Seeing a 1,000+ contract trade in the 10 Year Notes is a common occurrence, and doesn’t move the price needle. It doesn’t take a big market order to come in and wipe them out, and if that order is for 500 contracts, it’ll send the equity product spiking as it just clears out price after price. Something like an equity index (ES, YM, NQ) might have less than 10 contracts sitting on the bid or ask at any given point. There is also high liquidity in treasuries relative to other products. Sometimes the 10 Year Note if I want a more calm, pick off a few ticks type of day.

But if it’s extra rowdy on a given day, I trade the 30 Year Bond. The Ultra Bond is the most rowdy, and where I usually find myself. I like to gauge the products in terms of how rowdy they are. Contracts on future prices of instruments.Īlong with the low volatility, you can pick the treasury that is best suited for you. It represents the treasury product with the longest time line before maturity, so factors that impact interest rates will have a bigger impact in the longer run. The Ultra Bond is the most volatile of the products, but it makes sense. The 5 Year Note for example is even less volatile. The shorter term the treasury product, the less volatility as well.

You won’t see the 30 Year Treasury spike 100 ticks at open. In general, relative to other products like the equity indices, they are lower volatility.