DAX - Euro Stoxx 50 - FTSE100 - CAC40 trading

Less than one week ago i was posting on another thread how forex is soo illiquid compared to stock indices, we all have seen the fx market hugely impacted from various "news", that of course is nothing bad at all, it's just how currency market work.

I love forex, i've traded forex for 10 years now and it gave me a great time, great profits, and it made possible for me to have a great lifestyle, i've a big sense of thankfulness for this wonderful market that give soo many oportunities to the average Joe.

However, life is always new, always changing, and i found myself right now migrating from the loved fx market to a new (for me) market, more liquid, less "spiky", more calm one: the stock index markets.

I don't trust the us stock indices, they looks to me as "spiky" and illiquid as the fx market, and as the whole point here is to trade a market that is very liquid, looking around i've found what is my choice:

(from wikipedia)

- German Dax
The DAX (Deutscher Aktienindex (German stock index)) is a blue chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

- Euro Stoxx 50
The EURO STOXX 50 is a stock index of Eurozonestocks designed by STOXX, an index provider owned byDeutsche Brse Group and SIX Group. According to STOXX, its goal is "to provide a blue-chip representation of Supersector leaders in the Eurozone". It is made up of fifty of the largest and most liquid stocks. The index futures and options on the EURO STOXX 50, traded onEurex, are among the most liquid such products in Europe and the world.

Both have 1pip spread (on my broker), and we have an average daily range for dax that goes from 200 to 300pips, and Euro Stoxx around 100-120pips.

Their charts are very similar, perhaps the dax is a little bit more volatile and prone to wild moves than euro stoxx, yet nothing crazy compared to fx.

***Update:

- FTSE100
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" /ˈfʊtsiː/, is a share index of the 100 companieslisted on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization.

- CAC40
The CAC 40 (French: CAC quarante [kak kaʁɑ̃t]) (Cotation Assiste en Continu) is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on theEuronext Paris (formerly the Paris Bourse).

Both the ftse100 and the cac40 have a 1pip spread (on my broker) and an average daily range of around 140pips for CAC40 and 100pips for ftse100.

So we have 4 good stock indices to trade, they all looks very similar.

What about this thread:
This thread is open to anybody that do trade either the dax, the eustx50, the ftse100 and the cac40, everybody is free to post his/her trade calls, charts, analysis, ideas, opinions, comments, executed trades etc.

I will also post my opinions, trade calls, analysis, ideas, opinions, comments, and executed trades.
Every trading style is welcome (from the long-term trader to the 1pip scalper).

The only rule (please read carefully and observe this rule, otherwise there is a sure ban):
Only post about the above markets, no forex, no commodities, no anything else.

Best wishes to you!

So, the first day of dax trading.

Quite interesting, the differences with currencies are abyssal.

In fact it was quite a crazy day for dax, with a range of 482pips (wow what a day), the greece news that slightly impacted eur had on dax a huge impact.

First day of practice so just hit and runs, intraday trades, more or less of 10-50pips on average, some win, some loss, yet some profit has been made at the end of the day.

Sadly i didn't ride the wild upmove, i was buying just before the move, and expecting it, however as i'm still new to this kind of market so i don't trust my guts yet.

The interesting thing about stock indices is that they tend to move constantly, so there are fresh opportunities almost at any time.

I hope other people will post in this thread and share their stories and ideas etc.

Just a quick question.... Are you trading these on FX via CFD's or directly on Futures?

Thanks.

I'm trading on FX via CFD's, but i guess there is no difference, just the availability of trading them via CFD to have a better choice in terms of what lotsizes to use.

Anyway, second day of trading indices, not an exciting day like yesterday but somehow market moved (253pips dax range).

Again some win some loss still playing around and practicing, so far a profitable day (also better than yesterday).

I like indices, they are totally different than currencies in terms of how they move etc., still a lot to practice/study but i like them.

tunera, since you have been 10 years with forex, can you please give us some thoughts on what gave you the greatest profits in your forex trading. Thanks!

Of course, imo there is one thing you must do to survive and make money in forex:

1) focus on the big picture, keep a constant eye on daily charts, use the small tf's for entries (try to buy low and sell high) but use the big tf (like daily or 4h) to plan your trades.

2) if there is a strong trend (daily charts) in progress, go with it.

3) if there is not a strong trend (daily charts), price will go up or down in a random fashion (news, rumors, bullshits).

So i would say intraday trading forex is probably not going to offer you an edge, the only edge can be found in the big picture, but the big picture isn't always doing something (not always a clear trend), so it's not always possible to make good trades, and with good trades i mean trades that have a meaning and have 90+% probability of win (the ones where you can apply a 50x leverage and double your account easily and safely).

It is a good thing that you are for the big picture (daily charts). How about in the fundamental analysis trading, did you find a good idea based from a fundamentals approach?

By the way, how many years did it take before you became profitable in forex trading?

No, fundamental analysis is a joke (and technical analysis too).

Btw i don't consider myself "profitable" (don't even believe in the validity of such word), a trade (or many trades) can be profitables, not the trader.
I would say my profitability today isn't much different than it was on my first day of trading, sure i know more stuffs and make less mistakes, but nothing really changed at all.

Best wishes

Great topic, I will follow it!

Do you have any idea for the next week? If they can not agree tomorrow I think we shall test again the bottom around 10804 or hit a new low.

Thanks for sharing your experience tunera!

Crazy day for european indices, mainly a panic-buying day fueled by a greece-deal optimism (even if no deal has been reached today), i sold the rumors on the first half of the trading day (and closed with a nice profit), but somehow decided to sell again soon later inspired by the knowledge that no deal has been officially reached.

However, even without a deal, stocks managed to get again in panic-buy mode and went straight up 200pips.
Now, deal or no deal seems like european stocks are on the bid, so this lead me to the idea that being a seller is probably not the smartest option (even if as i [don't] know we may be down 400pips tomorrow, who knows!), anyway it's not worth the risk to hold sells in such a bullish environment.

Result: A loosing day.

Yet, being a seller on a market that went up almost 700 pips in the past 2 days and getting out with an overall acceptable loss make me feel not too much bad, we tried the sell-high scenario, it failed, but we survived quite well.

This indices stuff is still a very new thing to me so having a losing day is an expected price to pay in order to learn how to play this new game.

Still a little bit annoying though.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll make the loss back.

Gave DAX a tried for two weeks. I'm surprised by how much movement it has. The liquidity is surprising. Or maybe its just the Greece/EU thingy going on?

Hi Tunera may I ask what broker you are using please to trade the DAX and do you get a good spread and decent fills? many thanks

Hey tunera thanks for the thread. Yeah Love the DAX with the large movement and tight spreads! Love the way it plays on the 20, 40 60 80 and 00 levels - use these levels to trade reversals and had quite a few today.
Currently sitting in the short that failed to breach the 11200

Dax ranging between 11220 and 11180

I'm short from 11198 - US will more than likely pull this down more

DAX/Future
Daily 180/360

how is the Dax effected by the NFP report does it have any effect at all ion the DAX and what is the best time to trade with the DAX ????

Thank you guys great forum

Normally find it is the reverse for the EurUSD, so bad number for the USD normally bad for equities. So as you can see it's going down.

I like to trade it from 8 till 10 and then 14:30 to 16:00 - GMT - find it has most volume then

I've taken profit on my trade now - 70 pips - as might see some upward move now - and US indices starting to move higher