Choosing instruments

Which markets to work on, what separates a futures contract from a stock, and the checks worth running before committing to either.

1. 01
   Futures models and equities models: why they differA stock and a futures contract are different instruments in ways that change what a measurement means. One set of settings across both is a decision, usually an unexamined one.
2. 02
   Tick size, contract months, and rolloverFutures contracts expire, and the continuous chart you are looking at was assembled from several of them. How that was done affects every historical level.
3. 03
   Liquidity and spread, and why some tickers read poorlyIn a thin instrument, a chart records the absence of trading as though it were the presence of agreement. Every level-based reading inherits that error.
4. 04
   Picking your two instrumentsThe most common mistake is picking two that move together, which gives you one position twice.

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