josh 

Not since September of this year! Big SP said goodbye with SPU21. ES may have started as a retail tool, but SP hasn't traded more than 5% of the daily notional of ES in several years (I'd usually see < 10K SP's, equating to 50K minis, or about 5% on a ~1M volume day). It's the hedging vehicle of choice for SPX MM's, from what they tell me. For longer term positions the SP may have had some value, but given the lack of ability to trade it electronically, and the fact that the pit has had no impact on price discovery for years, I'm not sure I see an advantage to phoning a broker versus clicking a mouse, in the last decade or so anyway.

Totally.

Funny. Since I was shocked to be wrong "old", I called three guys that used to be in that crowd. One said he thinks they are switching to all electronic but was not sure what would happen to regular contract. The two other guys, like me, new the demise was certain, but had NO IDEA Sept WAS the end.

We all had a good laugh on that.

-Dan

As for position limits on ES being 100 contracts, all I see is 100 contracts is a "Reporting Level." I don't see a "Position Limit" unless I'm reading it wrong.

Following is a link to d/l a CME spreadsheet:

CME Position Limits and Reporting Levels

And "Reporting Level" doesn't *sound* like it affects the trader, but not certain.

Following is a link to a CME PDF:

Difference between "Position Limit" and "Reporting Level"

I'm sure there are traders who move that kind of volume.

I'm curious how liquid/scaleable ES really is though. If you're intraday swing trading your strategy should be perfectly scaleable, but I'm not so sure a scalping strategy necessarily scales from 5 contracts to 150 contracts. Anyone know?

Avi24 

Hiya! I'm new to FIO and a relative newbie to trading. Ive got a question and hope I dont sound to naive.. I currently trade the ES futures market so my question is regarding the ES. I've been trying to understand why more people dont trade 150-200 contracts at a time. When watching the DOM I see a decent amount of such orders. Yet,from what Ive seen,most retail traders dont buy in such large quantities. Why dont people generally scale up to large level orders like those? Is it because of slippage? Partial fills? Personal ceiling? I dont really think it would move the market in any way,so with proper risk management,why not? What am I missing? Basically,why arent people making millions by trading a large amount of contracts?

"Money for nothing and the chicks for free" Gotta have money to make money, bro. The trade cost for futures contracts is quite small, unfortunately you gotta have collateral, aka Margin, to cover the trade in case he goes South.

Avi24 

Hiya! I'm new to FIO and a relative newbie to trading. Ive got a question and hope I dont sound to naive.. I currently trade the ES futures market so my question is regarding the ES. I've been trying to understand why more people dont trade 150-200 contracts at a time. When watching the DOM I see a decent amount of such orders. Yet,from what Ive seen,most retail traders dont buy in such large quantities. Why dont people generally scale up to large level orders like those? Is it because of slippage? Partial fills? Personal ceiling? I dont really think it would move the market in any way,so with proper risk management,why not? What am I missing? Basically,why arent people making millions by trading a large amount of contracts?

Good question.

This is always been my goal. I am starting to realize that trading 100 contracts is my ONLY goal.

goodoboy 

Good question. This is always been my goal. I am starting to realize that trading 100 contracts is my ONLY goal.

Maybe good to make the distinction that the goal would ideally be to understand what work needs to be done, and then execute that, such that one can trade 100 contracts successfully.

josh 

Maybe good to make the distinction that the goal would ideally be to understand what work needs to be done, and then execute that, such that one can trade 100 contracts successfully.

Hello Josh,

Thanks for the feed back.

It is ALOT of work Trading. ALOT.

lol, I'll be happy staying consistent with my little 1-2 contracts for now.

Would be great as long as you can manage the risk.

I was reading "unknown market wizards", the latest book by Jack Schwager....and I came across this passage (see the line highlighted in red):