Anyone here trading SET50 Index Futures?

[Lorin]

Anyone here trading SET50 Index Futures? I'm looking into them, but by now is not seems to be a good instrument with margin of almost 100K Baht per contract, low volumes and less than perfect broker software to trade them. Please share your experience, thank you in advance!

[fletchsmile]

I rarely trade SET50 futures. Yes the margins are around 90k to 100k a contract. Volumes are low if you compare to large western exchanges.

I prefer SET50 options. For writing them, depending on what you write margins can be more like 10k per contract depending. Software I use with KGI is OK, and then there is Setttrade software which is OK for some analysis.

Volumes are less than futures, but I prefer a more easy going pace. Also I prefer the more strategic nature of options in creating pay-off profiles. Would like more volume though. They made it worse when they changed the contract specs. about a year or so back. The intervals are now 25 points instead of 10, plus they now do the 3 closest month (Nov/Dec/Jan) and one quarter (Mar), instead of Mar,Jun,Sep,Dec quarters. No-one really trades the monthlies, so it is mainly the nearest quarter only out of the 4 now that gets used, and the other 3 are a waste of space...

Not a particularly sophisticated market, but then again no bad thing sometimes for retail investors.

Still some nice gains to be made, but limited by volumes. I made 49% on my capital in Q2 and part of Q3 this year. But didn't have the time/opportunity before and after that. Given the SET50 has trended downwards by about 5% - 10% over 6 months, it's nice to be able to make a little money on the downside or in flat markets on SET via the options, as I have large equity exposures via long mutual funds which dwarf what I do on options

Cheers

Fletch:)

Edited November 12, 2013 by fletchsmile

[Lorin]

Thank you for your input Fletch, will take a look at the options!