Quick Turnaround?

[jonnyy40]

When trading ftse futures contracts with IB. (Using Tsim?). How quickly can you reverse your position? I'm thinking of false breakouts etc. With IG, you've got to close -- wait for the computer to consider, then the bet confirm window appears etc. How quick is it with IB and Tsim?

 

[Trader333]

Why not just place a stop order at a price where you would want to get out. If you are long 1 contract and if you wanted to reverse your position at a particular price you would need to have a sell stop order for 2 contracts at the price where you want to reverse. If you just wanted to get out of the trade then you would place a stop order for the contract at your chosen price. These can be placed as soon as you open your position. Bear in mind that if you close your position because you have reached a profit target and that you have also placed a stoploss order, you will need to cancel it or you may suddenly find yourself in a new trade.


Paul

 

[JonnyT]

Fills on FTSE futures are < 2 seconds...

JonnyT

 

[Skimbleshanks]

The answer depends on your account size.

If you are long 1 contract, and want to flip the trade as Trader333 suggested you can only sell 2 contracts IF you have sufficient funds (margin) in your account for the single order of 2 contracts.

Otherwise, you need to sell 1 contract (to close the position) and then sell 1 contract to open the short. A double click on the transmit button does the job in a second.

I always use the latter method, because it is just too time consuming to alter the default entry to double the quantity. IB commission is per contract so there is no difference between the methods of flipping a trade. However, if your broker (not IB) charges irrespective of the number of contracts then the method suggested by Trader333 is best because it is cheapest (assuming you have the margin for the double trade).

 

[jonnyy40]

Thanks all, It is speed I'm interested in. I want to be able to close -- then open in opposite direction as soon as possible. Given the right conditions obviously.

 

[JonnyT]

Hi Skim,

I can assure you that you do not need twice the margin to flip a trade in one hit using www.interactivebrokers.com

I have done this with an account that only had enough margin for one contract several times.

When you think about it why should you?

JonnyT

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Then perhaps the situation is different when it comes to US stocks and futures - I wouldn't say something unless I had very good reason to know it was the case.

I also didn't say it took twice the margin - I said you needed the margin for two contracts. This is not the same. For trading US stocks and futures you need an amount of margin to trade one contract, and then an additional amount of margin for the second and each additional contract taken out at the same time.

 

[oatman]

Yesterday I went from 2 long to 3 short in miniDow with a 5 lot sell order. I've only £5000 up.

Cheers

 

[JonnyT]

Hi Skim,

I don't believe that to be the case given at one time I only had around £300 above the requirement for a single FTSE future, yet traded two (i.e reversed my position from 1 to -1)

JonnyT

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Whatever. You're talking UK, I'm talking US. Different regulations.

 

[The Beyonder]

Jonnyy 40

If you're talking about what I think then it is possible with IG though I haven't done it.

I spoke to one of their guys about this.

If you're long £10/pt then all you do is go short £20/pt which will cancel your long and open a new short all in one trade.

Rgds

 

[jonnyy40]

Thanks beyonder, I'm also signing up with cmc to try to escape IG's lunatic spread, I'll ask them the same question.

 

[The Beyonder]

Funny you should say that Jonnyy40 because I'm thinking the same thing.

I'm with IG and trialled D4F's software for 2 wks running them both together.

I noticed that they don't keep in step (I looked at Dow only though). I did random paper trades with both, opening and closing at the same time. You would have thought that D4F would give a 3 pt better profit. NOT necessarily, it depended totally on when you opened and closed the positions, meaning that some times IG would give a bigger "profit", it's possible that in the long run D4F would be better (I didn't test it for months and months) but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

If you can, you might want to do a similar thing.

Best rgds

PS I advise not to use their charts for trading, their pants!!

 

[options]

The next step from here guys is to trade one off against the other!

It doesn't take much to work out who leads who etc

Myself, Chartman and a few others I believe, were using Fins and cmc to good effect for a short while. Then that door seems to shut. (Do they wise up and confer with each other, or just coincidence?)

 

[Bigbusiness]

I find the Deal4free system can be slow at times and has caused a few winning trades to turn in to losers. The main problem is that they don't link stops to a specific trade. So if you have to close a trade and the index moves quickly, the stop can be hit before canceling it. I find that extremely annoying and they have lost my custom until they sort it out. The spread is small but some of the fluctuations in the quote make it difficult to trade with stops.

I much prefer IG but they do have that larger spread. I have sent them an email about the spread and the minimum stakes. They are not reviewing it now but I hope they will in the future.

 

[The Beyonder]

It's clear that IG are reviewing their service, what with these new binary bets and the movable stop-loss. Even if they're not looking at spreads now, I feel that within a year or so they'll close it, possibly not to 5 pts but maybe 6-7.

It'd be interesting to know how many people have gone from IG to D4F.

Options - what to you mean by trade one off against the other!

Regards

The B

 

[options]

What would happen was, because of the 'bias' or loading. (and this is an argument that has been well documented on these pages.) Is that cmc quote would often jump a few seconds before
the fins quote, by using a real time chart and price, you could get a fair idea if it was a valid move or not and trade accordingly. Even if it meant going against cmc bias. And this often proved to be a good trading move when cmc got it wrong. If they were right then you traded fins.

This stopped for the most part when fins 'improved' their system, yet seemed to slow things down.