shit Tiffany Cufflinks when I saw that Goldman or Morgan or Bear or Lehman took the other side of my trade. But in the end, the trades worked out more times than not - which is all an honest trader could ask for.
I have a book somewhere, Van Tharp and someone, where it explicitly says if you pay for the feed, you can identify the market makers.
Is that false?
Well, that's not true in the futures market - I can't speak for the equities markets but I kinda doubt it. I do know that in the financially-cleared OTC Swaps market you can specify to the broker that you remain anonymous. If it's a bilateral OTC trade you are required to know the counter party.