Still trading QQQ only.

I've been trading the cubes for about two years now, but almost always have looked at NQ for the support/resistance etc. I now think of changing to e-mini NQ and there are some things I'd like to get perfectly clear before doing so. I hope you can help me with these rookie questions. :)

* I belive you buy NQ in contracts. If NQ has a price of 1100, what is the price of the contract? Is it 20 times 1100?

* I've read somewhere - don't remember where - that there may be problems getting fills on limit orders on NQ? When trading QQQ on a breakout, I often put a limit about 0.05 away so I'm sure I get filled in case it moves fast. Does limit orders function the same way for NQ?

* No uptick rule for shorting?

* I read in this string that trading futures (NQ) is a different story from trading stocks (QQQ). I cannot see how, as NQ and QQQ follow eachother extremely close. Can someone tell me what is so different?

* Trading QQQ over TradeStation, I have a Daytrading Buying Power of 4 times my account. As I understand it, margin requirements for NQ is 20%, so I should have Buying Power of 5 times the account then?

* All in all, I can only find advantages with NQ over QQQ - fee, slippage, minimum account balance ($5,000 vs $ 30,000). Am I crazy who have not switched to NQ long time ago??? :confused:
 
* I belive you buy NQ in contracts. If NQ has a price of 1100, what is the price of the contract? Is it 20 times 1100?

If you buy at 1100 you are long at 1100; it will move in .5 point increments; each .5 increment equaling $10 per contract.

* I've read somewhere - don't remember where - that there may be problems getting fills on limit orders on NQ? When trading QQQ on a breakout, I often put a limit about 0.05 away so I'm sure I get filled in case it moves fast. Does limit orders function the same way for NQ?

its first come first serve for limit orders. If you enter a buy order above the lowest offer you will be filled at that offer assuming enough contracts are there at the time you enter. If you enter a limit order to buy below the current offer you of course may not be filled. It depends on whether it trades at your price and you are high enough in the queue.

* No uptick rule for shorting?

right.

* I read in this string that trading futures (NQ) is a different story from trading stocks (QQQ). I cannot see how, as NQ and QQQ follow eachother extremely close. Can someone tell me what is so different?

leverage, minimum tick, may move quicker at times.

* Trading QQQ over TradeStation, I have a Daytrading Buying Power of 4 times my account. As I understand it, margin requirements for NQ is 20%, so I should have Buying Power of 5 times the account then?

For daytrading you probably need about $1100 per contract minimum(per your brokers rules). Of course you should have more but thats for you to decide.

* All in all, I can only find advantages with NQ over QQQ - fee, slippage, minimum account balance ($5,000 vs $ 30,000). Am I crazy who have not switched to NQ long time ago??? :confused:

your not crazy :D
 
Quote from traderjimbo:

And since it will be on nasdaq - the ecns will not be subject to the trade thru and quote thru rules - like they are with the spy's
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exactly!
 
Thanks for your reply m c a98!

Your answer to my question:
-------------------------
Q: I read in this string that trading futures (NQ) is a different story from trading stocks (QQQ). I cannot see how, as NQ and QQQ follow eachother extremely close. Can someone tell me what is so different?

A: leverage, minimum tick, may move quicker at times.

------------------------

When trading the cubes, I always look at what NQ is doing, actually I base my QQQ trading more on NQ than on QQQ. So I know they follow each other extremely well. No difference there regarding potential moves, speed in the moves etc.

What do you mean by leverage and minimum tick?

Regards,
 
leverage: size of max. position relative to size of account

min tick: min change in price of instrument (for ES it's 0.25 = $12.50) - don't remember what it is for NQ
 
I daytraded SPY for a while and was completely pissed off by the specialist. Several times it happened to me that I have to wait for 45 seconds to get a confirmation of a trade. Then I said, this is enough.

I wonder if this has happended to some of you guys/gals. And if yes, why do you continue trading it?

Frank
 
Quote from frank123:

I daytraded SPY for a while and was completely pissed off by the specialist. Several times it happened to me that I have to wait for 45 seconds to get a confirmation of a trade. Then I said, this is enough.

I wonder if this has happended to some of you guys/gals. And if yes, why do you continue trading it?

Frank
More...

my partner uses islnd to trade QQQs... i used rjt and got hosed - repeatedly - too many times trying to get out on when a program trade came through and i was on wrong side of market.... if you cant get in and out you're screwed.
 
i look at spy or the s&p index every single day. Sometimes I buy some spy if I think the overall market is in an uptrend.

in the past few months the QQQ's have shown relative strenth, I owned some QQQ's for about a month.
 
Thanks you all for your replies, this community sure is great and professional. Hope I can bring more value to it as I get more experienced in this trade :)

I trade with TradeStation, and looking at their margin requirements for trading NQ, they have three different types:

* Initial Margin,
* Maintanance Margin and
* Day Trade Margin

I don't perfectly understand the difference and feel I should do so before trading NQ instead of QQQ which I do now. Anyone who can explain this?

They also state that "Stop loss orders (risking no more than 25% of day trading margin) are required at all times to qualify for day trading margins. Client is responsible for maintaining stop loss orders requirements at all times."

Do you know what this means in practical terms? Does it mean that I right after having opened a position must enter a stop loss order for this position, and what is then "right after"? Seems like a hazzle as I want to concentrate on the position I just opened, expecially during the next minute, and then I don't want to take that focus away by entering stop loss orders...

I'm new to the futures market, so please bear with me. Hope to be able to give back one day! :)
 
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