An HONEST opinion... should i trade futures?

I'm getting 30k..i hear some people open accounts with only 5-15k and do well.

I've never traded futures and may not be used to the wide swings, but should I day trade futures over stocks?.. I've traded

bidu, rimm, cme , ice, and goog.. so i think i have some idea of what I'd be getting myself into with futures. I'd like to hear what u guys have to say.

cm

 

Start reading ASAP. Go on google and start researching.

You don't want to make a trading error and blow up.

 

give yourself 3-5 years to learn minimum..you'll probably blow thru that 30k in no time

 

why not use the cash, spy, iwm, qid or qqqq, dia. You can scale in a lot easier, so you can limit your risk on "test" trades. You can also use enough margin with 30k that can easily produce the returns you want. It just allows you to scale in with smaller size. I think the biggest risk for traders is over-leveraging.

 

Cash,
The biggest advantage to futures over the etf's is the leverage. That's about it. So, if you are comfortable taking on that kind of leverage, then go for it. Keep in mind that it won't take long to go thru some or all of that $30k if you don't understand what that leverage is all about. There are plenty of simulators out there, so play around with them just to see what it's like.

 

An honest opinion: bring 50K

100% honest statement: As long as I am wandering around the efutures markets, the probability of you losing all that is very great even with 5yrs of your paper trading skills.

 

do you know of any future brokers that offer charts with the platform?

 

Tradestation offers both charting and futures brokerage

 

here, here.

 

If you have never futures you should first trade the underlying stocks/indexes.

If you have never traded stocks you should first do paper-trades.

You need to be aware that the stock market not always provides real opportunities.
Actively trading a non-trending market like this, with futures leverage is a sure way to lose money.