most eurodollar traders are always watching how the respective butterfly trades regarding their pit. for example, traders in the front month pit will watch the m4-u4-z4 butterfly and will perform some type of arbitrage if this spread gets out of line with the way the outrights are trading. the butterflies are not as volatile as any spread containing two contracts, such as a 3mo or 6mo spread. basically, if you are trading eurodollars, on or off the floor, you are always looking for another contract to hedge against. it is very tough to make it in this market if you are not a spreader. the cool thing is that there are so many combinations in this market it never gets old trading these things.
very true about packs and bundles, one of the most successful traders in the back month pit of euros is leslie henner burns. that's right, a woman. if you saw her in person you would wonder how someone of her size survives in there. just goes to show that in this market it is more about brains and ability to think very quickly than physical size. or look at the options pit, the biggest trader in there is don wilson, a modern day doogie howser, the guy graduated from University of Chicago in about 2 years. not bad for traders who are supposed to be big, dumb, and stupid. if you want to play in the eurodollar market you are up against some of the smartest and most sophisticated traders in the world. good luck.
Is there any book or articles where I can learn this strategy to paper trade it. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but willing to learn and give it a shot.
i know there is a book that just came out by galen burghardt called the "eurodollar futures and options" handbook. it may discuss some of the strategies mentioned in the other posts.
Chicago Electronic Trading Scorecard for May 24, 2004 CBOT: 55.89% CME: 70.52% CME Eurodollars: 44.57% CME Currency Products: 67.72% CBOT Fed Funds: 21.91% CBOT Options: 2.21% CME Options: .87% Notes: The CBOE Futures Exchange traded 1594 VIX futures yesterday and open interest is now 3961 in that new contract. Eurex US traded 517 contracts yesterday. Also, Liffe Eurodollars nearly reached the 50,000 open interest level with yesterdayâs trade. Open interest stood at 49,713 contracts as of yesterdayâs close and Liffe traded 11,153 Eurodollars yesterday. The CBOT traded a total of just 34 Bund, Bobl and Schatz contracts yesterday. EURODOLLAR GLOBEX RTH VOLUME AS PERCENT OF TOTAL RTH VOLUME ---AVG PERCENTAGE--- CONTRACT MON TUES WEDS THRS FRI CUR WEEK LAST WEEK JUN04 40.79 .00 .00 .00 .00 40.79 40.06 SEP04 54.19 .00 .00 .00 .00 54.19 48.15 DEC04 61.24 .00 .00 .00 .00 61.24 58.18 MAR05 60.43 .00 .00 .00 .00 60.43 56.19 JUN05 56.65 .00 .00 .00 .00 56.65 49.29 SEP05 54.80 .00 .00 .00 .00 54.80 37.79 DEC05 35.06 .00 .00 .00 .00 35.06 33.21 MAR06 13.88 .00 .00 .00 .00 13.88 24.06 ***** A Eurodollar local told me last week that every winning trade he did on the previous day had been on the handheld terminal connected to Globex and all his losing trades were in the pit. Not statistically significant enough to draw any conclusions by, but enough to see why Globex Eurodollar trading is on the rise.