Getting Started Futures & Forex Questions

[quinn123]

Hi I have been doing some research for my futures and forex trading. I have some basic questions that I haven't been able to solve myself. I want to begin paper trading futures and forex. Some help would be really appreciated:

1. How do you decide which futures contract to trade for e.g. the SPI200 has a few; e.g. AP H1-SFE, AP Z1-SFE etc. (I use esignal).

2. Does interactive brokers have the margin and contract sizes for the futures contracts somewhere?

3. What are some good currency pairs to trade intra-day or swing trade during Australian hours?

4. Have I got these trading hours correct (EST [QLD] TIME)?:

SPI200 (day) 8:50am open 3:30pm close

MINI HSI (day) 11:45am open 2:30 close 4:30pm open 6:15 close

FOREX 24/7

5. Do you recommend any other futures contracts that trade during the day in Australia for intra-day trading?

Thank you,

Regards,

Quinn

 

[cutz]

Hi I have been doing some research for my futures and forex trading. I have some basic questions that I haven't been able to solve myself. I want to begin paper trading futures and forex. Some help would be really appreciated:

1. How do you decide which futures contract to trade for e.g. the SPI200 has a few; e.g. AP H1-SFE, AP Z1-SFE etc. (I use esignal).

2. Does interactive brokers have the margin and contract sizes for the futures contracts somewhere?

I don't trade futures but the liquidity is at the front month quarterly, for IB margin requirements refer to the IB website under Trading>>Margin>>Futures.

Look here for hours >>http://www.asx.com.au/products/futures/index_futures/contract_specifications.htm#spi_futures

 

[Trembling Hand]

1. How do you decide which futures contract to trade for e.g. the SPI200 has a few; e.g. AP H1-SFE, AP Z1-SFE etc. (I use esignal).

The contracts that are on 3 monthly expiry are now trading the March 2011,like the SPI, ES,K200, Dax, FTSE(z), The commodities ones are all over the place. Although they are all monthly contracts only a few are liquid and half of them are just there for the Arb bots, Some Asian equity futs are monthly, HSI, STW.

Best way is to look at the next 3-4 at the end of the session and see where the vol is. Then Find the roll over date and go from there.

2. Does interactive brokers have the margin and contract sizes for the futures contracts somewhere?

Yes. Surprisingly on the margin section on their web site. :

3. What are some good currency pairs to trade intra-day or swing trade during Australian hours?

Whats good for one trader is a nightmare to another. Have a look at them all and see what works for you.

4. Have I got these trading hours correct (EST [QLD] TIME)?:

SPI200 (day) 8:50am open 3:30pm close

MINI HSI (day) 11:45am open 2:30 close 4:30pm open 6:15 close

FOREX 24/7

Yep. Except FX its closes US arvo Friday and doesn't reopen till NZ morning 8-9ish Monday.

5. Do you recommend any other futures contracts that trade during the day in Australia for intra-day trading?

Have a look at Korean, K200. Lots of big Dicks banging out volume there. Also Taiwan (STW), out of the SGX, good contract to trade @ $12.50 USD a tick. Gold and Oil can be good during our trading hours, not as crazy as the cash hours.

HHI on the HKFX is a good one.

 

[quinn123]

Thank you Trembling hand, answered all my questions.

 

[SmellyTerror]

Quick way to get a general overview of what pairs are doing at different times: http://www.mataf.net/en/tools/02-01-volatility

I've been scalping EURUSD from about 10am to midday Canberra time - spreads still decent, you get a period of small, pretty random moves that are good for scraping a few pips off, and at least a couple of times a week, at some point towards 11am (though occasionally anywhere from 10:15 to 11:30) it'll rocket to a new level in about 10 minutes of 20+ pip move craziness. Not hard to be on, the only trick is staying the **** out of it if you miss it or if jump out too early.

...but if you're using some kind of indicator-based system or trying to swing trade, this sort of behaviour is almost certainly crushingly awful.