DAX Futures June 2018

Jimmy Paige is a superb guitarist and I believe he learned a lot from JB in the early days. And yes I am a huge Led Zep fan.

OK, we all agree!!! all Led Zeppelin fans here!!

early close for me today in a very good daytrade after 3,5 days off:+9+7,5+21+7-1+9+11,5+11,5+1+2,5+5=TOTAL +84 pips FDAX.

Good to know we are all kindred spirits in music.

Ask most Led Zep fans what their favourite song is and the high percentage would be Stairway to Heaven or Kashmir. Strangely for me as someone who is very into heavy metal, my favourite is When the Levee Breaks - not sure why, maybe it's the introduction of that very unusual Hurdy Gurdy.

Strangely strange, handy, but oddly normal

For me, Kashmir, so - please forgive me - I'm going to tell you why : Kashmir was released in early '75. On 16 September 1975, I took the cheapest flight available (Syrian Arab Airlines via Frankfurt, Rome, Athens, Damascus & Karachi) to Delhi on the trip that was to completely change my outlook on life (don't worry, I won't get into that here ). After a couple of nights in Delhi, I took the DehraDun Express, heading via one changeover for Jammu in the foothills of the Himalayas, from where began the long bus ride up to the Srinagar valley in Kashmir.

When I and 3 other young backpackers reached Jammu, we were dismayed to find the buses were all cancelled due to landslides en route (still a few late monsoon rains), but a Sikh businessman was commandeering a taxi and invited us to keep him company, so we all piled in that afternoon for what was to be a 12 hour journey. At one point, by a very precipitous section, the army had closed the road while they repaired it ("Ït will take about one day!"), but I persuaded the soldier in charge to allow & help us through as I had a fake BBC reporter certificate !

Anyway, the point of the story... after this long and tortuous drive, as we zig-zagged up the last long series of hairpin bends to the tunnel that takes you into the beautiful Vale of Kashmir, a stunning Himalayan dawn was breaking and all I could "hear" in my head was the monotonous, driving, hypnotic chords of Kashmir, carrying us higher & higher with every beat. Even as I write this, I am transported back 43 years to that hot, sweaty, old taxi straining up this amazing mountain pass to our destination. It was utterly magnificent and Kashmir is the song that takes me back there every single time I hear it. I have often wondered if Led Zep had taken that same road trip - how could their song "fit" so well - but apparently they wrote it during another long road trip through the desert in Morocco ! Anywhichway, the lyrics are wonderful.

jtrade - Beautiful picture. I've done some travelling in India so I know the pitfalls of rail and road travel.

Your mention of Syrian Arab Airlines reminds me also of how different travelling was back in the day. I remember once being in Australia just before Christmas and trying to get a flight home became almost impossible. In the end it was with Garuda Indonesian Airlines and the route was Sydney-Melbourne-Bali-Jakarta (change planes) - Singapore-Bangkok-Abu Dhabi-Rome-Amsterdam-London. Never have I been so pleased to get off an aircraft.

Anyway, back to trading and looks like a flat to slightly down open as I write this.

Yes handy148, lazy start this morning and narrow range on sight....maybe

FDAX M20 chart update before the open

Anyone know their SPAN margin rules, please ?

If you are long 5 x FDXM and then short 1 x FDAX, is the margin :

a) net zero as position fully hedged
b) $2.5k to cover the additional FDXM margin
c) $7.5k full intraday margin all round

Have just emailed NinjaTrader Brokerage with this question, so will report back later.

The way I see it, I have till August to leave Ger30 behind and go fully back to futures, because Ger30 leverage will reduce to 20:1 when the new ESMA rules come into force for EU traders (FDXM intraday margin presently a little over 60:1)..

756 just bought 3FDXM

747 just bought 2FDXM

I have 5FDXM long from 752,5

740 zone MUST HOLD for my longs.....

Short 761 FDXM
Sold 2 more 782, so 3 short @ 775

& now FDAX long from 797

followed by 2 more FDXM short @ 802, so 5 short 786, fully hedged from 797

Comment to follow... this is full position from my August trading plan (5 x FDXM covered by 1 x FDAX), so next action will be to remove hedge (&, btw, this is in sim, as I can't use Ger30 to do this live).

The trouble with switching to sim is that it is too easy to take risks that I would never do Live (= I am now scalping the FDAX contract in both directions); I am going to try to stick to this for the time being to establish a viable futures only rule set well in advance of the August margin changes.

FDAX hedge now off @ 812.5, which must bring my b/e point to the low 90s (edit: 92 to allow for commissions, I think) - need to be ready to replace hedge if required. Hedge back on>off ("Polish on, polish off..."), trying to scalp 2 or 3 points each time, it's adding up, but it's not part of my longer term vision..

Review - I made one huge error this morning : not knowing my average FDXM position (12786) in advance & therefore entering the FDAX hedge exactly in front of that level, instead of 13 points later, in which case it would have been a leisurely morning.... going nowhere, but at last net flat with the possibility of an afternoon fall going in the right direction. Walking away from the screen : if it continues to be a disaster zone, I will make it disappear at the click of a mouse (NOT a good habit).

jtrade - I would think c) is the likely answer.

767 now:closed 3FDXM 752,5

+14,5 pips FDXM x 3=+43,5 pips FDXM=+8,5 pips FDAX

I have only 2FDXM long 752,5

777 now:closed 1FDXM 752

+25 pips FDXM=+5 pips FDAX

Only 1FDXM long 752

794 right now:closed last FDXM long 752

+42 pips FDXM=+8,5 pips FDAX

Flat for now and +22 pips FDAX gained this morning.

jtrade - my take on ESMA is that you will need less on deposit to trade futures than cash, provided you don't hold overnight.