Who to call??
Every now and then I get a retail question that’s so obvious, that I kick myself for not posting it to a FAQs page before. The line of questioning runs- “OK, I like the idea of hedging in home futures, but my broker (at Brand X) doesn’t let me trade in the contracts. Do you know any brokers that do?”
While I’ve posted three names (and logos) on the right-hand column of my home page, let me answer with a few words on each.
RJ O’Brien has been my mainstay clearing firm since starting to trade housing futures. Their Vantage system allows for easy trade entry, market quotes, and calendar spread orders -either GTC or Day. I hear that other traders also use them. Neither I nor the other traders have nothing but good things to say about them.
I stumbled on to Long Leaf in one of those changing seats situations when I was looking for someone to take inter-city spread orders GTC. The folks at Long Leaf (who clear through Vision) were relentless in making this happen. They have access to a variety of platforms and while I haven’t been using them long, my experience has been very satisfying.
Finally, I posted TFS out of respect for the early work that they did in the early years of home price futures (and option) trading. I sense that they have moved on to other, bigger fish, but we wouldn’t have these contracts today without their efforts.
Contact me here (johnhdolan@homepricefutures.com) , and I’ll steer you to some good people at each firm.
Net, this is a thin list. I’d like to add to it, particularly as RPX trading approaches. If anyone knows of other clearing firms that have been regularly involved in home price futures, please pass me their names and I’ll post information on my site. Somebody has to be have been on the other side of my trades.
