Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

SPI Trading on Interactive Brokers

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beamstas said:
There is a spread
It's sitting at 5 ticks right now
I've never actually traded it!

I think it is $2 brokerage but im sure someone on here is a Go/Mt4 guru and can answer our questions :)

Cheers
Brad
Click to expand...

Yeh, but it's not trading and the spread is probably from night SPI, wonder what it is during regular day hours.......

Yes, hopefully a Go person can answer........
 
ThingyMajiggy said:
Why is that? In case the person doesn't know of the expiry?
Click to expand...

Expiration, leverage (trading a companies shares will only leave you exposed to your initial risk), systems go down or power outage (could be cruel if you have size on). Derivatives can be a lot more dangerous if you don't understand what your doing, regardless of your TA skill, a lot have blown themselves up already and a lot more will I am sure.
 
Yeah thats what I thought :)

I have been trading futures on a demo account using Ninja Trader, trading the DAX, SP500 etc, jumping in and out on the opens etc with a bit of success....so far, I must say I thorougly enjoy it, I used to trade CFDs and this for me personally, feels much more comfortable, only demo trading I know so you guys are probably laughing at me but oh well, gotta start somewhere, do any of you guys trade those markets through IB? Or just the SPI? Sorry for the off topic-ness :)

Thanks for the replies too, will check out the almighty brisconnection thread...
 
I agree with MRC
You can position size an equities trade and buy say 5634 shares at a certain $ risk and that is o.k

But when you are trading derivities, it's alot harder to position size to a small amount of your account

Lets say some newbie with $20,000 goes and buys 10 SPI Contracts not really knowing what he is doing, And goes to bed say 10 points in profit ($2500) and has wet dreams all night thinking about how he is going to spend the money, THEN wake up and see the market has gapped down 100 points ($25000) and you were trading IG Markets SPI CFD and not a real contract thus your S/L didn't activate over night! $5000 in debt to the bucket shop! :eek:

I'd advise anyone who is trading futures to know exactly what they are doing because a mistake can be brutal!
 
Sam, good to hear your enjoying it, much better seeing the live order flow than simply a CFD huh!

Na, not laughing at you, everyone has to start somewhere and your doing that in the right environment, on a SIM! I haven't been trading futures for too long myself either!

I haven't traded S&P or DAX through IB, both would be extremelly hard (in their busy periods anyways, I would imagine), but TH trades HSI through IB, so if you can do HSI, I imagine you could manage S&P, unsure about DAX though, execution may be a lot slower to Europe...........?
 
Thanks MRC, their "busy" time would be while we are sound asleep here wouldn't it?

I have been trading, starting at about 10:30pm here, jumping in and out, definitiely not holding overnight, learn't that lesson with CFDs :eek:

I think their market opens at about 11:30pm our time? Am I correct? Seems to be that way anyway, usually I do a couple trades when it starts picking up then I shoot off to bed, seems to be working for me so far.

I understand they are a fair bit more liquid that our market here, you guys only trade the open and close of the SPI don't you?

And yep, I sure do love watching that order flow rather than the CFD MM rubbish. :) I find that I can see about 100x more watching the DOM and a naked chart, than I can looking at a million fancy indicators.
 
Yeh, their busy times are at their opens. S&P 11:30pm, DAX at 4pm I believe.

Not sure about TH, I trade mainly open, try avoid lunch (but always get sucked in :(), and I usually give close a crack, to mixed success, sometimes I have it worked out, then I don't. Still working on doing it more consistent.

If your trading open, the DOM will probably help most, as order flow is the most important at this time I believe, as no intraday levels or trends have been established yet. Daily levels, gaps can still be useful though.
 
I'm using PFGBest, I don't think I can trade the SPI, hence I have been trading the DAX, SP etc, but I'm enjoying trading them none the less.

OEC has a half decent demo platform you can try too, again, don't think you can trade SPI on the demo, but everything else you can. It only lasts 14 days though, but its not too bad for getting your feet wet.
 
MRC & Co said:
... $2 for a round trip per full contract? Is that without paying a spread?
Click to expand...

Haven't funded the Go account yet, but I'm pretty sure you can only buy at the offer and sell at the bid. I would think the $3 you save on IB fees is a pittance compared to paying the spread of at least one point ($25) on entry/exit.
 
sails said:
Haven't funded the Go account yet, but I'm pretty sure you can only buy at the offer and sell at the bid. I would think the $3 you save on IB fees is a pittance compared to paying the spread of at least one point ($25) on entry/exit.
Click to expand...

Yep.
 
sails said:
Haven't funded the Go account yet, but I'm pretty sure you can only buy at the offer and sell at the bid. I would think the $3 you save on IB fees is a pittance compared to paying the spread of at least one point ($25) on entry/exit.
Click to expand...

Ah, so no limit orders is the 'catch'. I get it now, sounded too good to be true, thx Sails.
 
Thought I might reply to a few questions/comments with my experience in the last couple of months of using the IB Platform.

I have my IB Datafeed connected to Ninja Trader, as their charting capability is so vastly superior to IB charts (a lot of additional data is available, ease of manipulating charts, etc.), and I'm using Bracket Trader to enter my orders. I've traded the SPI, the DAX and the S&P emini, and all of them transact immediately, at any time of the day while they're open.

I'm using Bracket Trader because it's a simpler yet more intuitive program for entering trades, particularly if you want to enter a profit target and a stop loss at the exact time you enter the trade (which is also possible using IB's platform, but IMO, no where near as simple).

The DAX is no different to trade than any other futures product, but it certainly moves quickly, and at $25 Euro per point, you should know a little about it before you start trading it. It currently requires an initial margin of $8661 Euro, so that probably counts a few people out that don't have at least that in their account. Data costs $12 Euro per month. Other than that, the SPI data is free, and the US data is only $10US/month, or free if you have $30US worth of brokerage per month, so very cheap data through IB.

I've had an IB Feed, ThinkorSwim feed, and an eSignal feed all running through my computer at the same time with no troubles (and of course numerous other programs open at the same time).

I've also looked at and traded Go Trader's products in the past, including futures on their Metatrader platform. They used to offer mini contracts on futures, down to 1/10 of a contract, but these were in fact CFD's and not actual futures contracts. However they no longer offer futures on Metatrader, but rather just on their Go Trader platform (they have 2 platforms), and the futures on the Go Trader platform have much higher commission rates (but at least they're real futures contracts).

As for using the DOM, you can certainly gain some insight by watching it and seeing how it moves. But it takes a long time to get that experience. It really is just a depth screen with the sell side flipped upwards, and the ability to enter orders very quickly. I don't actually use the DOM information for entering trades, but enter off the charts as my entry signal, then use the speed of the DOM to execute and often to get a slightly better entry (most of my trades are off 1 and 5 min charts). So after many years of watching depth screens for trading, it didn't take me long to get used to using the DOM.

Hope that helps a little.

Cheers,
Baxter.
 
Hi Guys,

Couple of SPI beginner questions here,

What time does the daily settlement occur and is there such a thing as a rollover contract, if there is what's the IB ticker code.

Thank in advance.:)
 
baxter said:
Thought I might reply to a few questions/comments with my experience in the last couple of months of using the IB Platform.

I have my IB Datafeed connected to Ninja Trader, as their charting capability is so vastly superior to IB charts (a lot of additional data is available, ease of manipulating charts, etc.), and I'm using Bracket Trader to enter my orders. I've traded the SPI, the DAX and the S&P emini, and all of them transact immediately, at any time of the day while they're open.

I'm using Bracket Trader because it's a simpler yet more intuitive program for entering trades, particularly if you want to enter a profit target and a stop loss at the exact time you enter the trade (which is also possible using IB's platform, but IMO, no where near as simple).

The DAX is no different to trade than any other futures product, but it certainly moves quickly, and at $25 Euro per point, you should know a little about it before you start trading it. It currently requires an initial margin of $8661 Euro, so that probably counts a few people out that don't have at least that in their account. Data costs $12 Euro per month. Other than that, the SPI data is free, and the US data is only $10US/month, or free if you have $30US worth of brokerage per month, so very cheap data through IB.

I've had an IB Feed, ThinkorSwim feed, and an eSignal feed all running through my computer at the same time with no troubles (and of course numerous other programs open at the same time).

I've also looked at and traded Go Trader's products in the past, including futures on their Metatrader platform. They used to offer mini contracts on futures, down to 1/10 of a contract, but these were in fact CFD's and not actual futures contracts. However they no longer offer futures on Metatrader, but rather just on their Go Trader platform (they have 2 platforms), and the futures on the Go Trader platform have much higher commission rates (but at least they're real futures contracts).

As for using the DOM, you can certainly gain some insight by watching it and seeing how it moves. But it takes a long time to get that experience. It really is just a depth screen with the sell side flipped upwards, and the ability to enter orders very quickly. I don't actually use the DOM information for entering trades, but enter off the charts as my entry signal, then use the speed of the DOM to execute and often to get a slightly better entry (most of my trades are off 1 and 5 min charts). So after many years of watching depth screens for trading, it didn't take me long to get used to using the DOM.

Hope that helps a little.

Cheers,
Baxter.
Click to expand...

hi could you give me your opinion on what you think of MF Globel trading platform.i have been using them sins January how does it compare to other platforms you used. i am only trading the SPI
 
Hi Moneyking,

Not sure if you read my post properly - I'm using IB's platform - I didn't mention MF Global and have never used them for trading futures so can't comment much about them. But perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about using their platform if you've been with them since January (brokerage costs, margins, data feed costs, platform costs, speed of execution, charting programs, order entry etc...)

Cutz - not sure quite what you were asking. The SPI trades each day from 9:50am till 4:30pm and then from 5:10pm to 7:00am or so (depending on day light savings), and trades on a quarterly contract. I'm not sure if there is a 'continuous' contract on IB which links past contracts together - I haven't looked for it either though. Maybe someone else knows? The current contract through IB is listed as "APU9" on SNFE and as "SPI 09-09" in Ninja Trader.

Cheers,
Baxter.
 
I'm not sure if there is a 'continuous' contract on IB which links past contracts together - I haven't looked for it either though. Maybe someone else knows? The current contract through IB is listed as "APU9" on SNFE and as "SPI 09-09" in Ninja Trader.
Click to expand...

There's always the SPI index itself.
 

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