Dow Intraday Charts 29 Nov - 03 Dec

[The Beyonder]

Do you think it worth having the account in pounds or dollars with them??

Hi sall

I think it's best to have your money in pounds as the dollar is falling like a stone and you'll lose money through exchange rate differences.

Furthermore with the pound so strong v the dollar you won't need as much pounds to open an account.

 

[frugi]

IB -

The minimum balance of £1450 is required to open an account. It is also required to open new positions, but it can fall below that as a result of an already opened position, as long as the position does not fall short of the specific margin requirements applicable to that instrument.

Per contract for YM you need $1250 initial margin and then $1000 maintenance margin
These margin minimums double after 8.45pm GMT.
Open positions will be closed if you go below margin requirements.

You need the initial margin to open a position. But once in a position is open you then only need the maintenance margin. So though you need $1250 per contract to open a position, you only need $1000 per contract to keep it open.

So you could trade 2 contracts with $2500 and then keep them open with $2000. This is good news as it means you can trade 2 contracts, nearly 3 in fact, with £2000! I am not suggesting you do this, mind.

But if you lose enough to bring your account balance below $2000 they will be closed for your protection, then you'll be below the minimum balance and won't be able to open any new positions.

I have not heard of the $500 offer and don't believe they'd allow it, but I may be wrong. GBP is the way to go then you can choose whether and by how much to hedge your account against movement in the dollar (by buying and selling dollars).

 

[sall]

Frugi, Many Thanks for the information and to Thanks to everyone else. I have been using Dukascopy for a while , was thinking about the switch, but may not do so after all. The spread for the Dow is only 3-- points. They give you 1 contact with £500.00. It seems to be the cheaper option. Thank All

 

[cloudbase]

Hi all, these guys, Global Futures, offer $500 day trade margin on E-mini S&p, Mini Dow, E-Mini Naz and E-Mini Russell valid up to 50 contracts. Just opening an account with them now, seem a very proffessional
outfit.



http://www.globalfutures.com/margins/index.html

 

[justyn]

In my opinion it is suicidal trying to trade using the minimum balance possible.

The most seasoned professional will always get it wrong a percentage of the time.

For example if you have $2000 to use and someone lets you trade 4 x $5 contracts for that minimum amount ... and you get it wrong and lose 25 points then you have lost $500.

So now you can only trade 3 contracts with your $1500 balance and you need to make 34 points to get back to square one, even more to get into profit.

If you get it right 50% of the time you will go bankrupt long term as your losers are always bigger than your winners.

I'd suggest setting yourself a realistic account balance for each contract traded. For example £5000 for each $5 option you want to trade (some people say £10k). When you get to £10,000 then start trading 2 options and so on.

Justyn.

 

[cloudbase]

In my opinion it is suicidal trying to trade using the minimum balance possible.

The most seasoned professional will always get it wrong a percentage of the time.

For example if you have $2000 to use and someone lets you trade 4 x $5 contracts for that minimum amount ... and you get it wrong and lose 25 points then you have lost $500.

So now you can only trade 3 contracts with your $1500 balance and you need to make 34 points to get back to square one, even more to get into profit.

If you get it right 50% of the time you will go bankrupt long term as your losers are always bigger than your winners.

I'd suggest setting yourself a realistic account balance for each contract traded. For example £5000 for each $5 option you want to trade (some people say £10k). When you get to £10,000 then start trading 2 options and so on.

Justyn.

I agree it would be suicidal for any inexperienced trader to adopt such a low margin per contract, but a lot depends on your trading style.
I look to scalp the YM futures for between 5 and 20 points based on the gapping nature of the order book, as such any losing trades are quickly exited and i look for a 75-80 winning trade
ratio. No trades are held overnight
The $500 margin will give me a greater return on capital employed while being fully aware of the increased risk, i envisage that this margin ratio will be employed for only 30% of trades as the nature of my trading doesn't work on large multi contract trades.

regards CBase.

 

[sall]

Agree ith both cloudbase and Justyn on the building of balance before gearing for higher trades.That's the only reason why I asked the question about margins. Many Thanks for the information on globalfutures, I didn't know about them at all

 

[stevecartwright]

Intraday data

Hi everyone, Can anyone help me please. I am looking for a small data set probably no more than 6 months of intraday data for the DOW. I have recently been reading about a phenomenon that I want to test out. It seems to work when eyeballing but I would like to backtest properly. I only subscribe to EOD and don't really want to subscribe just for some historical data. I will reciprocate if successful by informing on what it was I was reading.
Regards