Buy ‘em,
I was watching the 30-yr thinking, ‘I hope to fuuck he closed’. Live to fight another day.
Ingo,
I use highs and lows of 10 to 25 tick charts. On a basic level, if these are broken, I will buy above a high and sell below a low. If a bar fails to breach a previous high/low then I would regard this as a potential turning point – sell a high, buy a low. I don’t use any technical indicators.
Support and resistance on, eg 60-minute and day charts, I use as reference for possibly strong support or resistance; if either of these are broken, I am expecting a particularly strong move.
I also use trend-lines for trend and possible congestion areas.
Re e-minis, although I have no experience of trading this, I would say Bobl and Schatz are not comparable, specifically less volatile. Moreover, Bobl and Schatz are not really comparable – each can be traded in it’s own right (as well as the Bund), at least for scalping. The bund is the most volatile, then the bobl and finally the schatz. This also seems to be the case with US 2, 5, 10 and 30-year bonds; each is unique with the longer maturities being the most volatile.
I agree with Arbitrageur re the Stoxx, especially when compared to the DAX. However, personally I have found it is too volatile and choppy. Indeed, it would be unwise to regard any of the instruments above as a Sunday picnic. Treat them all with caution.
Arbitrageur,
“much better than a rapidly diminishing dollar tick”. Are you nostalgic for $500 per point S&P? Oh to be rich and decadent.
Kobeyashi,
As Dashing Blade of T2W explained to me, there are also a lot of companies and their investors hedging via the bund; the majority of companies issue 10-year bonds because of the ease of hedging via the bund futures. This leads to increased liquidity and volume which leads to more speculators and volume. It becomes almost self-fulfilling.
Grant.