Trading Futures

A

arzoo

I trade stocks and read a few interesting posts on futures, but I don't really know how they trade.

Where would be a good place to read on this. And what 'issues' do you guys suggest I monitor to get a hang of it.

I use IB, & I know they have futures trading available.

Also, how do sizes go in futures?

Thanks.
 
Quote from arzoo:

I trade stocks and read a few interesting posts on futures, but I don't really know how they trade.
More...

Do search on this board for 'futures' and you will know more that you will be able to digest... Plus, your questions are very general.
Make them more specific, if you want to get specific answers.
 
When you guys speak of futures does it always mean the e-minis?

I can't seem to understand (I'm sure I'm confused somewhere), when experienced traders keep saying that futures (I'm not sure which ones) can be used to circumvent the PDT rules.

Because in what I've read so far, it seems that the futures are a lot more expensive, like for the ES you multiply by 50, making 900+ to $45,000, and in the case of NQ you have a multiplier of 20.

Is it cheaper because the margin requirement is a lot less for futures? from what i understand around 6%+ or somewhere in that range?

Lastly, what are the symbols used to see the charts for NQ and ES, do you just use the SPX and NDX or are there charts for the futures?

Thanks.
 
Trying to help here...

Value of ES future is $50 * point value ($50 * 900 points would be $45000) But this is not really interesting. More interesting - You trade (win / lose) on a point base. So let's say you buy 1 contract ES when value is 900 A few hours later the value is 923 so at this time you made a profit of 23 points * $50 = $ 1150,- (Of course the same goes around the other way, you loose as well)
Your acct is updated immediately.

Here comes the advantage : You only need a few $$ on your acct to buy/sell the futures (So in stead of needing $45000 (900 * $50) you will (depending on how you trade) need only $ 1000,- or even less.
This amount is called margin.

Other advantages : No Uptick, Trading Hours, Good Volume, Electronical trading (on many)

Futures have (as options) a time frame.
Now we're trading the december futures (All futures have different expiration times) so to see a chart for the current ES futures you type : ES and than a code for month and year (for example ES02Z for ES 2002 december futures.

Hope this helped but : MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DOING BEFORE YOU START TRADING : AS YOU CAN SEE THERE'S A HUGHE LEVERAGE (Difference between margin and value)
 
I have a question on ES and NQ trading, hope you guys can help me.

Let say the current bid/ask price is 1000 X 1001 and i placed a buy limit order at 1005. Will i get filled at the current ask price or at my limit price, assuming the ask price stays at 1001 ?

Thanks :)
 
That was a good explanation. my question now is if your margin is 1000+ and let's say you are down a few points, ex. you bot at 1 contract at 900 and now its at 860 (so loss is 50*40= 2000).

How does that work? you're out of the game?
 
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