Index Help Required

[jonray]

Currently swing-trading FTSE cash with D4Free. Learnt by painful experience not to keep overnight short on tuesday due to ex-dividend recalculation. Wanting now to trade DAX, DOW and NASDAQ all in cash with the same company. Does the same thing happen with these indexes? Are there any little technical bits and bobs i should be aware of before i learn by painful experience? If i am on the wrong forum which one should i post on?

 

[TheBramble]

jonray - there is an indices forum where this would be appropriate, but first steps is OK too.

One point I would make is that if you're making errors trading the FTSE, why move on to other instruments?

Would it makes sense do you think to get it all working out on the one index before starting to learn the individual nuances of each of the others?

Just a thought.

 

[jonray]

Good point Bramble. The system is actually working ok - using Rivallands approach. Looking to expand to the new instruments cos i dont like to put all eggs into one basket. Moreover the FTSE doesnt always swing greatly due to its defensive nature. The only thing i have been really caught out on is the ex-dividend recalculation, and even then i was only caught out once. Just wandered if the other indexes had this potential problem or any other i havent thought of.

 

[hampy]

I seem to recall a lot of after hours action on the Dow / S+P one evening, a few week ago due to some sort of recalculation, so if holding overnight you need to do your homework.
hampy

 

[ChartMan]

No one in their right mind would hold indecies overnight especially the USA ones. Typically constituent companies report after the 'bell' that can cause big overnight gaps.There's more than enough action during the day..... but then if you can't day trade the options are reduced. One way round this is to trade with a company that lets you put guaranteed stops in the market. That way an overnight tanking doesn't wipe you out...

 

[jonray]

I basically play the short term swings using the 3 bar/1 bar modified gann approach, chartman. I win a few, lose a few but generally produce reasonable profits in the medium term. I hold a position from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. I religiously place a stop when i open a position. I once tried day-trading the DOW but the prozac ran out at half seven and i had to close the trade. Day-trading the DOW should come with a government health warning. Swing-trading aligns itself with my particular risk profile.

The reason for the post was just to see if there was any ex-dividend action on DOW, DAX, and NAS that D4Free could nick a few extra points of me with.

 

[TheBramble]

The reason for the post was just to see if there was any ex-dividend action on DOW, DAX, and NAS that D4Free could nick a few extra points of me with.

There are some that would say they wouldn't need any ex-div action to do that....

Check out the SB related posts.

 

[jonray]

Too true mate. If i had a pound for every slow fill and requote i wouldnt need to worry about ex-div action.