Can you make a living trading futures?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by born2trade, Sep 27, 2001.

  1. WarEagle

    WarEagle Moderator

    Andras,

    Now, that's a story I'd like to hear...unless its just too painful.

    Kirk
     
    #11     Sep 27, 2001
  2. tymjr

    tymjr

    andrasnm: “Be very careful but if you scalp you can maybe make it. learn to "sit on your hands" and let some profit run. Use trailing stops, without major profits you will burn up.”

    I agree with andrasnm’s recommendation of some form of trailing stop. In conjunction, I use profit targets to close out most of my position allowing only a small portion to continue.

    I do not scalp, at least in the way that I define scalping (2-3 ticks). I look to profit off of larger extensions while protecting myself with stops that are formulated from S/R and market statistics. I can imagine it is very difficult for screen traders to scalp profitably.
     
    #12     Sep 27, 2001
  3. I was heavily buying as my initial stake grew. I never learned
    to add on with any ryme and reason. We have had a drought
    and we had limit up days so I could not add on when I really
    should have and added only after limit days were over. The
    whole summer was crazy but I had my stake growing nicely.
    Several small selloffs I added more contracts...it was great....
    I had decided to make a million and sell out for good. Guess what
    happened.....:( :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
    Since than I get excited every time we have midwest crop shortfalls.
     
    #13     Sep 27, 2001
  4. WarEagle

    WarEagle Moderator

    Thanks for sharing that Andras, I can't even imagine the pain you must feel just thinking about it. If I lost 1/10th of that I would have probably been looking for a high rise with an open window. That explains the angst I read in many of your posts towards short term trading, and I don't blame you one bit.

    While I know it is of no comfort to you, I'm sure many new traders will read your posts and maybe it will save someone from repeating something like that.

    Thanks again,

    Kirk
     
    #14     Sep 28, 2001
  5. 'till today futures are my pet trading vehicles but also I am quite
    afraid of them. I later traded the original DOW index at the CBOT.
    I have many futures buddies and I am quite over that experience.
    I had to have learned something from it - at least I hope. Ag
    markets are something different - in the indecies you just don't
    have these limit up days that I just can't forget(at least not in
    days in a row..... It's a sweet feeling to be that right !!!! That's why if one trades the SP it must have been sweet to be short the last months or two.

    I know some who were, myself not included...

    Like they say - the trend is your friend.
     
    #15     Sep 28, 2001
  6. Jeffrey

    Jeffrey

    I understood that ES futures are $50 per contract, and the NQ futures are $20 per contract.

    Can you restate, or elaborate, to make it clear to me, please.

    I had figured that six ES futures contracts would be figured as below:
    (6 times $50 per contract = $300), for each 1 point move.

    Apparently, I am missing a digit.

    In addition, I want to verify what I have heard in a chat room. I was told that I can figure to provide capital to my account of about $2,500 per contract. So, if I want to trade three contracts per trade, I would need to provide a minimum of $7,500 dollars.
    Is this a good ballpark figure?

    Thanks,
    Jeffrey
     
    #16     Sep 29, 2001
  7. WarEagle

    WarEagle Moderator

    Your almost there Jeffery...a 1 point move in the SPY = a 10 point move in the index, which is what the futures are based on, so that gives you your extra zero.

    Kirk
     
    #17     Sep 29, 2001
  8. Fohat

    Fohat

    Jeffrey,

    ES futures are $50 per POINT, and the NQ futures are $20 per POINT.

    Therefore, 6 ES = 6x ($50x S&P500) = 6x ($50x1043.75) = 6x $52,187.5 = $313,125

    Or as I previously posted 6 ES = 3000 SPY = 3000 x 104.375 = $313,125

    Yes, some brokers allow $2500 daytrading margin per contract. (Which significantly increases the leverage and is a double edge sword. I don't recommend novice futures traders to daytrade with such high leverage. You should learn as much as possible before trading with more than 4:1 leverage.)

    Therefore, if you want to trade three contracts per trade, you must have at least 3x$2500 = $7,500.

    (Keep in mind that you can trade 1 Dow emini futures contract with $1080 (initial margin), not $2,500 )

    Fohat
     
    #18     Sep 29, 2001
  9. Is there anything equivalent to Nasdaq Level II in futures trading on CME?
     
    #19     Sep 29, 2001
  10. Fohat

    Fohat

    yes michaelday, there is.

    Some brokers call it "market depth" - It shows five price levels of the futures bids and asks.
     
    #20     Sep 29, 2001