I have another naive question. On Thursday night and before Friday morning, after Trump posted on twitter saying he contracted Covid-19 around 12:50AM. The news media was saying the US stock market would fall when the market opened on Friday morning by looking at the future. I have never traded future, so I really don't know how you can look at the future when the market is not open. Is the future market still open even when the US stock market is closed? Does the media just look at S&P 500 future?
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2"Is the future market still open even when the US stock market is closed?" Yes. See: How can index futures trade 24/7 when the index doesn't change? – Flux Oct 03 '20 at 18:58
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I see. Then, where should I go to look at E-Mini S&P 500 Futures? Is E-Mini S&P 500 Future the most useful one to look at? Also, I assume future means a future time, like one month later, two months later and etc. So, which future time should I look at? – Jerry Zhang Oct 03 '20 at 19:41
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E-mini S&P 500 Futures Contract Specifications, E-mini S&P 500 Futures Quotes. – Flux Oct 03 '20 at 20:24
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Why was the number on the second link updated at 16:39:56 CT 02 Oct 2020? Is it supposed to be constantly updated 24/7? – Jerry Zhang Oct 03 '20 at 20:41
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Also, if you could explain a little bit how to interpret the numbers, it will be great. – Jerry Zhang Oct 03 '20 at 21:13
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Most types of contracts begin trading at 6 PM EST on Sunday and close around 5 PM on Friday. Each sector has its own trading hours as well as the length of a trading break on week days (15 minutes to an hour) in the 4 PM to 5 PM area.
The futures don't predict the market. They are a reflection of the market. So when the news media was saying the US stock market would fall when the market opened on Friday morning, they were telling you what had already happened. If the futures recovered overnight then this 'prediction' would not come to pass.
For example, when it became apparent late on election night in 2016 that Trump was going to be elected, the DJIA futures were down over 1,000 points. By the next morning, all of the loss had been recovered and the DJIA ended up about 250 points that day.
Bob Baerker
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I see. Does every stock also have a future? I don't have permission to trade futures in Interactive Broker. So, I don't know whether IB has a future for every stock. – Jerry Zhang Oct 03 '20 at 22:25
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Here's a list of the various futures that trade on the Chicago Merc – Bob Baerker Oct 03 '20 at 22:38
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https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/e-mini-sandp500.html In this SP500 mini link here, it says Change=-1.50. Because SP500 mini is traded 24 hours, I am wondering when it says Change=1.50, what is the reference point? Is the reference point the price at 6:00AM? – Jerry Zhang Oct 07 '20 at 02:47