Thursday, April 29, 2010

Visualizing a contract

1:30pm CDT - So many of us futures traders (me anyways) don't really know, in real physical terms, what we are trading. So I did some research and found out something to help me visualize a contract better.

1 ZS = 5000 bushels = 46546 gallons = 6222 cu.ft.
Value ~$10/bushel
1 CL = 1000 barrels = 42000 gallons = 5615 cu.ft.
Value ~$85/barrel

If you own a 1600 sq.ft. house (close to the American norm), 1 contract would fill up every room of your house with either crude oil or soybeans nearly up to your chest! And you'd have $85000 worth of crude or $50000 worth of beans making your house much more valuable, neglecting the clean up costs of course!

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No crude trades today and should have had only 1 ZS trade. I also overrode my targeted exit and got out 2 ticks sooner only to watch it trade a tick through my target seconds later. Oh well. The near fatal mistake occurred later when I heard a cha-ching (luckily I was at my computer). I didn't cancel all my earlier orders which I normally do and got filled on a bean short. But I flattened right away for a tick profit. :)

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $1063(12)
RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:12
Net $P/L:1063
Wins:2
Losses:0
Win%:100
Avg$Win:532
Avg$Loss:0

3 comments:

  1. Impressive consistency :)

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  2. Yeah, your consistency is getting really good. Seems like you've really refined your edge. Only time will tell whether it pans out like your testing has shown.

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  3. Thanks guys. If I have an edge it is very slight but I'll take what I can get!

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