Intro to Mini Hang Seng Index Futures

[Soultrader]

Hi traders,

For new traders looking for a place to start with minimal risk, I find the Mini Hang Seng Index Futures contract a good market to begin your trading journey.

This is due to the small tick size of $10HK or approx $1 USD. The focus should not be to make money but to learn the art of trading and focus on good trades. This will take time for new traders and the risk is relatively high for those that want to jump right into various popular futures market.

Hence, the Mini Hang Seng.... intraday trades can be placed with minimal risk of approx 20-30 ticks. That is almost equal to 2 ticks on the ES. A great starting contract for new traders. See attached contract spec and chart.

[forsearch]

Do any US-based brokers carry the HSI futures, let alone the mini-HSI?

-fs

[BlowFish]

Interactive Brokers. They have a really broad range of products.

[Kiwi]

As James says its a low cost contract to follow. Its also technically good especially now that the bsds from Shanghai ran out of money and stopped screwing up the HSI (good riddance you b'stards). It's highly manipulated but the manipulaters are technical in nature and so you can rely on the patterns you develop by watching and testing on the HSI. Be aware that some days will be "different" to others; so I always used to use big stops on the first couple of swings until I got a feel for how the day was behaving.

You will notice that it's very thin but it is strongly tied to the HSI so very rarely diverges on the sub 5 minute swings by more than a tick or two. You can even trade MHI by charting HSI.

I strongly recommend IB for HSI/MHI trading. The charges are good; the margins are conservative; and they have a server right next to the HK exchange so you get minimum latency to the rest of the world.

[Kiwi]

James, for some reason I couldn't edit my message. I was going to add an extra paragraph.




It's fast so if you use 5 minute charts on YM you might want to try 3 minute or 2 minute charts on HSI. Quite a lot of people seem to use 1 minute but I found that too fast for my signal development. Maybe we were using different trading principles.

[Soultrader]

	Quote:	Kiwi
	James, for some reason I couldn't edit my message. I was going to add an extra paragraph. It's fast so if you use 5 minute charts on YM you might want to try 3 minute or 2 minute charts on HSI. Quite a lot of people seem to use 1 minute but I found that too fast for my signal development. Maybe we were using different trading principles.

Hi Kiwi,

Yes, the edit button is being fixed at the moment. Enabling the edit feature allows members to delete attachments which was the problem with PP. I am waiting for any fix on this.

I have been finding that some Asian contracts are better suited on a smaller timeframe. I traded the TOPIX yesterday on a 1minute chart and realized volume was easier to read... also surprised by the number of 1-2tick scalpers in that market.

Regarding plotting HSi for trading MHI, its some of the things I do for the mini Nikkei as well. I trade both since the mini allows me to get filled while waiting in line for the OSE contract can be a pain sometimes.

Mini-topix has been introduced recently. Still thin but thinking it should pick up as it allows the retail crowd to enter this contract. 500JPY a tick... similar to the mini Dow futures.

[MidKnight]

I thought the mini HSI wasn't available for USA folks....maybe that has changed.

All my best,
MK

[lionelhhn]

My two cents worth.....

I used to trade the HSI not mini a couple of years ago. Its volatile cos its price weigthed. I watch it with another china index as you all know its related.

Did quite well with it and have been asked by a few traders in asia on its idiosyncracies. In a nutshell, its abit like dealing FX spot.
Not trading FX but dealing FX.

I found it nice for counter trend tading also but thats only for those who can flip a position on a dime.

Its a very nice contract to trade.....extremely enjoyable.

Don't trade it anymore cos I function only from London time into U.S.

[MidKnight]

	Quote:	Soultrader
	Mini-topix has been introduced recently. Still thin but thinking it should pick up as it allows the retail crowd to enter this contract. 500JPY a tick... similar to the mini Dow futures.

Hi soultrader,

I was just cruising through contract specs on the TSE website. Seems they introduced 3 new futures on June 16th 2008. The mini-topix as you pointed out, but also topix core 30 and a reit index. I can't find esignal symbology for any of these. Do you know how the volumes have been on these?

Btw, the mini-topix has a tick size of 250¥ per tick, but a tick is 0.25 rather than 0.50 points like the full size topix.

Thanks an advance.

All my best,
MK

[MidKnight]

Just checked IB and I see they aren't listed on the products page of the site. So I guess the volumes are not there at all. Shame But I'll be keeping a watch on these products.