What is the EUR/GBP future?

[Yamato]

Someone told me that going LONG on the EUR and going SHORT (2 contracts) on the GBP doesn't make sense, in a strategy betting on a reduction of the divergence, and that I should simply trade the "EUR/GBP future", saving on commission and spread costs.

That seems right, but when I looked at IB's forex futures, I only found the "RP", a contract that has a few hundreds of trades per day. How can that be possible? Am I looking at the wrong contract? The CME page doesn't say very much about the future, nor about its volume. What is, on IB's TWS, the December 2009 contract symbol for the correct EUR/GBP future? Can anyone help me please?

So far these are the useful links I've found:
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/fx/fx/euro-fx-british-pound.html
http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/contract_info/index.php?action=Details&site=GEN&conid=68532387

 

[GammaJammer]

Someone told me that going LONG on the EUR and going SHORT (2 contracts) on the GBP doesn't make sense, in a strategy betting on a reduction of the divergence, and that I should simply trade the "EUR/GBP future", saving on commission and spread costs.

That seems right, but when I looked at IB's forex futures, I only found the "RP", a contract that has a few hundreds of trades per day. How can that be possible? Am I looking at the wrong contract? The CME page doesn't say very much about the future, nor about its volume. What is, on IB's TWS, the December 2009 contract symbol for the correct EUR/GBP future? Can anyone help me please?

So far these are the useful links I've found:
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/fx/fx/euro-fx-british-pound.html
http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/contract_info/index.php?action=Details&site=GEN&conid=68532387

EURGBP as a cross probably sufferes in terms of volumes on exchange from the fact that Americans simply struggle to envisage anything that isn't US-centric. Sad but true - the whole world to them is dollarised. In the real (i.e. otc, interbank) world, eurgbp trades in gigantic volumes of course.

 

[foredog]

Buying 1 contract of EURGBP future would leave you long eur and short GBP. It's the same as going to the Postoffice to get your holiday money.

You go in with £200 and get E220 eg the rate is 1.1, if you come back without spending anything an the rate has changed to 1.2 you would the swap E220 for (22 / 1.2) £183.

 

[Martinghoul]

I am long EURGBP and proud of it...

 

[GammaJammer]

There should be a law against that. Unpatriotic git. I'm going long cable to counter your disgusting show of ungentlemanly conduct...

 

[Yamato]

Thank you for your replies.

So, GammaJammer, are you telling me that the EUR/GBP future contract is indeed the "RP" that I found, and that it only trades 300 contracts per day (whereas the other two mentioned future contracts trade hundreds of thousands contracts per day)?

 

[foredog]

There should be a law against that. Unpatriotic git. I'm going long cable to counter your disgusting show of ungentlemanly conduct...

:whistling

 

[blancspa]

they told me that parity but who knows

 

[Martinghoul]

There should be a law against that. Unpatriotic git. I'm going long cable to counter your disgusting show of ungentlemanly conduct...

How could you!!!! I am hurt...

Did you also bribe Nowotny to come out and say things like this?
NOWOTNY SEES RISK OF JAPAN-STYLE `LOST DECADE' IN EUROPE
NOWOTNY SAYS EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS `VERY WEAK'

 

[GammaJammer]

No money was required to change hands dude - they come up with this stuff on their own believe it or not!!!

 

[VingTsunKuen]

Travis....

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/fx/fx/euro-fx-british-pound.html

Check volume...you and 9 other wise guys would be trading the contract.
"Ticker Symbol-CME Globex Electronic Markets: RP"

 

[Yamato]

Wow, thanks. There's actually some good charts for volume, even though the CME web site is a bit of a labyrinth. Yes, low volume, and I asked here because I almost can't believe that such an important future would have such a low volume, considering the other two futures (EUR and GBP) have such high volume: one thousand times as much.