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This question regards trading the ES in general. When I am generating a new chart for the ES 09-15 and look at the session template it gives me several choices: The list shows like this:
CME Global Index Futures RTH
CME US Index Futures RTH
CME US Index Futures ETH
CME US Index Futures ETH2
Default 24/5
Default 24/7
Would someone please explain what these are actually for, and which one is correct for the ES 09-15 day session
and which one is correct for the after hours session.
I wrote to Ninja Platform support asking the same question as above and got this answer:
Hello,
Thanks for your note.
By default within NinjaTrader, the ES instrument will utilize the CME US Index Futures ETH. If you are looking for only the RTH template, you would want to utilize the CME US Index Futures RTH.
Sincerely,
Drew
NinjaTrader Customer Service
So why is ETH the default... will ETH work both on day and after hours just as well.
If someone could give a clear explanation of all of this, it would be very helpful.
Thank you,
wonton 8/8/2015
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Sure. Take a look at Session Manager from the Tools menu tab.
Here's the definition of CME US Index Futures ETH (Electronic Trading Hours) in Session Manager (times are US Central Time):
This is the time period that the ES can be traded. It includes both the "day" and "after hours" sessions.
The situation in ES is actually a little tricky, because the actual trading times are like this:
Weekdays, trading is halted at 3:15 PM Central until 3:30. It then reopens from 3:30 until 4:15. That's the end of the trading day. It then stays closed until 5:00 PM, when it opens for the new trading day. On Fridays it doesn't open for the new day; that happens on Sunday at 5:00 PM. So the "ETH" session setting passes over that little pause between 3:15 and 3:30, but it includes the correct starting and ending times. Note that all the hours you can trade ES are in that timespan.
This is wacked-out and used to be much simpler: the trading day would close at 3:15 Central, and open the new day 15 minutes later at 3:30. End of story. They changed it a couple of years ago, keeping the 15-minute pause after 3:15, but adding all the other complications. I recall the reasoning was to make the times consistent with other instruments, or something like that....
So that is why there is an ETH2 session setting. It has the old hours. The point of that was to have something that would cover the times of the old contracts, which now is not useful and should not be used any more. But here it is:
You can set up your chart for the Regular Trading Hours (RTH), which match the pit hours (or "day" hours) and are just about the same as the NY Stock Exchange also, except the NY Exchange closes at 3:00 Central, and the CME "pit" hours close a 3:15 Central. These are the simplest hours, 8:30 AM - 3:15 PM Central:
You can also use the generic 24/7 or 24/5 session definitions. The only problem is that they don't correspond to the actual trading hours. They would capture all the trades, just wouldn't show the true session start/end times (session breaks would be at midnight, instead of when they actually are, and some indicators which depend on session times, such as previous day's closing price, will be off):
The default for ES is ETH, because it gives the full around-the-clock trading, with session breaks marked where trading sessions actually break. Sometimes people will only want the "regular" or "day" or "pit" session (different words for the same thing), and then they will choose the RTH session, which will cut out any trading before 8:30 AM and after 3:15 Central time.
That's a lot to go through to come to the conclusion that you generally just use the default ETH and it will be OK, unless you only want the "regular" hours (which is when the most trading is done).... But that's the story.
