Difference between 'intraday' / 'overnight': just 24hrs? or in-outside RTH?

[BataviaTrader]

Hi fellow traders,

After 4 years of studying markets, chart gazing and SIM trading, I am currently slowly preparing to go 'live'. To verify my understanding of and relation between 'intraday', 'overnight' and required margin, I am eager to find out the following. I would like to know the difference between an intraday trade and an overnight trade.

* Does intraday mean just the opening and closing of a trade within a period of any 24 consecutive hours?

* Do the RTH have anything to do with this? ex. does intraday trade means opening and closing of the same trade WITHIN the RTH?

* For example, if I open and close a trade between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. (CDT), would that be considered 'overnight' because it is outside RTH?

I am with IB and would like to determine what sort of margin I need in terms of money. Also,

* Do the listed margins count PER FUTURE, of is it just the minimum to trade any amount of futures?

Thanks before for your time involved answering my questions. It is very much appreciated!!

BT

 

[Jimmy Lulz]

Sup Bat.

As with so much else, it depends. You need to check with your broker.

For example, one broker I use offers reduced intraday margins. For the contracts I trade these apply between 7 am and 3.15 pm CST. Then they have regular margin, plus reduced night time margin (not as low as intraday).

If you see commission, margin etc it will be PER FUTURES CONTRACT.

So (for example) ES: initial margin $5000, intraday $500. You want to trade 3 cars. Initial margin in $15K, intraday $1.5K.

By the way, asking IB anything is a pain in the a$$. They are crap at getting back to you.

Hi fellow traders,

After 4 years of studying markets, chart gazing and SIM trading, I am currently slowly preparing to go 'live'. To verify my understanding of and relation between 'intraday', 'overnight' and required margin, I am eager to find out the following. I would like to know the difference between an intraday trade and an overnight trade.

* Does intraday mean just the opening and closing of a trade within a period of any 24 consecutive hours?

* Do the RTH have anything to do with this? ex. does intraday trade means opening and closing of the same trade WITHIN the RTH?

* For example, if I open and close a trade between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. (CDT), would that be considered 'overnight' because it is outside RTH?

I am with IB and would like to determine what sort of margin I need in terms of money. Also,

* Do the listed margins count PER FUTURE, of is it just the minimum to trade any amount of futures?

Thanks before for your time involved answering my questions. It is very much appreciated!!

BT

 

[BataviaTrader]

Hi Jimmy ,

Thanks for helping me out here, and apologies for the late reply. Those were answers to questions which were on my mind for a long time man.

Concerning IB customer service, so far I have pretty good experience when getting back to me in a timely manner. I just have doubts the way they handle questions on which they have no immediate answers to. It happens me twice (out of 3 questions) that the final anwer was like "this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by our IT department" or so. Maybe the IB dude just didnt know. But after all, so far I am okay with them.

Thanks again, and happy trading!

BT

Sup Bat.

As with so much else, it depends. You need to check with your broker.

For example, one broker I use offers reduced intraday margins. For the contracts I trade these apply between 7 am and 3.15 pm CST. Then they have regular margin, plus reduced night time margin (not as low as intraday).

If you see commission, margin etc it will be PER FUTURES CONTRACT.

So (for example) ES: initial margin $5000, intraday $500. You want to trade 3 cars. Initial margin in $15K, intraday $1.5K.

By the way, asking IB anything is a pain in the a$$. They are crap at getting back to you.

 

[fiftyfifty]

* Does intraday mean just the opening and closing of a trade within a period of any 24 consecutive hours?

Intraday is opening and closing of a trade during regular session hours. I don't know if trading on Globex would change what is classified as intraday or overnight if trading outside of regular hours. Should be reasonably well documented.

* Do the RTH have anything to do with this? ex. does intraday trade means opening and closing of the same trade WITHIN the RTH?

Regular Trading Hours? Yes

* For example, if I open and close a trade between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. (CDT), would that be considered 'overnight' because it is outside RTH?

I am with IB and would like to determine what sort of margin I need in terms of money.

IB have reduced margin on some contracts for intraday trading, it also specifies which time periods this intraday margin is valid for
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=margin&ib_entity=uk
Go to margins, futures, and then there is a tab for intraday


Also,

* Do the listed margins count PER FUTURE, of is it just the minimum to trade any amount of futures?

Margins are per future

 

[BataviaTrader]

@ fiftyfifty

Thanks a lot for your input! Very much appreciated and helpful! Have a nice Sunday!

regards
BT

 

[wackypete2]

IB have reduced margin on some contracts for intraday trading, it also specifies which time periods this intraday margin is valid for
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=margin&ib_entity=uk
Go to margins, futures, and then there is a tab for intraday

Just an FYI

Due to market conditions and until further notice, Intra-day margin benefit rules for currency futures have temporarily been suspended.

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=margin&ib_entity=uk


Peter

 

[Bint_Crusher]

Intraday is markets open and close outside of this you have to start thinking rollovers et al (and I am not talking about her in the sack)

 

[BataviaTrader]

Intraday is markets open and close outside of this you have to start thinking rollovers et al (and I am not talking about her in the sack)

Hi Bint_Crusher,

Thanks for your input. I was thinking this over, and another question came up in relation with my original question.

Since the S&P's e-mini's are traded 100% electronically, I wonder what makes having this instrument have in- and outside RTH? Is it just to line up with the other, traditional markets, like Dow and Nasdaq? I mean, emini's are traded 24 hours during weekdays.

I hope you or anyone can share a few words on this. it seems to me a stupid question to all you seniors out there, I just try to make my way to see this bigger picture.

regards
BT

 

[Splitlink]

Hi Bint_Crusher,

Thanks for your input. I was thinking this over, and another question came up in relation with my original question.

Since the S&P's e-mini's are traded 100% electronically, I wonder what makes having this instrument have in- and outside RTH? Is it just to line up with the other, traditional markets, like Dow and Nasdaq? I mean, emini's are traded 24 hours during weekdays.

I hope you or anyone can share a few words on this. it seems to me a stupid question to all you seniors out there, I just try to make my way to see this bigger picture.

regards
BT

All us seniors out here don't know it all, either. This one trades a few instruments and knows what he can do in the times that he wants to do them. That is the way it goes with most people, I feel.

 

[BataviaTrader]

heheh...I see. I mean, I am SIM trading since a few years, and recently with quite nice results, thinking about going live. But I still feel like not knowing a clue about financial markets and trading, I don't understand the geek-talk of traders on twitter, yet I make profits. And I wonder if that is normal.

 

[Splitlink]

heheh...I see. I mean, I am SIM trading since a few years, and recently with quite nice results, thinking about going live. But I still feel like not knowing a clue about financial markets and trading, I don't understand the geek-talk of traders on twitter, yet I make profits. And I wonder if that is normal.

When I hear twitter I have to go out to the country. All I hear in the city is coughing. If you are making profit, you are doing it right. Stay right there! The problem with SIM is that you don't have the worry of having money on the line. That makes a big difference.

I read a post yesterday on the ETX thread. They argue that they prefer to give 100 pounds to trade with, rather than have a demo. It's a fair argument. I, certainly, feel that players should learn with, at least, a minimum stake, for realism. That means an SB company where you can trade for 50p or a pound.

"intraday" for me, who trades indices, means any time between dawn and 2100 because at 0700 the Dax opens; at 0800 FT opens; 1430 Wall Street opens, but I often trade Wall St. from Dax time 'til Wall Street open with a 3 point spread and make good money. After 1530, When FT closes it is, still, a good index to trade with SB because it moves, more or less, with Wall St. After 2100, for me, intraday ends. I don't do any more until the next day because the Globex takes over and there is a lot of spikey activity.

Forex is another market.

Hope that helps a bit, although, my thinking isn't everyone else's

 

[Bint_Crusher]

Hi Bint_Crusher,

Thanks for your input. I was thinking this over, and another question came up in relation with my original question.

Since the S&P's e-mini's are traded 100% electronically, I wonder what makes having this instrument have in- and outside RTH? Is it just to line up with the other, traditional markets, like Dow and Nasdaq? I mean, emini's are traded 24 hours during weekdays.

I hope you or anyone can share a few words on this. it seems to me a stupid question to all you seniors out there, I just try to make my way to see this bigger picture.

regards
BT

True , they can be traded overnight but the liquidity is not there, so a big order placed near the end of the Asia session and before the Euro starts ( 0500-0600 GMT) could easily wipe you out unless you have a strong position. Best to have a good nights kip in the SACK and wake up fresh to trade in the morning.

 

[BataviaTrader]

When I hear twitter I have to go out to the country. All I hear in the city is coughing. If you are making profit, you are doing it right. Stay right there! The problem with SIM is that you don't have the worry of having money on the line. That makes a big difference.

I read a post yesterday on the ETX thread. They argue that they prefer to give 100 pounds to trade with, rather than have a demo. It's a fair argument. I, certainly, feel that players should learn with, at least, a minimum stake, for realism. That means an SB company where you can trade for 50p or a pound.

"intraday" for me, who trades indices, means any time between dawn and 2100 because at 0700 the Dax opens; at 0800 FT opens; 1430 Wall Street opens, but I often trade Wall St. from Dax time 'til Wall Street open with a 3 point spread and make good money. After 1530, When FT closes it is, still, a good index to trade with SB because it moves, more or less, with Wall St. After 2100, for me, intraday ends. I don't do any more until the next day because the Globex takes over and there is a lot of spikey activity.

Forex is another market.

Hope that helps a bit, although, my thinking isn't everyone else's

Hi Splitlink, thanks for your input! I didn't mean only twitter, but forums, trading websites, the lot. All those abbreviations and market talk I never understand.

And since I am SIM trading, I DO have a bad day when i "lost" money, even considering if it's SIM-money. So therefor, I hope the difference would not too big after switching to live. Speaking of which, my numbers for this month (and that's not to show off): 17 trades, 15 winners, 2 losers, P/L ratio 4.7:1. And yes, the 2 previous months were pretty similar too. Live, I will only trade 1 future contract, and build my equity with the profits. (if any LOL). Besides, I will not overnight, only RTH, exactly what I am doing now.

Thanks for sharing!

regards
BT