S&P 500 has its own ticker symbol, you would enter ^GSPC in the box
that said "Enter Symbol(s): e.g. YHOO, ^DJI" in the yahoo page:

http://finance.yahoo.com/

Or enter HPQ for HP or GE for GE or MSFT for Microsoft.

So my question is, I want to trade the Mini S&P 500 FUTURES, what
should I put in the box? What is their ticker symbol?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Second question:

People say that with discounted broker, like scottrade.com, they do
not have direct access to the people on the trading floor at NYSE. So
when you need to trade something important, you would want a direct
access to the floor trader. The question is: How? Which online broker
should I sign up so that my order is process on the first in the line
by the people on the NYSE's floor?

Ticker symbol for the e-mini S&P 500 futures is "ES" followed by the
symbol for the month you want to trade, then the year.  The current
most active mini is ESZ4,   with Z=december and 4=2004.  The next most
active is ESH5 with H=march and 5=2005

Thanks!

I tried to put ESZ4 or ESH5 in the yahoo stock page... but it said invalid...

Why do you need to specifi the certain month? what can't you just
enter the symbol and display the current live information just like a
regular stock?

If Z = December and H=March... but alphabeth has 24 letters while
there only 12 months, how do you know which letter is for which month?

what is the difference between Mini and E-mini?

Thanks!

1. You cannot view futures charts with the Yahoo! Finance web site. 
You can however view futures charts using the web site
WWW.FUTURESOURCE.COM.  Once you arrive at the site, click 'CHARTS'
then choose the contract that you'd like to view.  Add technical
indicators as needed.

2. "Why do you need to specifi the certain month? what can't you just
enter the symbol and display the current live information just like a
regular stock?"  
Futures contracts trade on a quarterly basis.  Futures symbology is
very much different from stock symbology.  If you'd like to know more,
post a new question.

3. "What is the difference between mini and e-mini?"
There is no difference, there are only two types of S&P 500 futures
contracts, the full contract (SP) and the e-mini contract (ES).

I believe that takes care of it!  This is my first time posting an
answer, so please be kind.

Regarding your SECOND question:

Use www.interactivebrokers.com   

If you have more money and looking to become an active trader,
consider www.tradestation.com.

You want to be electronic, it's much much much faster than clearing
through the pits.  Not only is it faster, but it is also less
expensive.

When trading stocks, your orders are no longer routed through the
floor brokers.  It is all electronic using order books.