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Im a new trader, and im currently trading with ITFX (investtechfx). They have very low spreads: 0.5 pips for 6 majors, and all the other currency pairs have very tight spreads too. Also scalping, hedging is allowed, no requotes so far. People have some complaints about the withdrawal taking too long. i will have to see it myself. Will make a withdrawal in the next few days, and see how it goes.

Why is the E-mini a good indicator of the general market. please details?

I follow a web site that trades the markets live each day. He uses the s and p Emini to watch whether the market is going up or down. The emini is.futures. why wouldnt he use the regular s and p 500 instead od emini? Is there a difference?

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He won't use the S&P 500 Index because you can't trade an index.

Difference? There is always a spread between the futures and the cash index. When the spread drops below fair value or moves above it by a large enough margin (discount or premium), then one of the choices (stocks or futures) will become more attractive than the other, and they will sell one and buy the other by a process of arbitrage.

Sometimes, the futures pit in Chicago and the stocks trading in New York go in opposite directions, or in the same direction, but at different speeds. When that happens, the spread changes. The two prices will always be different until expiration of the futures contract.

Price in the ES can have gaps, giving additional information, whereas the index usually doesn't. A Gap Fill is a popular trade.

The volume on the ES contract is another helpful confirming indicator.

It's a good indicator because it tracks 500 of the largest stocks in America. That's a broad enough sample to give a good "average" without being able to manipulate a select few stocks. Everyone accepts the fact that what the S&P does, so the market goes.

But the emini blows up more traders than any other contract other than Forex. Those huge volumes make it difficult to compete against mega institutions. You won't get a fill unless price moves through your price, while the little guy easily gets picked and whipsawed.

Those .25 ticks on the emini is ridiculous, rather than .10 ticks for everything else.

If you look at the Average Yearly Tick Movement chart across all the major index futures. Lowest rank? The S&P e-mini vs. the Dow, Nasdaq, Russell small and mid-cap.

Try jumping in and trade amongst the big boys in a market that really doesn't have great range, that forces a lot of subjectivity due to the 0.25 ticks, and you have a formula for disaster.

More people should start trading the Russell.