Bid/Ask on ES

[ts2000]

Bid/Ask

Hi All,

I have been papertrading the ES and using Braket Trader for Interactive Broker's TWS. I was buying at the bid and where I wanted to get in and then sold at a sell Limit order. I did the reverse for selling. sell at the ask and out at a buy limit.

What I want to know is in real live trading can I buy at the bid or sell at the ask trading the ES (mini S&P 500), since I have been told it is one of the biggest liquid market in the world.

Any comment and/or suggestions will be most welcomed.

Thanking you all in advance.

ts2000

 

[Trader333]

In my view trading the ES you cannot buy on the bid and sell on the ask which you can do when trading stocks. In fact you could get hit for 0.25 points when buying and when selling so an equivalent cost of 0.5 points per trade.

If you do not take this into consideration in your calculations then I fear you may find that in real trading your profits will be substantially less than you have estimated.


Paul

 

[rossored]

Yep, agreed.

It wont happen IRL.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

You can do it sometimes - but only by using a Limit order. When I've done this on ES I've been able to get a fill at a price which doesn't print on the chart which is, in effect, buying at the bid and selling at the ask.

However, it does mean that sometimes you get filled, sometimes you don't. Whereas with a market order you always get filled at the market price.

I always try to get the main moves, and the majority of times I go in and out of ES at market.

 

[OrderBlaster]

Buying at the Bid and Selling at the Ask is not likely in the real world. It may happen once in a while if you place a Limit order way in advance of the price being hit (FIFO = First in First Out, filling regime). But other than that, forget about it! If you want to execute a trade right away (market order), you'll be Buying the Ask and Selling the Bid. There's just no way around it.