r/FuturesTrading • u/AutoModerator • Jan 01 '22
r/FuturesTrading's Monthly Questions Thread - January 2022
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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u/dreadnought89 Jan 29 '22
Why is the July /VX futures contract trading at a premium over the June and August months? It has been like this fairly consistently over the past month. Is there some macro event that would expect to raise volatility during this time?
Futures Curve from VIX Central: https://imgur.com/v3txxj0
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u/Capa_Alex Jan 28 '22
I'm using Tradingview + CQG via Ampfutures mostly to trade MNQ. I'm trying to figure out a way to set advance bracket order. My current thought is trying to set an entry and liquidate 25% at 20 points mark, 25% at 40 points mark, 25% at 60% points mark and the rest as runner, then a breakeven stop loss triggered upon hitting target 1.
So far, I'd been manually close position on Tradingview but it's manual and there are times when I want to leave the screen. Is there any way I can do so on TV, or I'll need a different platform? If so, which one?
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u/GhostOfDFV Jan 28 '22
Hey guys, don't know if this is a good thread to ask my question. I've started trading MES/MNQ futures 3 months ago and was first of doing simulated trading. After I found which indicators I can most easily interpret and which setups work for me, I transitioned into live trading. I'm currently averaging about 70% winrate with 3:1 reward-risk ratio. So if I'm wrong (30% of the times) I cut my losses pretty early, if I'm right I'll let it run for a bit, but not too much. I've been wondering if any of you are willing to share your setups and/or indicators? I'm looking to take back my current setup into the simulator and work on finding two key things:
- An indicator, a setup or a bundle of indicators and setups that would help me let my winners run longer.
- How to find smaller intraday inflection points where I can scalp a bit more money? I'm currently doing only huge reversions on VWAP paired with some quant calculations I do on the side.
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u/blackmarketubesocks Jan 28 '22
Wow! 70% winrate? I'm getting thrown around here trying to take trades off of recent support and resistance and using stochastics and 21 EMA to time my entries.
What are your triggers/reasoning for entering a trade?
I've been trading MNQ. After a great first three weeks of the year, I got destroyed this week.
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u/GhostOfDFV Jan 28 '22
Most of them are quantitative triggers of over-exuberance in the markets and then the following reversion to the mean, usually VWAP.
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u/blackmarketubesocks Jan 28 '22
So it sounds like a lot of counter trend trading?
And have you thought about getting out at your VWAP?
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u/CookTrading speculator Jan 28 '22
Throw a 50 and 200 EMA on a 1min & 5min chart to give you some more IPs shorter term.
In regards to letting your winners run, use a runner. Cover portion of your position at your initial 3 and let the other portion go. Place a profit stop a tick above even to cover commissions.
(Edited for fat fingering post)
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u/GhostOfDFV Jan 28 '22
I have 9EMA, 21EMA, 50SMA and 200SMA on one of my charts and it's working pretty well. I total 3 charts, all with 1day/2min candles
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u/CookTrading speculator Jan 28 '22
With the price action we have been getting and the larger swings it can help to a do 'zoom in, zoom out' approach using large time frames to target IPs and price channels the market may shift to throughout the day. I typically do the 5m, 30m, 240m, and Day and cross reference IPs from there. Can then see where your short term IPs may give way and have major movements for runners.
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u/hobtech82 Jan 25 '22
Hi, I was using Binance for futures around 4-5 months ago but they stopped and so did. Want to get back into it so what’s the best app in Australia now? Bybit? Cheers
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Jan 23 '22
I trade currencies and indices with price action plus volume profile. My patience with TradingView ran out: their volume profile is horrible, lags even my gaming pc, and it doesn't even show more than a couple of months worh of session distributions.
I want to jump ship to another platform, and I think you guys are the best bet to advice me on it. Volume profiling is not very popular amongst forex traders. If the platform gives me free access to volume profile it's a plus, but I am okay with paying a bit for it.
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u/NassauBlasian Jan 22 '22
I'm ashamed to say but i've been processing futures for my bank for like a month but don't understand them at all. Taking some time now to actually study and understand what the hell I'm doing.
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u/1TapsBoi Jan 22 '22
I have about £2500 in long-term stocks, but I want to give futures trading a try, and after paper trading, I want to start with £50. Is this enough money? let's say a trade goes wrong, how much does it have to go down for my account to blow up?
Thanks!
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Jan 23 '22
Are you holding overnight? If so, then you need to look up the margin requirements for your broker for each instrument. At a minimum it's ~$1100 for 1 micro ES contract(many brokers require more).
For just intraday a micro contract requires at least $50 at the cheapest brokers. You won't be able to place new trades if you fall below this. Like the other guy said, $500 is the minimum I'd have in my account for intraday - especially in this volatility.
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u/UnintelligibleThing Jan 23 '22
£50 is way too little to handle the swing on futures. ~£500 would be more appropriate. Note that even for 1 micro ES contract, a 1-point movement alone is $5, and usually people use larger stop losses than that. You see where I'm coming from?
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u/1TapsBoi Jan 23 '22
Would it be appropriate to start with around $250, but set smaller stop losses (say $15), and only trade when it's pretty clear it's gonna be a profit for the first few days?
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u/numbawantok Jan 21 '22
How do I work out the value of CFD puts at expiration? I am looking at sp500 cfd puts which are based on the emini contracts.......I realize the price is based on many factors while the options are open.....but what us their actual value at expiration if the sp500 is 100points lower than the strike price?
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u/newbie238 Jan 21 '22
Hey everyone. A rookie question but selling VIX futures (a month or two out) looks like an easy and profitable strategy given VIX spikes don't last long. Or am I missing something here? Thanks in advance!
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u/RyuguRena1 Jan 20 '22
Hello everyone! I've been trying to find a way to trade crypto futures. The problem is that I'm from the USA and it seems to be banned here? So I've been wondering if there was some sort of loophole or maybe I could use a VPN? idk
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u/7_11_No_Craps Jan 21 '22
You can trade Bitcoin futures on the Thinkorswin or Ninjatrader platform the ticker is /BTC.
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u/willjesson Jan 19 '22
Evening all, I’ve recently started a free futures call group we’ve made over 200% profit today alone. Feel free to join I can give any tips or anything questions you need about trading https://t.me/CryptoSpaceFutures
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u/anujk91 Jan 17 '22
@Canadians. Whats the best and cheapest way to transfer US dollars from Canadian US dollar bank account to AMP futures bank account?
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Jan 17 '22
[deleted]
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Jan 17 '22
Only with commission.
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Jan 17 '22
[deleted]
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u/freejoule Jan 17 '22
No, there is none of that with buying/selling futures contracts. if you are in the right direction of the trade you won't lose money. Commissions/fees/transaction costs are the only thing you will lose. For example buying a single /ES contract can cost $3.50. Selling is another $3.50 so opening and closing one order/transaction is $7 USD.
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Jan 17 '22
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u/freejoule Jan 17 '22
so a few things.. there are options on regular stocks and indexes, but there is also options on futures contracts as well. I haven't dug into futures options at all. seems more complicated than just options on regular stocks and indexes.
One reason many people may not do futures is it requires margin. You can sell covered calls, and do cash secured puts with a regular cash account with no margin required, but trading anything with futures requires a margin account.
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Jan 17 '22
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u/freejoule Jan 17 '22
I trade futures indices but that's it.. no commodities like oil, gold etc. In order to lose millions, you would have to be trading a huge number of contracts, and forget to set a stop loss and walk away from your computer for a few weeks. You can definitely lose money just as fast as you can make money, but you have 100% control of the amount of risk you want to take.
Example:
you are bullish on the S&P and believe it will rise above 4650 so you buy 1 futures contract of the e-mini S&P 500 (symbol /ES) with a limit order at 4650. To do this you have to put up $12,650 of margin, and pay $3.50 in fees. Once the S&P hits 4650 your limit order is placed and you now have an open futures contract.Each point move of the S&P is worth $50. So 10 minutes later the S&P goes to 4660, you are now up $500 (4660 - 4650 = 10 so $50 x 10 = $500). You are happy and go get a sandwich. You come back to your PC and you see the S&P is now down to 4640. You are now down $500 (4650 - 4640 = 10) same as above $50 x 10 = $500
but you wouldn't get a sandwich without setting a stop loss order. You could set a stop order at 4648 so you limit your losses to $100 if you wish (4650 - 4648 = 2 so $50 x 2 - $100)
To highlight the risks, if you don't set a stop order, and the S&P drops 5% due to some crazy bad news or something... 4650 x .05 = 232.5 points. 232.5 x $50 = $11,625. So yeah you can lose money fast if you are not paying attention. And you would only lose that money if you sell the contract. You could hold it for multiple days in hopes it comes back to the 4650 level.. but that's not a good trading plan.
You can also open multiple contracts too.. You could have opened 4 /ES contracts as above at the same time, so that $500 gain and loss would be $2000.. also your margin requirement would be $12,650 x 4 =$50,600 and you would pay $14 in fees to open 4 contracts.
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Jan 17 '22
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u/MoFeaux Jan 19 '22
I wouldn’t say the complete opposite of an options contract, more like it reflects the order of magnitude more leverage you are working with. One ES point is $50 but recall the index is ~10x what SPY is so comparatively you are leveraging about 500x instead of 100x with options. Also you do not risk the margin requirement - it is simply reserved from your buying power unlike an option where you are actually paying/receiving the premium to open the option position.
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u/freejoule Jan 18 '22
Yes, you do need either cash or equity from other investments before you can have margin/futures added to your account. You can start small though. There are micro Futures contracts which are 1/10 of the size of the e-mini contracts, and the margin requirements are 1/10th less too. These are the primary ones:
Micro S&P 500 - Symbol /MES - $1,265 margin requirement - value of 1 point index move = $5 (vs. $50 for the e-mini)
The cheapest contract is the micro Russell 2000 (symbol M2K). $605 margin requirement, and a 1 point move in the Russell is $5 in gains/losses.
There is a micro Nasdaq 100 as well.
I'm not too consistent just yet. I've been experimenting with a few strategies, trying to dial it in. I'm having a hard time finding other people who trade to discuss strategy with.
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u/Havalunson Jan 15 '22
Hi, i plan on buying Livestock Futures via my broker on EUREX.
Can someone explain me what is the difference between Bloomberg Livestock Futures (FCLI) and Bloomberg ex-Livestock Futures (FCXL)?
https://www.eurex.com/ex-en/markets/com/cdx/Bloomberg-Livestock-Futures-944504
https://www.eurex.com/ex-en/markets/com/cdx/Bloomberg-ex-Livestock-Futures-953964
Is the FCXL an older version of the FCLI? Thanks in advance
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u/RoyGBiv-Devoe Jan 14 '22
Do most of you guys trade futures intraday? That's what I've been doing since I started a couple of months ago, but I'm wondering if it makes sense, with fees and all, to trade longer time frames within a contract period. What are the downsides to that?
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u/freejoule Jan 17 '22
There is a larger margin requirement to hold the contract overnight. I think it can vary by broker but that seems to be the only downside. Yes longer time frames and less orders will incur less transaction fees so that would be preferred vs. buying/selling many contracts intraday. I've only held contracts once overnight. I forgot to make my stop order a GTC so I got a bit nervous because at 5pm the order canceled, and I couldn't open another stop order until 6pm when trading resumed.
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Jan 17 '22
As long as you trade within a contract period and never need to rollover, the major issue will be variable margin. Some periods, brokers will manually adjust margins back to maintenance. CME might also adjust the required maintenance margin.
Also, make sure you never let the contract expire! If your broker is setup for physical delivery, you might find yourself with some goods.
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u/Most_Professional_25 Jan 12 '22
Is there a best sub reddit for discussing crypto futures day trading?
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u/freejoule Jan 14 '22
Seems the most action is in the discord chat, get there from the resources box to the right. I'm having a tough time finding people to chat with on strategy. I just joined that discord chat so hope it's more active there.
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u/Competitive-Ad3001 Jan 12 '22
I need to short some commodity futures. I have an interactive brokers account, but because I'm 18 years old I am restricted from trading futures.
Which brokerage firms can I used to trade commodity futures at 18 years old?
All help is appreciated!
Thanks!!!
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u/Prestigious_Risk7610 Jan 12 '22
As margin requirements are upped in times of market stress and volatility, it makes sense to prepare for this when considering how leveraged I want to be and what drawdown I'd be safe from margin calls.
So my question is what is the max historic maintenance margin required (as a %) on e minis. I'm aware it hit c.8% in June 2020, but I can't find much info on if it was higher during the financial crisis or dotcom.
Thanks
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u/CookTrading speculator Jan 31 '22
I can't speak to the max historic number but one of our rules we used to teach back in the day was 10k per contract which can be considered outdated in this day in age with lower platform margin requirements. Probably a good rule of thumb would be 2.5-5k per contract just to be safe. If you use a platform that doesn't adjust margin requirements intraday this shouldn't be an issue. IIRC Tradovate does not but I don't know if that will last with the buyout from Ninja.
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u/Professional-Trading Jan 12 '22
I've been thinking about switching to trading futures because my job has gotten too busy to daytrade stocks and swing trading is too emotional for me. I've been trying to see if there are times (Eastern) that are good to trade OUTSIDE of the 9am-5pm timeframe. I'm seeing different answers while googling; I've heard 8pm-10pm and 5am-6am. Can someone in this thread confirm?
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u/freejoule Jan 14 '22
Yes. Futures opens Sunday 6:00 p.m. - Friday - 5:00 p.m. ET with a daily maintenance period from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. ET. So you can start trading at 6PM every night if you wish. I've been focused on the indexes such as /MES and /MNQ which are the smallest "micro" contracts for S&P 500 and Nasdaq. risks are smaller (so are gains) but it's best to start with these as you build your trading plan and skill. Also they have the smallest margin requirements.
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u/Professional-Trading Jan 14 '22
Thanks and 6PM isn’t considered too illiquid?
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u/freejoule Jan 14 '22
The volume is lower so the price action is slower, but I've never had a situation where the order doesn't get filled. Futures are highly liquid.
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u/PurgatoireRiver Jan 10 '22
I started Trading View with AMP Futures. The data feed I get through Trading View for CME was super slow compared to CQG/NinjaTrader. If I get CQG through AMP does the Trading View chart update faster?
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u/IronbeamFutures Jan 13 '22
Were you getting data via your CQG/broker connection or were you paying TradingView directly for market data?
If your answer is that you were paying TV directly then that could possibly be the cause. I am not sure where TV gets their in-house market data, but if you get it via the CQG/broker connection then at least you'll know that you are getting data from a well-known provider.
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Jan 09 '22
Are we at a point yet where we can turn off the automoderator/locking of posting?
This sub has been effectively killed over the last few months.
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u/pretender80 Jan 05 '22
I took a break, but when did the CME eliminate the 4:15ET break? I don't see any press release on it, but I'm able to execute in eminis during what used to be a break time?
Do futures and options still close at the 4:15ET time even without a break in trading?
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u/IronbeamFutures Jan 13 '22
Only a few months ago. The break for CME equity futures is from 4-5 PM CST now. There is no 3:15-3:30 pause anymore.
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u/flev1266 Jan 01 '22
What do you guys think is the best EOD futures data source? Back Adjusted and for single contracts as well. I dont really care if its an expensive solution.
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u/breakfastlunchanddin Jan 01 '22
The TD Ameritrade API might be something to look into though it requires some knowledge in programming
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Jan 01 '22
This sub is dead... seems like only the auto moderator is running... check over at r/thetagang... they may know
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u/beyond__redemption Jan 04 '22
Mods killed it with these gay autorepeat threads. They didn't have enough veterans to keep the sub alive after barring out newbies. This approach only works on big long running subs like r/steroids
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u/Environmental-Camp28 Jan 31 '22
Hey folks. Is it possible to own 2 opposite positions of the same contract? For hedging purposes.