Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with futures

Was the Rockport Institute worth the money?

Rubbstone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:26:00 -0800

Anyone ever used the Rockport Institute before? Was it helpful?

Are there any fuel-bank / prepaid gasoline companies in Seattle or WA?

-harlequin- — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:21:25 -0800

Pre-paid gasoline (aka fuel banks) - how can I do this in the Seattle area? Fuelbank sounds perfect, except for the minor detail of possibly being a scam(?). First Fuel Banks only has a few locations in a distant state. Do I have any options that will work in the real world, in my area? I am Joe Public, not a business or organization.

Stock data for use in black box trading application?

Hypocrites — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:12:55 -0800

Stock data for use in black box trading application? I just need raw data, the current tick and the technical analysis for each tick and I need the data to be real-time. I would prefer an API with it, but if not that's fine. All I need is data, no other analysis or "features" of any kind. (e.g. no Bloomberg Terminal, Fidessa, CQG, any variation therof) This data needs to be easily manipulated in my own application that I'll be developing in C#. Thanks in advance!

Best source of streaming data for futures?

Hypocrites — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:50:49 -0800

I need to get streaming futures data to use in software I am developing. What's the best source? I'll be using the C# programming language. I'd like to get streaming quotes for all futures and commodities, simultaneously.

How do Bid and Ask work on Intrade?

wastelands — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:55:56 -0800

How exactly does the Bid/Ask work on Intrade.com? So last night I bought a bunch of shares of "Dow down at least 25 points by close on Monday" with my remaining play money. I was excited this morning when I saw the markets were way down. I was about to quadruple my money. But then on Intrade, no one had sold me the shares I requested. I bought them last night when there was no Ask price. Other people had bid 25 points ($2.5/share?), so I did the same.

How does that work? Do all contracts start off at 50 points when they go live? Had that one not started until opening bell?

If anyone could clarify the whole Bid/Ask thing, I would appreciate it. Intrade's help pages only talk about the bare minimum. I googled on the terms and get the general idea, but obviously I don't get it enough. I'm missing out on a huge (virtual) payday today. :-(

Got any advice for trading Futures?

dragontail — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:05:57 -0800

MarketFilter: Got any advice for trading Futures? Help a newbie! I've entered the BP trading game. which is a virtual futures trading game for university students. According to their site, I'll be able to trade live futures prices for ICE Brent Futures and ICE Gasoil Futures over a period of a few weeks.

I've got some idea what to look for when trading stocks (PEs and other bits of fundamental analysis), but have never traded futures before. Have any of you guys got any advice?

[forex filter] Who knows how many euros one dollar will buy next summer? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller??

deejay jaydee — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:36:08 -0800

What do currency speculators think the euro-dollar exchange rate will be in June 2008? Are there online sources that currency speculators use to project or predict exchange futures? Can non-traders see these sources? Am I asking for something that just doesn't exist??? I've seen at least a couple of folks here on the green express some expertise in foreign exchange and currency trading. And I'm not interested in engaging in such trades, but I do have a professional opportunity to travel to Europe next summer, and in order to put together the most iron-clad proposal for funding from my boss, I kind of need to know what currency traders *think* the dollar-euro exchange rate is likely to be in June 2008. (I work at a well-funded, but appropriately tight-fisted NFP.)

Now, I know that the actual, honest answer is "who in the f@ck knows?! (and now geddoff my lawn!!)" But at the same time, I can't believe that currency speculators simply guess at this stuff . . . they must base their predictions on some sort of data. (Mustn't they? Eek.) Is this data privately held? Does it result from ungodly derivatives and financial models only slightly less complex than your average Rube Goldberg machine? Or is there some sort of secret website run by the Trilateral Commission? (Who, of course, must preordain these sorts of things [responsibly, of course]. Oh, and btw, if there is such a TLC site, can you send me an invite via MeFi Mail? We'll be BFF! I promise!!!)

But to return to the serious side of my question, I found lots of discussion on how to make/lose a ton of money in forex by searching the green (and the internets) . . . but I didn't see anybody talking about sources for the data that trader and speculators base their assumptions or predictions on. Can a simple, honest, international traveler get a bead on where the euro is likely to be in June 2008?

I'm sure this is one of these impossible questions . . . but it can't be most stupidly impossible question asked here today . . . can it?? I mean, I know if there were an ironclad site for this stuff, then everybody in the world would be using it and making jillions of dollars trading currencies. And I also know that YANMFA, and that MMWV, and all of the other acronyms that we use here in lieu of "watch your six." But at the same time, is it really the case that currency speculators base all of their models simply by following financial headlines? There isn't some sort of predictive market for this field? One that I can peek at??

Bonus points for anyone who can explain currency futures to a total financial numbskull (like myself).

TradeSports.com Legal in America?

sebrenner — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:37:37 -0800

Is it against the law for US citizens or residents to trade on overseas futures markets such as TradeSports.com? Many view these types of prediction markets as gambling or betting. Does anyone have any experience with the US legal system's view of US residents and citizens participating in these sorts of prediction markets?

Futures trading software help

sohcahtoa — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:42:54 -0800

My (retired) father-in-law is interested in daytrading futures from home. He's been playing with IB's TWS and has been using eSignal for a few years. Is there other software he should investigate? He not very quick with the computer, "right-click" still poses challenges for him. I'm willing to provide tech support but I'm several states away. I'll set up a remote control facility on his system if needed. I was out there this weekend install and upgrading the above software, and wondered if there are other products he should look into. Any good discussion forums for the technology, not polluted with "hot tips"?

He's retired from Wall Street and very aware of the risks involved.

Simulated stock market games.

Flat Feet Pete — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 19:34:50 -0800

I've been fascinated for a while with stiff like tradesports.com and the ill-fated DARPA terrorism futures market, and got to thinking about building a fake, toy futures market. There are systems out there that simulate markets, but they're either simple portfolio charters or they have randomly wobbling shares. I'm much more interested in valuations created by groups of users gaming on the outcome of real events.

Ideally, as I'm very lazy, someone will have written one of these already, but I've googled away and had no joy. It could be me not knowing the lingo used to describe these things.

Failing this can anybody recommend a framework to work within? I'm thinking of something (probably the usual php/mysql) with e-mail/users/password recovery etc. built in for me to start from. Maybe the toy market would be best developed as a plug in to something? I've been thinking about a pen and paper version, but I'm not sure how to merge the fact that pen and paper lets you have cool tokens with the liquidity you need for a market.

As for a code version I'm happy drawing charts etc. but if there was a way to have more work done for me, that would definitely be good. Also if it gets to a give-awayable state, people could be referred to the help for the existing system when fighting mysql / php issues.

Thanks in advance mighty meta brain.