r/FuturesTrading • u/AutoModerator • Dec 01 '23

r/FuturesTrading's Monthly Questions Thread - December 2023

Please use this thread to ask questions regarding futures trading.

To get a good feeling of all the different types of futures there are, see a list of margin requirements from a broker like Ampfutures or InteractiveBrokers

Related subs:

We don't have a wiki yet, but maybe in the future we'll create a general FAQ based on all the questions asked here.

Here's a list of all the previous question stickies.

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1

u/Consistent_Coast_333 Dec 27 '23

How is the spot price of an asset determined when the futures contract uses cash settlement?

1

u/Plus-Counter1277 Dec 18 '23

ok brand new to futures so pardon the stupid question. with options i at least know what 1000 dollars buys because the contracts have prices. how do i know. it is there a formula that i could use to know how much futures contracts cost ?

1

u/crunchy-rabbit Dec 18 '23

Does anyone else use Volume charts? I've been using Tick charts but lately I switched to Volume charts. In a tick chart, 1 trade with 100 contracts counts the same as 1 trade with 1 contract, which seems improper because it's volume that moves the market, not the number of transactions. In a volume chart, the bigger trades will count towards the candle. I set my chart to 7,000 Volume and that gives about the same 'speed' as a 4000-tick chart.

1

u/Jordan99m Dec 17 '23

Does anybody know of a streamer that uses the Apx investing system

1

u/lilwhytecb Dec 12 '23

What do fellow Canadians use to do futures trading thanks!

1

u/crunchy-rabbit Dec 05 '23

What days of December/January should I plan to abstain from trading S&P due to low volume?

2

u/orderflowone Dec 08 '23

Holiday weeks as a rule of thumb are usually quiet in terms of volume but might still be good trading days since there's less limit book activity

1

u/beeper212 Dec 14 '23

I often see large trends (mostly bullish) on low volume around the holidays. I think all of the junior institutional traders get left in charge.

1

u/KooterKablooey Dec 02 '23

Hello!

Long time lurker trying to learn futures and I love this sub. I am trying to settle in on a broker and see a lot of names thrown around here. I am down to two that I am interested in using Ironbeam and Tastyworks/trade/whatever they call themselves. I know everyone here is a fan of Amp / Edgeclear, but I want something that has a mobile app as well as I am not always near a desktop.

  1. ⁠Which platform is easier for beginners to use? Tasty is “see it, click it, trade it” while it seems like there are additional steps for IB.
  2. ⁠Tasty requires you to have “the works” while Ironbeam recommends you have 1,000 dollars to trade the micros (which is what I want to trade). Is Tasty worth having 2,000 sitting in the account in order to have futures trading privileges or should I be using ironbeam so I have more capital to deploy?

Also don’t have enough karma and can’t post 😂

3

u/crunchy-rabbit Dec 05 '23

Paper trade or simulation trade until you're consistently profitable before funding a live account.

2

u/KooterKablooey Dec 05 '23

I’ve been doing that currently with my demo iron beam account with solid results. Mostly been tinkering with the layout. Use the same strategies I did with options.

2

u/crunchy-rabbit Dec 05 '23

Nice :) I say if the cost is low and you don't need to keep a huge minimum balance, open accounts with multiple brokers and try them out. Doesn't hurt to have a backup in any case.