I’m new to this site, I paid the fee for registration and now can’t trade properly. I wrote e-mails to Matthew, I searched the website, I searched the forums and still don’t know how to find ticker symbols for stocks and idices. I don’t even know how to trade Dow Jones. Can somebody tell me how you do that?
Hi, Nikola:
C2 doesn’t actually yet have the ability to look up stock symbols or ETF symbols based on company name. It’s sort of assumed that you have a resource elsewhere which you use to figure out the stock symbols you want to trade. We’ll see about adding a capability to C2 to help with this, but in the meantime, try one of the free online finance web sites to look up symbols for stocks/ETFs:
finance.google.com
finance.yahoo.com
Regarding the trading of “indexes” – you can only trade on C2 what you can trade in a real brokerage account. At a real broker, you don’t actually trade an index. You can trade a financial instrument based on an index, however. So, for example, you can trade a futures contract based on the Dow Jones or S&P index. ALso, there are many popular ETFs which are designed to mimic indexes. The “Spyders” and “Diamonds” are popular, for example (symbol SPY or DIA for the S&P and DJ index, respectively.)
Finally, while stock/ETF symbols are standardized across the industry, futures symbols are not. For that reason, if you choose to trade a futures contract, you’ll need to use C2 symbology. You can look up C2 futures symbols here:
www.collective2.com/symbology_futures
Hope this helps
Matthew
Thanks.
But still I think it’s possible for you to create a list of the most often used instruments. For example the S&P 500 index is available if you manage to guess that you have to type “SPX”. However, the same index has ticker ^GSPC in http://finance.yahoo.com/ and .INX in finance.google.com
As you can see, it’s not a simple task to find out what you need, and I’m sure it would help to every new user if you make a list of tickers for the most often used instruments.
I still don’t know what I have to type in order to get Dow Jones Industrial Average. It’s ^DJA in yahoo and .DJI in google, but they don’t work here.
But my point is that there is no such thing as trading an index. You can’t trade the S&P 500 index on C2. Nor can you trade it at a broker. You can trade a futures contract based on that index, or you can trade an ETF based on that index, but you can’t buy or sell an index itself. So the symbols you are talking about (^GSPC) – while they help you learn the mathematical value of an index – are not actionable here at C2 or at any broker.
you need to consider studying the book before trying to take the exam.
Why pay a fee and list a system when you do not even understand how to use C2???
When you try to attract customers, do you expect to have them trade money while you are experimenting on the functionality of the system?
There is a learning curve involved when trying to practice a profession, especially trading. And based on the first few posts…
"But my point is that there is no such thing as trading an index."
And this was not my point. My point was that in your site there is no such thing as a list of the most traded instruments. I don’t care if they are ETF of S&P 500 or weather futures.
But since you say that there is no such thing as trading an index, then the information for the SPX that is shown on the screen is wrong. Check this screenshot:
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7679/spxindex.jpg
"Why pay a fee and list a system when you do not even understand how to use C2??? "
I appreciate your sincere concern about my money and the way I spend them.
I know how C2 functions. But I think it would be helpful for everyone to have a list of tickers. Do you agree?
I was expressing concern for your potential subscribers and their money…
Please do not trade symbol “SPX.” It is not a valid symbol, and it won’t give you the results you want. I know, I know – it is unfortunate that C2 allowed you to enter that symbol without throwing an error, but try your best to hear what I’m saying: you need to use either an ETF symbol or a futures contract symbol for the S&P500.
Try either SPY (which is the symbol for the ETF) or @ESZ9 (which is the symbol for the December futures contract).
I can’t get more helpful and explicit than that.
"I was expressing concern for your potential subscribers and their money…"
Me too, this is why I’m asking questions. How am I supposed to get this information otherwise?
