First of all Emini S&P 500 Futures contracts held at expiration are cash settled. Traders roll these contracts every quarter on the Thursday prior to week of expiration (ie: the second Thursday of the final month of the quarter). There's no reason to ever have a futs contract exercised.
I chart based off the "continuous contract", but current trades would be for the December 2014 contract. Thus on twitter I will say "$ES_F"...the "_F" representing the continuous contract. The Dec Contract look like "ESZ4" with the "Z" representing the month and the "4" representing the year. Since these are quarterly contracts you have March (H); June (M); October (V); December (Z).
My point in the whole thing was of all the things I've posted to me...the futures is the most interesting - to me. Futures trading is very tough and an emotional game. I'd put my knowledge at skilled professional..but I'm often lacking in execution. That's the reason for the strict set of rules and charting and posting in real time for 1 year. Personally I want to move 99% away from stocks...and more to the sector rotation and then trade these Emini futs and the Canadian Forex Dollar.
FantasyCurse. I would strongly recommend AGAINST making a trade in these at this time. Rather why not just ask some questions...see how it goes...get a feel for it. You can make a lot of money in the futs but it is very easy to lose it too. And pilot error can #### your portfolio up.
Thanks Siff... Right now my only investment (outside of 401k) is in the sector rotation... The volatility last month has me spooked and I like the safety should things turn bearish. Everything else is cash.
In terms of futures, optionsxpress has the option to do virtual/fake trades... I think it would be best at this time for me to follow along on the futures piker account with the virtual trading. Hopefully in a few months, I understand it better to the point where I can actually participate. The 700% gain this year has me a little more than entertained.
When I am comfortable enough, I think I'm going to start as the piker, deposit $10k into the account and start off with 1 or 2 contracts at a time... This prob won't be until Q1 of 2015 though as I'd prob be donating based off of pilot error if I didn't understand it better
Any books for futures you would recommend either?