Hello, Ive taken several education classes and read may books on day trading. I have also done some swing trading ,sucessfully. I feel i am ready and would like to try day trading but come up short of the 25,000.00 needed to fund the account for a pattern day trader. Yes I am Young and poor. and Yes I am continally saving but it may take me another 6months -1year to have that money. My question is in the beginning were any of you able to fund your accounts in any legal and intresting ways. Any help and advice would be appreciated . Thanks.
10k is a doable amount to start trading futures. Is there a reason why you need to trade equities? Futures are not harder or easier, just different. As long as you know your market, and don't abuse the leverage, its no more risky either. There are equities shops out there that will take 5k upfront from what I have read on numerous posts here on ET. I do not personally know what they are however.
I dont know much about futures, I just always assumed it cost alot more. Ive been told some were 25,000.00 per contract. I'll look into it. Thanks.
Here's some sample margin requirements for different contracts. Keep in mind these are if you hold overnight, if you strictly daytrade, brokerages have lower requirements (1/2 or less). http://www.cme.com/html.wrap/wrappedpages/clearing/pbrates/PBISOutrightEQ.htm If you've got $10,000 that's enough to open an account at Interactive Brokers, and they have just about the best retail rates for trading just about anything.
http://www.globalfutures.com/margins/margins.asp more like $500.00 per contract for the eminis. its a perfect place for you to start. the 5k prop firms are also smart absolutely no need to put down 25k. good luck! surf
Thanks Surf. I was going to tell Inoble to consider working with us as well. I think we can give more live support (which is important for new traders) and, depending on which platform is used, can possibly beat IB's rate as well. Inoble, if you want to contact me I'd be glad to go over some futures basics with you and help you figure out what you might want to do. At the very least, I'd suggest trying a free live demo account to help get an understanding of day trading futures. I would never rush you into trading. Be aware that most traders lose money and you should only use risk capital. Best regards,
You only need 1-5 round trips per month to make 50% annual return. That is doable swing trading in a cash settled account. People tend to over trade too much instead of patiently waiting for high quality setups, that why partly they lose.
If you're willing to get your Series 56 license, then you can start daytrading equities with a licensed prop firm. $10k should get you 200k of buying power, 100k minimum. However, I don't recommend equities unless you have a predetermined list of a handful of highly liquid and volatile stocks and you are disciplined enough to trade those stocks only, waiting patiently for the right set ups. Otherwise it is very easy to fall into the trap of switching from one stock to the other, chasing the "runner" of the day, which will bleed your equity through commissions. On the other hand, you can try futures as per the other suggestions. Go with the sim account with real time fills, and test out various futures products before opening a live account. You can also try a combine through TopStepTrader and see if you can qualify for a live futures account without putting up your own capital. Best of luck.