Enter & Exit Info

1. When do you get in and get out of each market?

Our prices are the pit traded day sessions. If a market is not pit traded like cocoa then we use the electronic day session.

For tracking purposes we enter & exit all our trading strategies at the close of the day.

Please note: for tracking purposes, we also always "shorten" the time window if a published entry or exit date falls on a weekend or holiday when the markets are closed. So, on entries you would enter on the next following trading day and on exits, you would execute on the previous trading day.

2. How do I calculate my local time for entering & exiting trades on the CLOSE in my country?

1. Google - Trading Hours for the Exchange for the market you are trading.
For example, trading hours at the CMEGROUP where the Live Cattle futures markets trade can be found here:
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading_hours/commodities-hours.html
Please note: trading hours are in U.S. Central Time, the time in Chicago, where CME Group is headquartered.

To calculate this into your local time, you can use this world clock time zone converter here:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converted.html?month=3&day=14&year=2011&hour=13&min=55&sec=0&p1=64&p2=236

Your broker should also be able to better help you with this.

3. I am from Italy and trade using the spreads with MOC orders. I was checking the CMEGroup web site in order to see closing hours for submiting pit orders, but did not find anything. The problem is that the MOC orders have to be sent upon closing hours in the States, however I am in Italy and cannot figure out at what time to send the order which should be about 20mins before closing.

Normally, you are best off to enter a price limit order. You may wish to find out the bid/ask (from your broker?) so that you know about where you can get execution (spreads do not necessarily trade at the price difference of the individual contracts). Furthermore, market orders at the open and at the close will get filled but usually badly. As you can imagine, that is precisely when the floor brokers are busiest, under the most pressure, and have the least amount of time to "work and order." An MOC order says "get it done" --- the implication being "at whatever price is available." Someone will always give you a fill but usually to your disadvantage.