Anyone scalping the FTSE Futures??

samirs said:
yes.. thats the theory...

last week when ISEE number came in low it gave a clue that high number of small speculators are short on indices.....so they just held it till expiry so all those options were caused max pain

and popular indices easier to manage with some high weighted stocks like IBM on dow... Russel2K etc were telling a different story and creating divergence....

what happens now is anyone's guess...let the game begin again
Click to expand...

so the people were bearish on the ftse going into the expiry?

put/call selling for income is a big income stream for these funds
 
samirs said:
yes..small speculators were bearish big time...that's what ISEE indicated....it was a record low number ...remember when I posted last week

that was a clue to two things that - market likely to rally big time and then hold till Opex...they use these news / events like QE3 etc to their benefit....these can be used either way and all the shorts (covering) provided necessary fuel to the fire....

ISEE is kind of contrarian index...

theory may be completely wrong but that's what I could see
Click to expand...

what is ISEE ?

the put/call ratio is useful in trading
 
samirs said:
no and i wont ask which one.....else you may get angry that I am asking you to troll through 1000s of posts :cheesy:

just kidding...TGIF
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no thats ok, I was trying to find it but no luck, yet it was from zerohedge, it was apparently the latest techniques in hedging equity positions
 
SuddenDeath said:
from zerohedge

Hedging basic equity positions with options is nothing new. Buying Puts or selling calls to protect or enhance your position is not uncommon. The relative price that is paid (or received) for that protection is the implied volatility - it is the lever with which supply and demand for protection is turned (and is highly anti-correlated with equity movements). Strategies to hedge large equity positions have become more and more complex (as more and more complex instruments have become available).

One such strategy is to buy VIX calls against a long S&P 500 position - the best being that if the long equity position gets in trouble, VIX will rise and the call will lever that gain to offset MtM losses - i.e. a hedge. But VIX calls can be expensive and so, as we noted from Barclays, a more advanced strategy is to buy risk-reversals (long out-of-the-money VIX calls against short out-of-the-money VIX puts) which creates a 'synthetic long volatility position' to hedge the long equity underlying position. Given the leverage of the options, typically this has been done at 30% of notional to reduce the cost of the hedge.

Is This Why VIX Is Behaving So Strangely? | ZeroHedge
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ok found it. used google domain search
 
i fogot to check but yesterday we had a gap unclosed. being sloppy so the market wants to close that gap and VOD has given it some more punch, the indices are bullish SP500/Dow, FTSE, minor weakness with banks but else ok
 
hereward the wake said:
I'm getting very good at trading the left hand side of the chart and not so hot on picking entry points that work... which is why I have been sticking to mas crossing together but that doesn't happen every day. I suppose specifically I am thinking:

1) Is there not much point trying to trade pivots unless you have an established trend ie the low, first high thereafter, a higher low and then a higher high.

2) When is a pivot is taken out? by a % or by a whole candle etc

All very subjective of course
Click to expand...

Hi HTW

Have you looked at removing all indicators from the chart for scalping.
I got started scalping with the Martin-CJ system.
But found it did not suit my style andt have removed everthing.
I kept the Martin-CJ 1 min chart for picking the entry and have a 3 min chart for my own reflection areas, where i can zoom in for the last 2 days of trading in the cash market. Do have the pivot levels on the 3 min chart. Dont use them for my trading but like to know where they are. I also use the 4 to 5 point stop loss, or sometimes less.
I do use indicators on my daily swing trades, but these trades can last from 1 to 4 hours.
 

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HTW

MA crossovers is okay to make a few quid here and there but there are much more robust strategies out there. Of course like you say all subjective and it totally depends on how you feel comfortable trading and what fits your personality. Do you have hours to watch a screen all day? How easily can you take losses?

Bustech made a great point above "but found it did not suit my style and have removed everything [indicators]"

Personally I don't like indicators. You tend to end up trading the indicator and not the price. The price is THE most important thing not whether an MA has crossed or not. They can give guidance for sure... SD uses them for guidance, confirmation of a trend, support or resistance etc but not as a signal on its own.

I myself just use daily S/R and PP and am aware of round numbers. Ftse luuuvs those round numbers. You get a support line at say 5700 and this is an area you need to be watching for either a bounce or a break. You have to remember the amount of orders that people are going to have around here. Plenty of stop losses and market orders will make the price either bounce or rocket. There's no hard and fast rule as to what a fakeout is or an actual break, it just comes with time and experience and good MM is key. Tight stop losses until the market moves in a clear direction and then just ride that gravy train to the end.
 
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