[FXcarlos]

Hello everyone!

I'm a Forex trader. I'm looking to learn to trade 30 year T-Bonds and I have a few questions. I hope anyone can help me please.

Does anyone know about a good book on the subject?
Who's a good broker?
What would be the minimum amount of money for an initial account to trade bonds?

Thank you

FXcarlos

[enochbenjamin]

No good books. Trail and error seems to be the best way to learn em. Try a demo account at Cannon Futures.

[brownsfan019]

Originally Posted by FXcarlos »

Hello everyone!

I'm a Forex trader. I'm looking to learn to trade 30 year T-Bonds and I have a few questions. I hope anyone can help me please.

Does anyone know about a good book on the subject?
Who's a good broker?
What would be the minimum amount of money for an initial account to trade bonds?

Thank you

FXcarlos

Here's a thread I stated on the subject of bond trading.

As for books dedicated to the subject, I've never seen anything worthwhile.

Broker: Open ECry

Margins: Depends on your broker. If intraday trading, OEC's ZB intraday margin is $2160, meaning for every $2160 in your account, you can trade 1 ZB contract. Margins may also be negotiated with brokers, but keep in mind the ZB can move and quickly so don't overextend yourself in the beginning.

[jack411]

Im also interested in taking a look at the 30 year bond charts but cant seem to pull it up on Sierra charts. The symbol is ZBZ9 correct? And as far as tick size, I was able to find this:

Tick Size - One half of 1/32 of a point ($15.625 per contract) rounded up to the nearest cent per contract; par is on the basis of 100 points

Thats a little confusing to me! I've read a few old threads on here but overall there isn't much info.

Is it possible to trade the 30 year during US afterhours? I recall a post stating that the liquidity is still there.

Thanks for any info!

**** Just say this post on another forum. Looks like 1 tick is now $31.25 correct?

On Sunday, August 30, 2009 (trade date Monday, August 31, 2009) the minimum tick size for 30-Year U.S. Treasury Bond futures will increase from ½ of 1/32nd of a point to 1/32nd ($31.25). The change will be applied to all expiration months. The minimum trading increments for futures intermonth and intercommodity spreads, as well as options, will be unchanged. This tick increase does not impact any other Treasury futures contracts.

As a result of the tick size change, CME Group will modify the T-bond futures settlement procedure for Friday, August 28, 2009. In order to ensure that Friday settlement prices are in increments of a full 1/32nd , CME Group will calculate outright contract settlement prices by applying current settlement procedures and rounding them to the nearest 1/32nd price increment.

Additionally, customers are asked to cancel all 30-Year T-Bond outright futures Good Till Cancel (GTC) and Good Till Date (GTD) orders by 4:03 p.m. CT on Friday, August 28, 2009. After 4:05 p.m. CT on Friday, August 28, 2009 all remaining 30-Year T-Bond outright futures GTC and GTD orders will be cancelled by the CME Globex Control Center (GCC). 30-Year T-Bond outright futures GTC and GTD orders may be re-entered during the Pre-Open period (4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. CT) on Sunday, August 30, 2009.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Jonathan Kronstein (312-930-3472)

[ochie]

Most of your questions can be answered here in the CME 30-Year Bond Specification.
Not sure about your Sierra issue (don't use that charting package) so you may check with them on that. The ones I have used required 3 spaces between symbol and front month for Bond/Note configuration.

[jack411]

Originally Posted by ochie »

Most of your questions can be answered here in the CME 30-Year Bond Specification.
Not sure about your Sierra issue (don't use that charting package) so you may check with them on that. The ones I have used required 3 spaces between symbol and front month for Bond/Note configuration.

Yeah I checked that page out to begin with . Thanks anyway for the link though. Here's what I got from as far as tick values -

One thirty-second (1/32) of one point ($31.25), except for intermonth spreads, where the minimum price fluctuation shall be one-quarter of one thirty-second of one point ($7.8125 per contract).

So 1 tick is $7.8125 during intermonth spreads (?) and during normal days $31.25. Hopefully BrownsFan can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, I was able to pull up the chart on Sierra. There seems to be gaps between the 1 minute price bars. Not sure if this has to do with the spread or not. I'm only used to seeing the typical ES,YM, and NQ charts.
Anyone have a recommendation for constant volume or tick charts? 250,500,1000?

Also anyone with any recent charts they could post I'd appreciate it. I'm also playing around with different time frames myself, but would like to see what others are looking at too!

Thanks again guys!

[brownsfan019]

ZB tick value is now $31.25.

As soon as that change happened, I moved to the ZN and ZF to trade. That's a bit too rich for my blood.

[enochbenjamin]

If your preparing to trade bonds you might want to practice watching paint dry. That's what the past month has been like.