The IQFeed symbol list is a bit difficult to follow. eSignal symbol list gives a quicker overview of what is at each exchange >> click on SYMBOLS GUIDE from this page
http://www.esignalcentral.com/support/cs/default.asp example: go to CME and see what is in the CME package there. You can also see the trading hours and pick up a link to the exchange sites from there (exchange sites explain all the details if you have a year or two to dig through it all). Also you can use the eS symbols list here and also maybe get a basic look at the chart (limited chart) if you subscribe for free (the cost is advertising emails) - it can be handy if you want to see an example chart before subscribing to the exchange. As a rule of thumb - a) I prefer to trade instruments that run 24 hours a day OR for equities have a premarket (high vol stocks on the US exchanges). b) I agree you should go for liquidity - look for low spreads As a starting point the futures quoted by Yahoo are a pretty good guide as to which instruments have volume: http://finance.yahoo.com/actives?e=us look at US indices >> futures and commodities >> energy, metals etc If you are going to chase all the exchanges then you will pay a lot in exchange fees and use very little from each. If you pay for the exchanges that emulates Yahoo you still have a few on your plate. Chasing all of the exchanges has a high pain to gain ratio. It is mainly a choice between NewYork/Chicago and London anyway. IMO it is better to work in reverse: - follow what your broker trades (in some cases it is hard to find a broker who carries the instruments you want). - look at the charts your broker carries and decide from them which ones have the personality that suits your style/strategies (don't try to trade them all) - pick the hours you want to work e.g. London is afternoons for me :-) and USA is nights (ugh!) My simple solution was to go to a trader where I can trade multi instruments from one desk i.e. gold, oil, forex, world indices etc (for me that is IB or IGMarkets - I will try IB next year). I like Gold, Oil, equity indices like ES, SP500, ASX200, FTSE100, US top vol stocks or UH top vol stocks. Except for stocks I can trade them in 24 hour london time charts using CFD's which trade like a future or an option (without time decay and volatility crunch). brian_z --- In [email protected], "murthysuresh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > i am trying to find out what markets to focus on. when i look at > iqfeed symbology, they list a lot of markets which trade similar > commodities. is there any info that differentiates between these > markets so i can decide which one to focus on. > BMF (Brazilian Merc. & Futures Exchange) > CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) > CFE (CBOE Futures Exchange) > CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) > COMEX (Commodity Metals Exchange) > DME (Dubai Merchantile Exchange) > ENCOM (Euronext Commodities) > ENID (Euronext Index Derivatives) > ENIR (Euronext Interest Rates) > EUREX (Deutsche Borse Exchange) > EUREXNDX (Eurex Indexes) > ICEFC (ICE Futures Canada - Formerly WCE) > ICEFE (ICE Futures Europe - Formerly IPE) > ICEFI (ICE Indexes) > ICEFU (ICE Futures US - Formerly NYBOT) > KCBOT (Kansas City Board of Trade) > LME (London Metals Exchange) > MDEX (Bursa Malaysia Derivatives) > MGE (Minneapolis Grain Exchange) > NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) > SGX (Singapore International Monetary Exchange) > WTB (Warenterminborse Hannover) >
