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Strategies & Market Trends : The Player's Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Pitera who wrote (115)	11/3/1999 11:40:00 PM
From: Gersh Avery	Respond to of 11513

Not close enough .. I should have caught it two days ago .. And THEY should have caught it within five min after it started. After all .. they are the data folks .. data is their business.

To: John Pitera who wrote (115)	11/4/1999 12:30:00 AM
From: Jon Khymn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11513

What the heck are they playing here??? Part 1 I am sure some of you lurkers asked the same thing. This thread's been #1 on the hot subject for past few days, but I had no idea what the heck is going on here... So I asked a few players and here are some of the answers I got. Hope it helps... ------ They are playing S&P500 index future. How to trade S&P500 index? You can trade the S&P 500 index and many other indexes through one of 3 vehicles: 1) SPY (listed Amer. Stock Exch), which stands for S&P Depository receipts. These trade at exactly 1/10 the value of the S&P 500, so 1 share costs about $136. It moves up and down in direct sync with the S&P 500. 2) Options on the S&P 500. Calls or puts. Buy calls if you think it's going up, and buy puts if you think it's going down. The big danger with options is you have to pay a time and volatility premium to get them, unless you're buying a deep in the money. But you get more leverage on your money than by just buying the SPY. Grab an option characterists book from your broker for a more indepth description. 3) Futures on the S&P 500, traded on the CME in Chicago. You can start with an E-mini, that gives you $50 for every point you capture, or takes from your account $50 for every point you lose. So if you buy @ 1355 and sell @ 1365, you made 10 pts. X $50/pt= $500.00 made. You would need $6,000 in a futures account to be able to purchase/trade an emini. This futures trading is what you are seeing us do on the Players Club thread. Except the contracts we're trading are worth $250 per point, which is the standard S&P contract. Each contract requires $25,000 in an account to trade.