S&C MagazineCurrent ContentsQ & A Futures For You
Futures For You
Inside The Futures World
Want to find out how the futures markets really work? Carley Garner is the senior strategist for DeCarley Trading, a division of Zaner Group, where she also works as a broker. She authors widely distributed e-newsletters; for your free subscription, visit www.DeCarleyTrading.com. Her books, Currency Trading in the Forex and Futures Markets, A Trader’s First Book on Commodities, and Commodity Options, were published by FT Press. To submit a question, post your question at http://Message-Boards.Traders.com. Answers will be posted there, and selected questions will appear in a future issue of S&C.
DEPTH OF MARKET
- Details
- Parent Category: Q & A
- Category: Futures For You
- Written by Carley Garner
Should all traders be placing futures orders through a DOM panel? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?
The DOM (depth of market) panel is a platform feature that enables traders to view the “trading book” of a particular futures market while providing quick and efficient order-entry capabilities. The trading book is purely the collective working limit orders of other market participants at various prices surrounding the current market price. Note that stop orders are not included, and market orders are executed immediately so they never become part of the “book.”
ICEBERG ORDERS
- Details
- Parent Category: Q & A
- Category: Futures For You
- Written by Carley Garner
In recent years, electronic trading platforms have added the capability to place iceberg orders. What are they, and are they helpful to the average retail trader?
The reference to iceberg stems from the idea that the tip of the iceberg is the only visible part of a large mass of ice emerging from a body of water. Accordingly, the term iceberg order is defined as the practice of breaking up an order to buy or sell a large quantity of contracts into multiple smaller orders through the use of automated software.
OPTION SPREAD TRADING
- Details
- Parent Category: Q & A
- Category: Futures For You
- Written by Carley Garner
Should commodity option spread traders be placing limit orders as packages or on each individual option of the spread?
When trading option spreads, traders intend to execute legs of the trade simultaneously. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Aggressive or skilled traders may enter or exit a spread one leg at a time and attempt to time their optimal fill prices.
MARKET SPECULATION
- Details
- Parent Category: Q & A
- Category: Futures For You
- Written by Carley Garner
What are the option greeks and can they be applied to commodity options?
Collectively, the option greeks are a group of equations used to measure and identify the sensitivity of an option price to outside forces such as price changes in the underlying asset, the passage of time, or changes in market volatility. The greeks can be useful to option traders in many ways, but are most often used as a proxy for trade probability.
FOCUS ON ONE MARKET OR SEVERAL?
- Details
- Parent Category: Q & A
- Category: Futures For You
- Written by Carley Garner
Should I focus on one market, or scan several markets for opportunities?
The answer to this question largely depends on the strategy used and the time frame you are trading in. For instance, a daytrader is likely to have developed specific technical trading guidelines to trigger entry and exit signals. However, not all markets are created equally — and what works in one may not work in another.
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