Futures spreads

Hello

I'm new to derivatives trading so I'd be grateful for a bit of advice on the following:

What’s the average size of the spread for a (nearest) FTSE100 Futures contract? I’m considering opening an account with ODL securities (Mybroker) for intraday Futures trading.

I noticed another recent thread where a similar question was put re-tightest spreads with spread-betting firms. One contributor mentioned futuresbetting.com which seems to give good spreads
See //www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=15688
But, leaving aside the tax-free advantages, don’t all spreadbet companies bias their quotes for indexes depending on which direction the Futures is moving - so in effect they’re considerably bumping up their official spread ? I may not be right about this so please correct me if I’m wrong.

For that matter, what’s the typical slippage with regards to trading (nearest) FTSE100 futures?

Thanks in advance,

Ja. S.

guest16 said:

. . .
What’s the average size of the spread for a (nearest) FTSE100 Futures contract? I’m considering opening an account with ODL securities (Mybroker) for intraday Futures trading.

. . . But, leaving aside the tax-free advantages, don’t all spreadbet companies bias their quotes for indexes depending on which direction the Futures is moving - so in effect they’re considerably bumping up their official spread ? I may not be right about this so please correct me if I’m wrong.

Click to expand...

FTSE futures contract on Liffe, call it 1point
The futuresBetting.Com trades are bets on the Futures contract, not the underlying index.
Hope this helps

A Dashing Blade said:

FTSE futures contract on Liffe, call it 1point
The futuresBetting.Com trades are bets on the Futures contract, not the underlying index.
Hope this helps

Click to expand...

normal conditons have a 0.5 spread on the LIFFE FTSE futures

Thank you for your replies, Dashing Blade and Robertal

spread of around 0.5 to 1 - that’s what I’d expected. That’s a heck of a lot better than the spreads quoted by the SB firms (though I will look at FuturesBetting). Even though I’ve never traded derivatives before, this is why I’d consider trading Futures straight off - without trading with SB firms first to gain experience. Though before I get anywhere near trading with real money I’m spending a lot of time defining a trading plan, and will be doing a lot of paper-trading. And if that ‘virtual’ trading ain’t ‘virtually’ profitable, then it’ll be back to the drawing-board I’m afraid.

Ja. S.

guest16 said:

Hello

I’m considering opening an account with ODL securities (Mybroker) for intraday Futures trading.

Ja. S.

Click to expand...

Might be worth you checking to se if ODL will let you deal at the market rather than using Limit orders.
Last I heard (from an ODL customer) you could only place limit orders, not market orders.

Of course if you're happy using limit orders only then fair enough.
Glenn

Glenn said:

Might be worth you checking to se if ODL will let you deal at the market rather than using Limit orders.
Last I heard (from an ODL customer) you could only place limit orders, not market orders.

Of course if you're happy using limit orders only then fair enough.
Glenn

Click to expand...

Glenn, thanks for your post. I’ll check with ODL on Monday to see if they permit market orders.

The following probably shows my ignorance of the mechanics of trading Futures using limit/market orders,

But anyway:

Doesn’t it work the same way with Futures as conventional share-buying - wouldn’t you usually want to use a limit order - i.e. stop yourself paying too high a price on a contract if the market’s moving extremely fast while you’re placing your order?

Ja. S.