I need advice on if trading the e-mini is a good idea. I want to experiment with a strategy involving swing trading with anywhere from a few trades a day to a few trades a week; I need an equity with good price moves for profit - but that is not too volatile on an hourly basis or such while doing so. From the few recent daily charts I can pull on ES it appears to track similar to the individual large cap stocks, but the short term hourly volatility is way way higher; although I don't know if thats how it has been historically. Are futures really used more for day trading like really short trades due to the volatility - but not good for swing trading over a period of a day or two or any strategy like mine that can't handle too much hourly volatility?
Im guessing you are trading a small account. If that is indeed the case, i would recommend you buy an index ETF and/or options because you will be forced to use leverage if you play the ES with a small account which will amplify the effect of volatility
Thanks, I was really just attracted to futures to simplify tax reporting, that was the main benefit that interested me, but I guess maybe I'll just stick with equities for this strategy at least.
Hello, I did months ago a little, but from what I remember it was still a little too volatile; I find the individual large cap equities are a lot smoother (at least some of them), so I've had my eye on those.
The main reason I posted this is because I am really drawn to futures; however, most of the random futures charts I look at are gapping all over the place and not smooth enough for me. Does anyone know are there any futures that have smooth trends, not long term, but just smooth intraday moves? or are they all pretty much volatile with crazy 15 minute swings for example and mostly for day traders?
There are some difficulties in swing trading futures. Most traders will say that ES is a better intraday instrument, and the SPY can be good for swing trading. The SPY and ES trade almost identically tick for tick, so if you find the SPY problematic, I am sure the ES will be far more troublesome. Keep in mind that 1 tick in the ES is equivalent to about 3 cents in the SPY.
Are you looking at charts with just the day session or day + overnight? You shouldn't be seeing gaps all over the place if you're looking at the full session. ES is recently more volatile - however this volatility is just about the right level. Prior volatility was too low IMO. There's nothing preventing swing trading of ES, if you have a reasonable account size (not 5k) you trade it according to any other trading method you'd utilize. I stay away from equities, and days like 8/24 might be another wake up call to others to reconsider if they should be swing trading them. Futures are actually safer for swing trading and present much less gap risk than equities or ETFs.
i would suggest you papertrade for a while. if u can't make money papertrading, you ain't gonna make it live.