[wasp]

Hi,

I have come to the conclusion that the final missing peg in my trading is volume.

As a spot FX trader, I do not have it so my question is.........

Anyone tried spot and futures and can tell me if there are any major differences between the two? (that may hindrance my trading rather than enhance with volume)... ie liquidity, size, brokers, spreads, hours etc....

Cheers

[alleyb]

You can use tic volume of spot as a proxy.

Within a 3 trillion a day market knowing how much moves the market one pip is irrelevant. One day it might be 1 million another 1 billion. It depends on time of day and center, customer, market maker etc.

As for Futures then there is a constant arbitrage by the spot jokeys who are trying to pick off the retail hence the reason why there is any genuine liquidity in futures at all. Note what happens at Govt. Reports when the Arb conveniently turns its algo off

[wasp]

Originally Posted by alleyb »

You can use tic volume of spot as a proxy.

Within a 3 trillion a day market knowing how much moves the market one pip is irrelevant. One day it might be 1 million another 1 billion. It depends on time of day and center, customer, market maker etc.

As for Futures then there is a constant arbitrage by the spot jokeys who are trying to pick off the retail hence the reason why there is any genuine liquidity in futures at all. Note what happens at Govt. Reports when the Arb conveniently turns its algo off

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...lume-4227.html

I'll pass on the tic volume.

As for the rest, along with the other threads on another forum I have read, it seems futures are not the way forward.

Cheers anyhow

Originally Posted by wasp »

As for the rest, along with the other threads on another forum I have read, it seems futures are not the way forward.

Why?

Originally Posted by alleyb »

Note what happens at Govt. Reports when the Arb conveniently turns its algo off

Please elaborate.

[daedalus]

if you use a time based chart you can use a chart from the futures market and compare then just enter your orders on the corresponding spot market.

Its going to be the same chart patterns (except some will be inverse, but same idea).

Or you could just trade CME futures... there is increasing liquidity in those markets so depending on the size you want to trade you should be just fine.

[smwinc]

EBS data is your best bet.

You can get the data feed through CQG.

[wasp]

Originally Posted by forsearch »

Why?

Well as you asked so nicely.....


1. Less liquidity
2. Only a few currency pairs are actually available.
3. less position size flexibility since futures lot sizes are fixed and larger than what can be had in the spot market.
4. Also, total transactions costs could be higher given commission + spread

[Bearbull]

If I recall, as per Brownsfan(perhaps you can check with him), there is enough liquidity on the CME currency futures to trade with, plus the main advantage being a regulated market and the price moves are similar to those on the Spot market.