ASX 200 & SPI Day Trading FAQ

Q: What is the difference between the ASX 200 and the SPI?

The ASX 200 is the cash index: a number representing the 200 largest companies listed on the Australian exchange. You cannot trade it directly. The ASX SPI 200 is the futures contract written on that index, and it is what traders actually buy and sell. When a plan quotes levels for "ASX 200 / SPI", the levels come from the futures contract, because that is the instrument you can put an order into. The two track each other closely but not perfectly: the future trades for far more hours than the cash market, so it moves overnight while the index is frozen.

Q: What are the SPI 200 contract specifications?

Commodity code: AP Value per index point: A$25 Minimum tick: one index point, so A$25 per tick Contract months: March, June, September and December Last trading day: the third Thursday of the settlement month, ceasing at midday Sydney time A$25 a point is worth sitting with. A 20 point move, which the SPI can cover quickly, is A$500 per contract. That is the single most important number for an Australian day trader to internalise before sizing a position.

ASX 200 and SPI day trading: the questions that actually matter

Most trading content is written for US markets and quietly assumes US hours, US contract sizes and US conventions. This page covers the Australian side properly: what SPI is, when it trades, what a point is worth, and how the US session drives the Australian open.

What is the difference between the ASX 200 and the SPI?

The ASX 200 is the cash index: a number representing the 200 largest companies listed on the Australian exchange. You cannot trade it directly.

The ASX SPI 200 is the futures contract written on that index, and it is what traders actually buy and sell. When a plan quotes levels for "ASX 200 / SPI", the levels come from the futures contract, because that is the instrument you can put an order into. The two track each other closely but not perfectly: the future trades for far more hours than the cash market, so it moves overnight while the index is frozen.

What are the SPI 200 contract specifications?

Commodity code: AP
Value per index point: A$25
Minimum tick: one index point, so A$25 per tick
Contract months: March, June, September and December
Last trading day: the third Thursday of the settlement month, ceasing at midday Sydney time

A$25 a point is worth sitting with. A 20 point move, which the SPI can cover quickly, is A$500 per contract. That is the single most important number for an Australian day trader to internalise before sizing a position.

What time does the ASX 200 and SPI trade?

They keep different hours, which is a common source of confusion:

ASX 200 cash equities: continuous trading 10:00am to 4:00pm Sydney time, followed by a closing auction that runs to roughly 4:10pm.
SPI 200 futures day session: 9:50am to 4:30pm Sydney time, so it opens ten minutes before the cash market and runs half an hour past its close.
SPI 200 futures night session: from 5:10pm Sydney time through to the following morning, ending at 7:00am during US daylight saving and 8:00am outside it.

The night session is why the SPI can gap several points before the cash market has opened: it has been trading through the entire US session while Australia slept.

Why does the US close drive the ASX open?

Because the SPI night session overlaps the US cash session almost exactly. By the time Sydney opens at 10:00am, the SPI has already absorbed everything the S&P 500 did overnight. In practice the Australian open is less a fresh start than a continuation of a session that has been running for hours.

This is why an Australian day trader benefits from watching what SPY and ES did overnight. It is not correlation trivia: it is the price discovery that has already happened to the instrument you are about to trade.

Which session should day-trade levels be based on?

The day session. Levels calculated across the full 23-hour futures cycle include thin overnight trade where a handful of contracts can print a high or a low that no Australian trader will ever interact with. Levels built on the 10:00am to 4:00pm window describe the session you are actually trading, and they line up with the cash index that everyone else is watching.

Is the ASX 200 a good market for day trading?

It suits some traders and not others. The advantages are a single clean session in a convenient timezone for anyone in Australia or Asia, and a market that is less crowded than the US index products. The constraints are lower volume than ES or NQ, which means wider spreads at times, and A$25 per point on a full contract, which is a meaningful minimum position size for a small account.

If the tick value is too large for your account, that is a reason to trade something else rather than to trade the SPI smaller than one contract, which is not possible.

What levels matter most in an ASX session?

The pivot nearest the previous close, and the first level above and below it. Because the SPI has usually moved overnight, the open frequently sits away from the prior close, and the first level price meets on the way back is the one that tends to matter. Wider levels come into play on the days a US move carries through into a trending Australian session.

Where can I get daily ASX 200 / SPI levels?

Little Bird Trading publishes resistance, pivot and support levels for the ASX 200 / SPI after each Sydney close, for the next Australian session, alongside a breakdown of how the previous session behaved around the levels published for it. The Australia Trade Plans page has the current and previous plans, and the prior session's levels are free.

Is this financial advice?

No. These are objective market structure and levels only. No signals, no direction calls, no recommendations. You make and own your trades.