The Bear

Yeah they trade oil...as well as a number of other commodities. ICE was around since 1997 but it wasn't called ICE...they probably got some new marketing or something to invent the new name. The exchange infrastructure is located in London UK I believe, but also in the US and maybe even other parts of europe. It's completely electronic, there's no trading floor. This place is HOT right now, I suggest you dudes look into it and let me know what you find. Supposedly I read somewhere that 70% of US energy trading (OTC) is done on ICE. That's pretty massive volume. Their non-OTC contracts also have heavy volume. This is heavy duty stuff, and maybe the way of the future? Completely electronic exchange? No floor?

Hey Soultrader - have you ever looked at trading the Hang Seng futures? I see you are in Japan - and wonder if there are many speculators you know of in Japan that trade this. Curious if you have any experience.

Interesting. I could completely see that if that was the case. The real bullet to the temple was JAN 3 2007. There was MASSIVE selling this day and it literally 'spilled over a cliff'. I was actually almost bearish on DEC 26 2006, when I got stopped out of a swing trade...for a loss. Anyhow the rally from the low in oil is huge. There was numerous times where I was still bearish on oil even up to the end of january...but I was getting no follow through. The action right now though is in Gasoline. Has anyone been trading this? Take a look at the RBOB contract.

Anybody do any trading on THE ICE? This seems to be the hottest place on earth right now?

I'm not sure about fundamentals since I ignore them to some degree, but I do listen to world events a bit....but in my opinion it is a correction and oil is still in a bull market overall. As far as going long...I have such a short term view, but I do think higher oil prices eventually. Around christmas time alot of people thought crude was going long, then WACK more downside. We recovered very strongly though from that last down leg, so i'm pretty bullish on that. You never know though with oil, it may turn south in a heartbeat and fleece those bulls Are you a commodity speculator? Are you considering going long CL contracts? These are what I trade.

Yes, I get slippage once and awhile trading YM..usually 1 tick at most. The cost of doing business.

Hey there - I trade the big dow. I can say liquidity is good but I don't trade alot of contracts so I don't know if it would apply to you. It usually is like wsam said 1 tick wider than YM...but I've seen it go even wider sometimes. However it does track YM and it does have market making...so there is almost always at least 1 contract on either side. I learnt the hard way about my stop loss getting blown because the spread widened more than usual once...so use a bigger stop. Even on the BIG DROP day we had recently, the big dow was still tracking YM very tightly. It would be nice to see the spread match the YM, but I doubt this will happen. Some days DD only does 60 contracts..IN THE WORLD. All in all, I like the big dow...great leverage.