starting in future. what fees should i pay for?

[strtedat22]

hello,

im diving in to the world of futures you guys. im tired of stocks. QQQQ have been really nice to be but now its time for me to move on to futures. i dont use any indicators. just S/R and trendlines. tape and volume is all i need. is the BASE PLATFORM FEE and CBOT EXCHANGE and CBOT MARKET DEPTH all i need for my type of trading style? im going through tradestation.

thanks.

[mcichocki_]

	Quote:	strtedat22
	hello, im diving in to the world of futures you guys. im tired of stocks. QQQQ have been really nice to be but now its time for me to move on to futures. i dont use any indicators. just S/R and trendlines. tape and volume is all i need. is the BASE PLATFORM FEE and CBOT EXCHANGE and CBOT MARKET DEPTH all i need for my type of trading style? im going through tradestation. thanks.

Yes and no.

The platform is free if you do 10 round trips per month, otherwise its $100 a month.

The ecbot data with market depth is free for the time being, dunno if that will change or not...hope not.

You may want opra, nyse and some other data add ons depending on what internals or added things you want to look at.

You are going into a heavily leveraged instrument and the ecbot can and has gone down a handful of times this year. You should have a hedging plan in case you are in a trade and the ecbot craps out. If you decide to set that up you will need to pay for data for the ES for example.

[strtedat22]

	Quote:	mcichocki_
	Yes and no. The platform is free if you do 10 round trips per month, otherwise its $100 a month. The ecbot data with market depth is free for the time being, dunno if that will change or not...hope not. You may want opra, nyse and some other data add ons depending on what internals or added things you want to look at. You are going into a heavily leveraged instrument and the ecbot can and has gone down a handful of times this year. You should have a hedging plan in case you are in a trade and the ecbot craps out. If you decide to set that up you will need to pay for data for the ES for example.

thanks mcichiko,

im only dealing with the YM for the time being...i wanna study that one first before i jump into the ES...I heard the CBOT does go down from time to time...is it tradestations fault or CBOT's fault? how can i close out a position if im in it if the CBOT goes down?

thanks

[mcichocki_]

	Quote:	strtedat22
	thanks mcichiko, im only dealing with the YM for the time being...i wanna study that one first before i jump into the ES...I heard the CBOT does go down from time to time...is it tradestations fault or CBOT's fault? how can i close out a position if im in it if the CBOT goes down? thanks

Same here on trading the YM. But you need to be able to trade the ES or some other index to hedge worst case scenario. ES most closely mimics the YM movement with every 10 YM points equaling about 1 ES point.

If Tradestations platform or your connection to the net goes down you can still call in a exit order though you get hit with I believe a $20 fee.

If the ecbot goes down thats effects all brokers and you will be trapped in your position till the ecbot comes back up. You cannot call an exit in and are left to hedge or pay the piper should it move against you.

[strtedat22]

	Quote:	mcichocki_
	Same here on trading the YM. But you need to be able to trade the ES or some other index to hedge worst case scenario. ES most closely mimics the YM movement with every 10 YM points equaling about 1 ES point. If Tradestations platform or your connection to the net goes down you can still call in a exit order though you get hit with I believe a $20 fee. If the ecbot goes down thats effects all brokers and you will be trapped in your position till the ecbot comes back up. You cannot call an exit in and are left to hedge or pay the piper should it move against you.

Ill keep that in mind...so ill study both then. with the base platform being waved each 10 roundtrips, is the DOM the same as the tape for equities?

[strtedat22]

oh yea, the reason why i asked for DOM, i dont use indicators. all tape, S/R and trendlines

thanks

[mcichocki_]

	Quote:	strtedat22
	Ill keep that in mind...so ill study both then. with the base platform being waved each 10 roundtrips, is the DOM the same as the tape for equities?

For equities you need a separate $5k+ account. The accounts aren't universal, for some dumb reason they subcontract their futures accounts.

DOM is just slang for a depth of market style of order entry as I understand it. Tradestation calls theirs "matrix". Time n' sales will be supported if you pay for level 2 for whichever equity data feed you need.

http://www.tradestation.com/fees/platform_fees.shtm
Platform and data fees link

http://www.tradestation.com/fees/All_Asset_Types.shtm
Commish and other stuff

[strtedat22]

thanks again mcichiko,

ill be looking into the platform in the near future.

[brownsfan019]

Check out OpenECry as well in the mix. Not sure if it has everything you need, but check them out as commissions are competitive along with a strong platform that is free to customers.

[AbeSmith]

What if you're trading only 1 YM contract and the CBOT goes down? How are you supposed to heldge that? Thanks.