Gold - Mini vs micro

[steve2222]

In NT 7 Instrument Manager there is YG which is called 'mini sized Gold Futures'. A chart will load data for the April contract and Market Analyser says it last traded on Friday at $1357.4 with a daily vol. of 3210. Further, Instrument Manager says this is on the CBOT exchange.

1/ The web link in Instrument Manager to CBOT is invalid (as is the web link for lots of other CME related contracts).

2/ To my knowledge CBOT is now part of the CME group.

3/ CME have no such product called 'mini sized Gold Futures' and CME does not recognise the symbol YG. So what data/instrument is NT displaying via ZenFire?

4/ CME have an instrument called 'E-micro Gold Futures' with the symbol MGC (which is not listed in Instrument Manager). MGC last traded on Friday at $1357.2 and had a daily vol. of 1185 contracts.

5/ Can you please shed some light on the difference between these two instruments and where the detail for 'YG' is on the CME/CBOT site.

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi steve2222,

Thank you for your post.

The YG contract trades on the NYSE Liffe exchange:

http://www.nyseliffeus.com/precious-metals

Whereas with the MGC contract on the CME exchange you would want to add that instrument to the database.
NinjaTrader comes pre-loaded with the most commonly traded instruments however, you may find the need to add an additional instrument. Please follow the instructions below to add an instrument in the Instrument Manager.

• From the NinjaTrader Control Center window select the menu Tools > Instrument Manager
• Press the "New" button
• *Enter in instrument specific information and select the appropriate exchange (add Default exchange for equities in addition to the actual exchange)
• Fill in any relevant information under the "Misc" tab such as symbol mapping for your target connectivty provider
• Press the "OK" button

[steve2222]

Thanks Ryan - that explains YG .. well partly.

Why does NT7 list YG in Instrument Manager as belonging to CBOT (CME) and even contains the web link to the CBOT/CME site? See attached image from my NT7 Instrument Manager, Whoops I can't attach an image - how do you attach images on this forum?

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi steve2222,

Unfortunately, I can't answer the question of 'why', but I will forward your comments on this on to development for further consideration as a future change.

We appreciate the feedback.

[aquarian1]

IB is displaying the Liffe mini gold 33oz with the symbol YG
IB stopped trading the ECBOT gold contracts.

There is also the microgold contract 10 oz
Symbol at IB is MCG
IB sheet

http://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/contract_info/v3.2/index.php?action=Details&site=IB&conid=79705733&detlev=2&sess=1301865989

Exchange sheet (CME)

http://efills.cbot.com/trading/metals/precious/e-micro-gold_contract_specifications.html

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi aquarian1,

Thank you for your post.

And in researching this I was able to find the contract specs for the YG contract:

http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/minifut041210.pdf

Presently the specifications that are defined for the YG contract are the same, but I have forwarded a change in the default exchange to development though it is possible to edit the instrument's exchange for different provider's if the default settings do not work:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/index.html?editing_instruments.htm

[waverider]

Mini Gold Contracts

I would further like to add that this topic confuses the heck out of me every time I revisit it.

One issue I have is that with all the exchange mergers, exchange names in software no longer match the reality and it's very confusing. But that's off topic.

Ninja Trader comes with a default GC (full size gold - CME - understood), YG (gold mini - should be NYSE-LIFE I believe but says E-CBOT in Ninja) and ZG.

- What the heck is ZG ?

From my understanding there are two Gold Mini Contracts:

QO - Traded on CME - Easy to see contracts specs on CME website, very thinly traded, probably not worth trading.

YG - Traded on NYSE - VERY DIFFICULT to find specs for on website, although a link was provided on this forum. WHERE can I find specs that show me daily vol traded on their website?

QUESTION: When I load YG in Ninja, I see no level II, is that just because it's so thin? Is this contract tradeable even for swing trading?

What is ZG in Ninja?? Which exchanges to I need enabled to view the gold mini contracts?

Does anyone trade these gold mini's or is it better to trade them SPOT through an FX broker?

Thanks for clarifying

wave

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi waverider,

Thank you for your post.

Regarding the ZG contract you refer to the specs at the following pages:
ZG: http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/goldfut101027.pdf
YG: http://www.nyseliffeus.com/sites/lif...gold031411.pdf

Each of those contracts was accessible from the following portal from the exchange which should include data:

http://www.nyseliffeus.com/precious-metals

The contracts are NYSE Liffe, former ECbot, and that update has been reflected within the default settings of NinjaTrader.

As for the Level II data for the YG contract can you please clarify the provider you are using, but in testing this contract I do notice the thin volume.