Looking for advice on trading European indexes

I am an American, living in New York, and I am looking to start daytrading some of the European futures markets. Most of my trading thus far has been end of day, due to the fact that I work 9-5. I am looking for advice regarding European markets with regular sessions that I can trade before I go to work. I make a little money trading, generally, and would like to throw my hat into the ring and try to do it for a living. But I'm not a daytrader (yet!) and certainly am not going to quit my day job until I've proven to myself that I can pull some money out of the markets on a regular basis.

I know the European markets vary quite a bit, and hear things like 'you'll get killed trading the DAX,' so I'm looking for advice from people who are successfully trading European indexes.

Which European based futures markets are good places to start, where I can find similar movement, liquidity and volatility to the usual American index futures I am used to (ES, ER2, YM, etc)? I would like to find markets with good, tradeable action between about 3 am and 7 am eastern time. I want to try my hand daytrading early in the morning before I go to work. Any other advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated, such as preferred brokers, exchanges/platforms, etc.

Thanks, Scott

Here some to think about.



CAC 40-index;

EURO.NM all share index;

Dow Jones Stoxx Euro index;

i dont trade it myself but i have been told SMI (swiss market index)
is a nice one to trade apparently it trends well and institutions are not heavily involved but do check it out

Thanks laptop1 and andycan. I appreciate the help. Where can I find info about EURO.NM, like what exchange it trades on? I'm not familiar...
Thanks, Scott

andycan said:

i dont trade it myself but i have been told SMI (swiss market index)
is a nice one to trade apparently it trends well and institutions are not heavily involved but do check it out

Click to expand...

yes, but unfortunately the volume can be quite low

turboscottomatic said:

I am an American, living in New York, and I am looking to start daytrading some of the European futures markets. Most of my trading thus far has been end of day, due to the fact that I work 9-5. I am looking for advice regarding European markets with regular sessions that I can trade before I go to work. I make a little money trading, generally, and would like to throw my hat into the ring and try to do it for a living. But I'm not a daytrader (yet!) and certainly am not going to quit my day job until I've proven to myself that I can pull some money out of the markets on a regular basis.

I know the European markets vary quite a bit, and hear things like 'you'll get killed trading the DAX,' so I'm looking for advice from people who are successfully trading European indexes.

Which European based futures markets are good places to start, where I can find similar movement, liquidity and volatility to the usual American index futures I am used to (ES, ER2, YM, etc)? I would like to find markets with good, tradeable action between about 3 am and 7 am eastern time. I want to try my hand daytrading early in the morning before I go to work. Any other advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated, such as preferred brokers, exchanges/platforms, etc.

Thanks, Scott

Click to expand...

I believe DAX is most popular (check out the various DAX threads ere), but also FTSE (LIFFE) is quite active instrument... I do think Americans are spoiled with all the e-minis they have...

firewalker99 said:

yes, but unfortunately the volume can be quite low

Click to expand...

yes volume is low because the institutions are not all over it
but its a nice trending instrument
and for a novice or anyone that wants an easier going index smi should be looked at

European indexes

hi,

u have Dax- Eurostoxx, Cac, FTSE, and SMI as the basic Indexes

to put it simply Dax is something between Russel2000 and Dow so it can be expensive and explosive at times going trough levels by 3 ticks and then holding is considered normal ( during lunch time graveyard period it can be rewording to scalp but bear in mind that if and when it picks up 12,5 Euros per half tick is not cheap) 100 lot on bid or offer as Dow is significant but easily snapped ( so don’t count on them stopping momentum rather use them to get out when wrong - clipping anything more than 10 lots can leave you badly partially filled when wrong and paying up in Dax has a weird way of being a blessing sometimes

Eurostoxx is like S&P if it were in half ticks instead of quarter and can be very good in holding levels and loves double tops bottoms. Queuing is gold and although it gives you the sense of security and comfort cause of the size 500-3000 on bid is normal ; when it breaks out for real it can go bid bid bid without really trading down more than 200 lots which can be nasty. tick size 10 euros a tick , doesn’t have half ticks and only clipping above 300 - 500 you could have a problem getting out ( under normal trading not after figures etc)

Cac is pretty good but it’s not as thick as Dax loads of machines auto spreading with Eurostoxx since they are 40% of it. . You can easily steal some ticks front running big offers bids of 500-400 since it has a weird combination of massive size and locals and nothing in-between. Tick size is 5 euros per half tick and clipping it is weir cause at time you can put massive positions and get out fine at other times trouble is the least I can say

FTSE is again not as thick as Dax put is 5£ pound sterling per half tick. . it’s not a directional as dax and getting flicked in and out is a big part of it. lets a lot of averagers and anti momentum traders of the hook which can be frustrating at times. when a trent is on it gives you chances to get in and anything above 8 clip could cost. it really respects appearance of size.
Sorry for bad spelling hope to have helped

SMi looks good but the tick doesnt really worth that much ( could be good dont know)