Hahaha! I have 2 teenagers and it's waaaaaaaaay more stressful and draining than when they were toddlers. I'm looking forward to being an empty nester in a few years. Then I can *really* think about trading full time!
First of all, I agree with AAA, his suggestions, as usual, are right on. Even if you have a good strategy and were a seasoned pro, its going to be very difficult to build the account with less than $1k to risk ($1k - margin). Its basically going to be like playing roulette for the first trades because even the best methods can have losing streaks. You have 140 net YM points you can lose before you are out of the game. A few 20 point losers and a fat finger mistake and you are out of the game. But as long as you realize that an outcome like that is likely regardless of the quality of the method then any real money trading experience is good imo, especially if the losses are held to under a grand. As for the 10 YM points per day, if you have a method that produces that ON AVERAGE, then you will be a multi millionaire pretty soon, so you have nothing to worry about. But even so, it is unrealistic to believe every day will be +10, and it would still be possible to blow out the account before the averages kick in. If you do not have a proven method that produces 10 points a day (and if your account is only $1k then I will go out on a limb and assume that you don't have one of those yet) then you need to trade something where the risk per trade can be kept to under 2% (give or take) of the account value. So you need to be able to risk only $20 per trade, which even in the YM is only 4 points. Remember, the most important thing is staying in the game, which means capital preservation is the number one priority. By keeping your risk to 2% you will give yourself plenty of trades, which is what you need to both learn and to give a good method time to work. I probably can't change your mind, because I was undercapitalized when I started and no one could talk me out of it either (It took me two blowouts to learn, lol). But the best thing you can do for your trading is to wait until you have a bigger nut. If you must trade, then consider what another poster said about trading spot forex with Oanda. They will let you trade positions as small as a single dollar. You could trade a lot size of $4000 and with a 50 pip stop you would only be risking $20. There are some pitfalls of spot forex, but its a good place to practice with a small account. Remember, you have to survive before you can thrive (hey, I need to write that down, that was pretty good... ) Good trading.
Seriously, all joking aside. I would not trade any market or any system with $1,000 Success is possibile but highly unlikely.
i agree with AAA and wareagle. when i first started daytrading ES, i was given the advice to start with a small account and build it up. at the time i had $100k to play with and posters here on ET told me to put 2k - 5k in an account and "grow it". they said i would lose the 100k or most of it. i initially funded the account with 5k, had a great first weeks and then promptly got greedy and blew-out. i then put in another 5k, telling myself i would be more carefull, stick to my plan of "growing" my account size at a reasonable rate. i blew-out again. finally, after talking to some traders that are actually consistently profitable and making a good living, i was given the advice to start with a minimum of 25k...to allow room for stops, mistakes, volatility, etc. i followed their advice and ever since i have been consistently profitable.....for me that means that i am profitable every week (occasionally the week's profits are miniscule, but green nevertheless). i am convinced that i would of lost more then 10k (5k + 5k) had i initially started with the 25k. but i am equally convinced that i would never have reached consistent profitability without a larger account. so, my advice based on my expereince is to start small, and understand that its tuition money you're puttin up. when you feel that you've reached a particular milesstone in your trading, then fund it more. another consideration is that when trading with a small account it will have a negative affect on your psychology....you will be in a state of mind where you are trading scared, out of fear of losing your small stake. and that is not a good place to be trading from....it causes you to take profits too soon and to cherry pick your trades and not take all your set-ups as your plan calls for. i highly doubt that threre are more then an handful of futures traders out there with tiny accounts who are consistently profitable over long periods of time and making a DECENT living, not just scraping by. when i see people posting about their small accounts i simultaneosly cringe, and say to myself, one more noob who's about to give away their money...maybe i can get a piece.
i agree with AAA and wareagle. when i first started daytrading ES, i was given the advice to start with a small account and build it up. at the time i had $100k to play with and posters here on ET told me to put 2k - 5k in an account and "grow it". they said i would lose the 100k or most of it. i initially funded the account with 5k, had a great first weeks and then promptly got greedy and blew-out. i then put in another 5k, telling myself i would be more carefull, stick to my plan of "growing" my account size at a reasonable rate. i blew-out again. finally, after talking to some traders that are actually consistently profitable and making a good living, i was given the advice to start with a minimum of 25k...to allow room for stops, mistakes, volatility, etc. i followed their advice and ever since i have been consistently profitable.....for me that means that i am profitable every week (occasionally the week's profits are miniscule, but green nevertheless). i am convinced that i would of lost more then 10k (5k + 5k) had i initially started with the 25k. but i am equally convinced that i would never have reached consistent profitability without a larger account. so, my advice based on my expereince is to start small, and understand that its tuition money you're puttin up. when you feel that you've reached a particular milesstone in your trading, then fund it more. another consideration is that when trading with a small account it will have a negative affect on your psychology....you will be in a state of mind where you are trading scared, out of fear of losing your small stake. and that is not a good place to be trading from....it causes you to take profits too soon and to cherry pick your trades and not take all your set-ups as your plan calls for. i highly doubt that threre are more then an handful of futures traders out there with tiny accounts who are consistently profitable over long periods of time and making a DECENT living, not just scraping by. when i see people posting about their small accounts i first cringe for them, and then say to myself, one more trader who's about to give away their money and doesn't know it...maybe i can get a piece.
I wouldn't scalp. Commissions will eat your account up and just slow down any progress. IMO, account size is less important than mastering the psychology of trading. There are high-probability setups that occur in the markets, however, are you disciplined enough to wait for them and avoid premature profit taking? My two cents is this: * Try to master the psychology of trading. Fundamental analysis, technical analysis, system trading, etc. etc. etc means nothing if you can't learn how to handle the head games of this business. * Practice patience and persistence via only trading high-probable setups; try to accept the fact the market may not present high-probable opportunities on a daily basis; * Think of your initial capital as tuition. Whether you reserve $25K upfront or make smaller deposits along the way; get in the mindset that there is a cost to learning this game thus plan on losing about the same amount you would pay for an MBA. Good luck!
im new to futures,so it's possible to have 1 tick $2.50 for YM? (1/2 contract) which broker u with? it take 2 tick to b in profit right?