Can somebody recommend a good book on e-mini futures, i.e. strategies, how to trade index futures, etc. Anything worth reading? thanks
If you're completely new to futures trading, then my advice is don't go off reading about strategies and systems as you'll just be opening pandora's box which will probably take you a couple of years to get out of. The best thing you can do right now is get yourself the right tools, and just watch your order book around basic support and resistance levels on a 30min chart. By doing so you'll learn hwo to feel the market and how order flow acts around support and resistance. This should be your foundation and everything else should be built around it. just my 2 cents for what it's worth.
I don't trade e-mini's but the previous post sounds like excellent advice for most any daytrading. The more screen-time you can get, the better.
Correct. Don't waste your money on a book. Get screen time. Don't trade till you are comfortable. When you start trading, if it isn't working, then stop and reevaluate. The market will still be there when you decide to begin anew.
thanks, I have been paper-trading e-minis and found it was very difficult to make money consistently because it is so volatile, that's why I thought maybe there exists a special strategy/rules for e-minis...
Have you done much trading before this? Just out of curiosity, what basic strategy are you using? Hang in there with the paper-trading until you find something that is working-the cheaper you can make your education, the better. It is going to be difficult and frustrating for awhile.
Have been paper trading for 1.5 months. It has been pretty good with stocks, AAPL, LULU, CRM, URBN, BVN, MELI, etc. but not so well with ES. I usually fade the opening gap-this has worked quite well. Everything else wasn't so great with ES. It looks like the market reverses whenever I decided to make a trade, and have had only losses with short trades so abandoned them completely.. I look at support/resistance, volume, MAs, Bollinger bands, various indicators, but still it looks like my trades are made pretty randomly, that's why I was wondering if there is a different strategy that should be applied with ES...
I've never traded ES, but I did some SPY trading intraday when I wasn't busy with stock trades. It always seemed as though small moves weren't worthwhile, price was bouncing around so much that you would get shaken out of as many moves as you made $$ on. I think you are better off trying to focus on a relatively small # of setups during the day. You mentioned that you were having the most success fading opening gaps. I think the first hour or so will provide some of the better opportunities. Beyond that, you may get one or two more opportunities during the day where there is a chance for an extended move. Be sure you know before the market opens the times for any scheduled events like Fed announcements, jobs reports, etc. that may move the market. Besides using support/resistance, you might do some research on key reversal times of day for the markets. There are some times of day when the market tends to move. "Reversal time" might be a misnomer, there is a good chance that a move might resume in the same direction after a lull, rather than outright reverse. You may want to consider these times of day in your trading. I can't tell you how many "boredom" trades I have gotten into during the middle of the day, only to be sorry later when the market started to move against me later in the afternoon. Anyway, if you haven't already, you could check around here as well. I'm sure there are some decent ES trading journals and other threads. Consider the above with due caution. My experience was mainly with stocks, but I did spend countless hours watching the E-mini's in conjunction with these trades. Good luck to you.
my7tvette, thanks for the advice. "Boredom" trades, exactly, you gave it the exact name. It's like I can't just wait, I HAVE to buy something. I have to control this as it plays against me. Will look into reversals.. thanks again
Yes, there are a few good books, but you have to read many to find the few gems that apply to your personality. Also, most of those people saying that oh no they will not tell how they trade and give out their secret probably don't have any edge. Just like their are books to learn programming, there are books that help you to learn how to trade. However, there are some BS books, and BS mentors, and much BS here.