Anyone scalping the FTSE Futures??

[DaddyJohn]

Dj - Why don't you try Prospreads? They are spreadbetting but on a standard futures DOM platform. They charge 1/2 a pt per side for the FTSE futures, but if you push them you might get it down to 1/4 of a pt per side. There are no tricks, just like a regular futures platform except it is tax free. Not so good for scalping but perfect for swing trades. No requotes or inability to move limit orders close to the price.

I opened an account today!!! Will put money in tomorrow.

Sorry haven't been on the thread today.. But family is ill and had to take the day off...what a day for them to get I'll !!!!

 

[splashy]

Is anybody scalping the open, i.e.by placing both short and long orders with quick stops to catch any opening moves? I've tried something on paper for the last two weeks and there seems to be some mileage in it. Anyone tried it?

 

[DaddyJohn]

Hi Guys... do any of you have an MF Global account... I don't wish to start a panic but there is a rumour that "allegedlly" they are close to going bust.

a friend of mine has over £1m with them and I spoke to him this morning and he is desperately trying to get his money out.... this fella is very well connected in the city , so I would personally take him seriously.

 

[DaddyJohn]

Is anybody scalping the open, i.e.by placing both short and long orders with quick stops to catch any opening moves? I've tried something on paper for the last two weeks and there seems to be some mileage in it. Anyone tried it?

I have never tried it on the open.. or at any other time.. there are some guys on our desk that do this a lot with the Bund.. they know when it is in a range or when it is whipping around and they just place buy and sells very close together ,so they get whipped in and out very quickly... they are very, very experienced mind you.

 

[Sidekicker]

Hi Guys... do any of you have an MF Global account... I don't wish to start a panic but there is a rumour that "allegedlly" they are close to going bust.

a friend of mine has over £1m with them and I spoke to him this morning and he is desperately trying to get his money out.... this fella is very well connected in the city , so I would personally take him seriously.

This was also rumoured on Bloomberg yesterday. TBH, once rumours like that start it will cause similar to a bank run so best get out quick.

Update: and the hits just keep on coming, first Fitch and now... MF GLOBAL CUT TO JUNK BY MOODY'S... "At the end of the second quarter, MF Global's $6.3 billion sovereign risk exposure represented 5 times the company's tangible common equity. Moody's said the downgrade reflects our view that MF Global's weak core profitability contributed to it taking on substantial risk in the form of its exposure to European sovereign debt in peripheral countries." But other major US banks have no exposure whatsover right? Oh wait...They're hedged... Through "CDS".

Bloomberg has just broken that MF Global has likely just entered a terminal deathwatch after not only tapping its credit facility, but aslo exhausting it. From Bloomberg: "MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, drew down its revolving credit lines this week as the firm reported its biggest quarterly loss and had its credit ratings cut, said three people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-based company exhausted its revolving lines, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the move wasn’t disclosed. MF said in an Oct. 25 investor presentation that it had $1.3 billion in unused revolving credit facilities, without giving a date for the tally." This development means that instead of an M&A assign
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mf-global-taps-credit-facility-burns-through-2-billion-quarter

 

[DaddyJohn]

This was also rumoured on Bloomberg yesterday. TBH, once rumours like that start it will cause similar to a bank run so best get out quick.

Update: and the hits just keep on coming, first Fitch and now... MF GLOBAL CUT TO JUNK BY MOODY'S... "At the end of the second quarter, MF Global's $6.3 billion sovereign risk exposure represented 5 times the company's tangible common equity. Moody's said the downgrade reflects our view that MF Global's weak core profitability contributed to it taking on substantial risk in the form of its exposure to European sovereign debt in peripheral countries." But other major US banks have no exposure whatsover right? Oh wait...They're hedged... Through "CDS".

Bloomberg has just broken that MF Global has likely just entered a terminal deathwatch after not only tapping its credit facility, but aslo exhausting it. From Bloomberg: "MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, drew down its revolving credit lines this week as the firm reported its biggest quarterly loss and had its credit ratings cut, said three people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-based company exhausted its revolving lines, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the move wasn’t disclosed. MF said in an Oct. 25 investor presentation that it had $1.3 billion in unused revolving credit facilities, without giving a date for the tally." This development means that instead of an M&A assign
MF Global Taps Credit Facility, Burns Through $2 Billion In Quarter | ZeroHedge

spot on... and by the way guys you might be protected by the FSA rules up to £50K (or whatever it is now) -- but it will take you 12 months to actually get the cash back.. if this is your trading pot , then yu have to go without it for a whole year !!

 

[MartinC-J]

Continuing on the MF Global theme, I have my funds at Open Ecry and I never know whether to believe them when they say my funds are safe. I have asked them before what happens to my funds in the event of them going bust, and they said the funds were safe. I know with UK brokers you can request that the funds be held in a segregated account, but don't know if this is the same for a US firm. Aren't MF Global an american company?


On other matters, the Italian bond auction results this morning make for grim reading. I thought wednesdays eu summit was meant to put some strength back into the bond market. With a 10 yr note now at yields above 6%, I just don' see the Italians getting out of the mess they are in.

 

[DaddyJohn]

there was a wonderful interview with Berlusconi on Italian TV.. the interviewer was saying that his popularity with Italian women was at an all time low.. B said the surveys he gets say that half the women in Italy want to sleep with him... and the other half would like to sleep with him again !!! haha yu have to admit he has character.. a clown .. but colourful

 

[MartinC-J]

There aren't many leaders that could get away with that kind of statement, other than the chick magnet Gordon Brown of course.

FWIW - We got two nice Fib extensions this morning:

161.8% - from high at open to low at 8:20am to new high at 9:10am = 161.8%

127% - from low at 8:20am to high at 9:10am to new low at 11:45am = 127%

 

[MartinC-J]

And in case anybody missed it, but as a result of wednesday's eu summit agreement Greece finally defaulted, and probably they still can't afford to pay the 50% remaining.

 

[MartinC-J]

If anybody wants to see what crappy price action is, just print off a one minute chart for this afternoon and save it for future reference.

Lots of one tick fakes and no follow through or momentum on any of the rallies. And very low volume. This was a case of just make really short term scalps for 3 or 4 pts, or sit on your hands and wait for the UK cash market to close, and hope the americans have more conviction. The americans have wanted it up and the brits have wanted it down. Let's see if that reverses after 4:30pm.

 

[ibetyou]

Hi everyone.took the day off today and was looking farward to joining you all in a bit of scalping,
After having sat here for ten hours watching the ftse, four gallons of tea later i,m no better off than when i started.
Is that a normal days trading for most.
I know one thing i won't be doing it again, no way. (teabags are hell of a price)

I was really looking farward to today, feel quite deflated now,
looking on the bright side i've learned it's weekly set ups for me in future, so much easier and profitable.

i take my hat off to you lot goodluck

 

[2George]

Hi Martin,
I am to teach my wife how to trade the FTSE in the New Year so I when I get my indicators correctly working (MT4 indicators) I will post those too.
Basically they show momentum based S&R levels that are extremely helpful during live trading.
There is a pro trader called Mark Austin who has a subscription service doing just what you are doing so good luck to you and keep concentrating.
Regards
George

 

[MartinC-J]

Hi everyone.took the day off today and was looking farward to joining you all in a bit of scalping,
After having sat here for ten hours watching the ftse, four gallons of tea later i,m no better off than when i started.
Is that a normal days trading for most.
I know one thing i won't be doing it again, no way. (teabags are hell of a price)

I was really looking farward to today, feel quite deflated now,
looking on the bright side i've learned it's weekly set ups for me in future, so much easier and profitable.

i take my hat off to you lot goodluck

ibet - the morning session was the best, as it has been for weeks. The afternoon session seems more and more a battle between europe and the US with the price action all over the place. 10 hours watching the FTSE! You deserve a medal. I watch it from 8am to 10am and then 2:30pm to 4:30pm. Any time in between depends on the price action. I'll be watching it with half an eye, but I wont be perched on my seat 2 inches away from the screen. In general it was a reasonably good day to trade without any fireworks. And every cough and tickle out of europe didn't precipitate a 30 pt spike for once. All that tea must have left you in the loo for half of the time!!

 

[MartinC-J]

Hi Martin,
I am to teach my wife how to trade the FTSE in the New Year so I when I get my indicators correctly working (MT4 indicators) I will post those too.
Basically they show momentum based S&R levels that are extremely helpful during live trading.
There is a pro trader called Mark Austin who has a subscription service doing just what you are doing so good luck to you and keep concentrating.
Regards
George

George, good luck teaching your wife. Jenny would end up killing me after about half an hour. She'd probably say its just gambling!

I am familiar with Mark Austin but I think he is more of a swing trader than a scalper.

Any indicators that people find of help, it's nice that they would want to post them. I am not much of an indicator trader, but I do use something from OEC called min/max close, which posts a line of the high and low of the last 30 periods. It works really well on the 1 min chart for warning me that a rally is about to pause or reverse. The other one I like is the ADX on the 50 volume chart. Again good for the ends of trends. But I use price action to time my entries.

 

[Dick Lexic]

Some of you guys were talking about ransquawk a while back so I thought I’d mention that capital spreads have it as a free trading tool to account holders. I have used them for some time but have only just found this out (thicko) might be of use to some of you

 

[Dick Lexic]

And in case anybody missed it, but as a result of wednesday's eu summit agreement Greece finally defaulted, and probably they still can't afford to pay the 50% remaining.

summit up with the whole system if you ask me.

 

[DaddyJohn]

If anybody wants to see what crappy price action is, just print off a one minute chart for this afternoon and save it for future reference.

Lots of one tick fakes and no follow through or momentum on any of the rallies. And very low volume. This was a case of just make really short term scalps for 3 or 4 pts, or sit on your hands and wait for the UK cash market to close, and hope the americans have more conviction. The americans have wanted it up and the brits have wanted it down. Let's see if that reverses after 4:30pm.

I think the FTSe got way ahead of itself on Thursday and hence the imbalance..may take a couple of days for the indexes to rebalance..

 

[DaddyJohn]

Some of you guys were talking about ransquawk a while back so I thought I’d mention that capital spreads have it as a free trading tool to account holders. I have used them for some time but have only just found this out (thicko) might be of use to some of you

Thanks Dick

 

[Dick Lexic]

I think the FTSe got way ahead of itself on Thursday and hence the imbalance..may take a couple of days for the indexes to rebalance..

you might be right dj maybe the big 600 still has some pulling power

i used to have pulling power