SPY Trading Strategies and Systems | ETF and Futures – (S&P 500 + ES + SPX)

Last Updated on July 16, 2022

SPY Trading Strategies and Systems

SPY (SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPX)) is the oldest ETF still in existence. It started trading as long back as 1993 and has thus a long track record. SPY tracks the S&P 500 and you can thus use it both for short-term trading and long-term investing.

SPY is a great alternative to trading futures. Two good reasons for that are low slippage and commissions. Moreover, you can easily adjust the size to reflect your overall capital. For example, the SPX futures contract may be too big for you, but the minimum size is one contract. Opposite, you can just buy an odd lot in SPY – one share (or more). Most brokers allow that and for very low commissions, like Interactive Brokers, for example.

We are trading SPY and the S&P 500 mini contract (ES), and we have since 2012 published many free trading strategies. Why do we trade SPY and stocks?

One of the reasons why we trade SPY (SPX), is that mean reversion trading strategies work well. It has not historically worked all the time, but over the last three decades, this type of trading has worked extremely well. Another advantage is the overnight tailwind. Since SPY’s inception in 1993, practically all the gains have come from owning SPY from the close to the next morning. We have covered this in a separate article about night trading startegies.

Below are some of the free SPY trading strategies we have published over the years. Additionally, we offer our best trading edges as a subscription service where we send you one potential strategy (idea) every month. You can find more info on our Monthly Trading Edges.

Free SPY trading strategies:

• The Turnaround Tuesday trading strategy
• Conclusions about trend-following the S&P 500
• A long-term pullback trading strategy in the S&P 500
• Lower highs and lower lows pattern (trading strategy)
• Higher highs and higher lows pattern (trading strategy)
• NR7 trading strategy – The Narrow Range 7 (we improved it)
• Four up days in a row – S&P 500
• A simple trend-following system/strategy on the S&P 500 (By Meb Faber and Paul Tudor Jones)
• S&P 500 mean reversion using IBS and RSI (Classical mean reversion strategy S&P 500)
• What is an unfilled gap in trading? Are they profitable?
• Buy when the S&P 500 makes new intraday high? (Intraday High Breakout Trading Strategy)
• RSI SPY trading strategy (RSI(2) on SPY)
• Monday Reversal Trading Strategy In The S&P 500 And Nasdaq (Trend Reversal)
• End of month trading strategy in the S&P 500 – update
• 3 day low trading strategy in ETFs
• Does volume really matter in the S&P 500? (A volume-based trading strategy in the S&P 500)
• When both Thursday and Friday are down in SPY (S&P 500 reversal trading strategy)
• The failed bounce trading strategy (A failed bounce is normally followed by rising prices)
• The high and low divergence day trading strategy
• The bottom of the range trading strategy
• The momentum day trading strategy in the S&P 500 (SPY) during the last hour
• The 5-day low and low of the range trading strategy (S&P 500 mean reversion)
• Opening gaps in SPY/S&P 500, part 3, the anatomy of fading gaps
• When SPY closes in the bottom of today’s range
• Opening gaps in SPY/S&P 500, part 2
• Opening gaps in SPY/S&P 500, part 1
• At what time of the day does SPY/S&P 500set high and low?
• The return during the last hour of trading
• The trend is not your friend in the S&P 500 (and other indices)
• The Tuesday reversal trading strategy (S&P 500 – SPY)
• Daily seasonalities in the S&P 500
• Intraday high and low in the S&P 500 by weekday
• Every open down trading strategy (Buy every open down?)
• MACD-histogram trading strategy
• Four down days in a row trading strategy
• S&P 500 weekly gains and losses distribution (strong mean reversion)
• Some performance facts about the S&P 500
• Night strategies trading (overnight edges/strategies)
• How do you do overnight trading? (How to make money overnight trading)
• An overnight short trading strategy in the S&P 500
• 4 Overnight Trading Strategies In The S&P 500 (Strategies From Close To The Next Open)
• Overnight trading strategy in the S&P 500
• Monday Overnight Reversal In The S&P 500 (Short strategy)
• The 5-day low overnight trading strategy (S&P 500 overnight)
• The 3-day down overnight trading strategy in the S&P 500 (3 down days – and gap up?)