[TraderFoo]

Are there any good contracts to trade after hours?

I've generally haven't done well on the mini s&p and dow during that time, so I stay away.

[Tams]

HSI is on right now.


That's the Hong Kong Heng Sang Index.
Guaranteed to get your money's worth in excitement.

[diablo272]

O, how I wish we had a lunch break on exchanges in the US like they do in Asia...Tams, since you seem to be familiar with the HSI, can you tell me what the tick size is for the mini futures contract? On the HK exchange site it lists $10HKD/index point, but that seems pretty small, since that is only ~$1.30USD according to Google.

[MidKnight]

10 HKD is right for the mini. I'm not sure if your CFTC changed the restrictions on this, but they used to not allow US folks to trade the mini. No idea why. You best check. Yes that is small per point, but it is not overly unusual for HSI to put in 500+ pt ranges. Lately over 300pts is pretty much a guarantee every day. So even though the mini is small on a per point basis, when you see the market movement intraday, you will see that even this small contract is sufficient for decent daily gains. The 'big' HSI is 5 times the size of the mini, so you could trade that if you want more grunt. Better spreads and better volume on the bigs. Both are highly tradable.

With kind regards,
MK

[Tams]

the restriction has been removed

[diablo272]

Thanks MK and Tams, I will look into it further.

[Bam-Bam]

It depends on what you mean by "after hours."

From 8pm to 10pm Eastern Time, Euro (6E) and Yen (6J) currency futures move very nicely for my strategies. I probably high a higher winning percentage during this period than during regular trading hours. After 11:30pm Eastern Time (PM session for Tokyo), these begin moving again, but the first session is always better for me.

The KOPSI 200 (K200) moves very nicely for me, but my discipline (and therefore results) is not as reliable as on the currency futures.

If after hours to you means early morning, I would recommend DJ Euro Stoxx (FESX) or the Eurobund (FGBL) are good to trade. I haven't tried the Shatz or the Eurobobl. They may be good as well.

Good trading,

Bam-Bam

[Kiwi]

Personally, trading AsiaPac hours, I probably trade your after hours.

Futures contracts worth considering are:
HSI and MHI (my bread and butter)
STW (taiwan on SGX)
Nikkie and minis (on both Osaka and SGX)
SPI (Aussie S&P)
KOSPI (especially the options, pretty noisy index)
EuroUSD and USDJPY