Why is the e-mini dow so thinly traded?

Quote from triggertrader:

i have read many posts about recommending the dow eminis. i hear that it has a low margin/volitility ratio, great point spread of 1 tick and $5 low value per tick. it all seems great on paper yet it terribly lags all of the other e-mini products. as of march 28th the open interest on the june emini dow is only 68,500 contracts and volume is 111606.
while the s&p emini has 1735358 open interest and mindboggling 911001 in volume. the nasdaq emini 331420 open interest with 193519. even the lowly russel 412873 open interest with great volume at 140752.
the mini dow went public in 2003 much like the other mini's yet it lags terribly even the less traded nasdaq and russel eminis.
i have traded the dow emini and have experienced slippage. this is indicitive of its thin open interest and volume.
my question is why hasnt this product caught on? this is after all a product of the dow, the most popular and oldest index in the history of the stock market yet even the least traded emini index has a whopping 5 fold more volume and open interest?
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T trader;
Whitster likes it;
so some pro traders do like it.

Like Dow theory;
plus you can look back to 1929,1933 on Dow.

Maybe the '' popular''index, maybe many traders dont like the idea of a newspaper picking the stocks which make up the index.And even a great newspaper like WSJ;
dont want power concentrated too much .Maybe 100 stocks,500, or 2000 is simply preferred by some

And the fact the Dow does seem to be the most widely reported index on the nightly news;
perhaps causes many to go the other way,
and spend more time in Investors Business Daily& other news sources

:cool:
 
Quote from Bearbelly:

You would think there would be a lot of arbitrage taking place with YM as there are only 30 stocks to buy and sell versus a few hundred with S and P.
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Thats how I make an easy 10 or 15 points every day, when the thing gets way out of whack cause just me and 2 other guys named Fred are even paying attn.
 
When the es started trading the cme gave greatly reduced exchange fees for a very low annual fee to drive volume. The best you can do with the ym is buy an IDEM seat for $33,000 to save about $.80/side. They probably waved fees for a few months when they introduced the product.

Additionally the ES was a welcome alternative from the pit when it was introduced, 5 times smaller. And the pit used to be twice the multiplier it was then and is now in the 90's. Never hurts to be first.
 
This is a good thread...It's good to read about the YM futures product and get some history about it. If you like to compare products and was not their from the beginning, this thread is a great way to tighten every nut and bolt with...Thanks guys...
 
Quote from semiopen:

Some of the advantages are

there are only 30 stocks which are fairly easy to follow

the index is not weighted by market cap,m etc as opposed to the others

the companies comprising the index are all blue chips and have high volume

To each his own of course.
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True, and it is conversly price weighted on only 30 stocks. Easier to see the tail wagging the dog. I quit trading the ym for a couple of months but have seen some good things the last week and may step back up. Seeing opportunities to trade it side by side with the es like I haven't seen since late last year.
 
YM ? A joke.
ES ? A joke.

When the VIX is consistently above 20, they'll be tradeable.

In the meantime, real traders are trading ER2.
 
Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:

Arbitrage opportunities are predicated by the willingness of counter party participants to provide you with the liquidity needed to facilitate each of the legs.
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Can you explain a little bit? Are you saying that MMs are continuously readjusting their bid and offers on every Dow stock so there is no YM/Dow arb possible?

Thanks.
 
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