Hello, I am a novice looking into trading emini's. I am wondering the following: 1. What is slippage like when trading the various emini's? 2. What is a great demo in terms of indicators and realistic feel to use for practice? 3. Which one of these, do you think is best for day trading: ES, NQ, or Dow. I would appreciate any thoughts or insights. Thanks
1. ES is the tightest of all markets. Slippage is virtually non existent. NQ and YM can have issues at certain times of the day, but nothing like the other markets. All three stock indexes have a lot more problems than slippage. 2. Hopefully you have at least 10k to start with, in which case you can open an account with IB (interactivebrokers) and trade in a paper account which is just the same as a real account and learn the difference between ES NQ and YM. 3. Each index has it's own special charaterisitics which may be to your liking or not. YM has specific stock risk. You may like that if you have an idea on one of the Dow 30 Stocks. NQ can be volatile if something is going on in tech. You may like that if you follow the tech industry. ES is what everybody else in the world is guessing on, you may like that if you enjoy betting on guessers.
1) Depends what market you are talking about. ES is the most liquid, so most likely to see less slippage there b/c there are plenty of traders/volume. 2) I like Open ECry's demo as orders are more realistic. It's not perfect representation of trading live, but pretty good IMO. http://www.openecry.com 3) Depends on what you want: ES = most liquid, the major players are there. If you can conquer the ES, you will never have to trade another market as size will never be an issue. NQ = most 'jumpy' of your 3 options so depends if you like the moves for your trading style. YM = the redheaded stepchild of the group that is there, everyone outside of trading knows the 'dow' but among futures traders the volume is weak there.
I found through trial and error the best real-environment feel, at least to my tastes, is a Prophet chart and CQG Trader DOM. As to the former: near as anyone can tell, Prophet sold the remainder of their business to TD Ameritrade. Ironically, you can use Prophet in a sub-class section of the thinkorswim desktop application free to download if you complete their TD Ameritrade's application process. As a demo, CQG is better about re-distributing simulation license keys for their software, whereas the trend elsewhere is to issue it once; follow-through with a sales call when it expires (but really you'll go to them); and if they don't make a sale or open a new account, it's not impossible to receive another, but the bitter taste over the ordeal lingers. Also, be careful of hidden fees. Trading NinjaTrader live, is a scalper's worst nightmare. If you don't like Prophet, use NinjaTrader's charts for free. CQG Trader live, if you can find a firm that offers it, has competitive fees. At Amp, it's .25 cents a side on the table and definitive. Amp's commission structure is also competitive. You could find better, but you might sacrifice quality in service and technology for it. I'm generally not a fan of crash and burn irresponsible margins, but if you start a 10 thousand dollar account and trade 10-15 contracts, you'll move the market placing trades slightly, which is a different trading environment than trading live with one lot or sim, and you'll likely blow an account trying to crash course you're way out of it. So in the beginning, try Amp. Then when you're timing is better, transfer to say Dorman, directly. As a side note, I don't generally disagree with other posters here in concern to percentage-wise, unnoticeable slippage in ES, but the instrument is by degrees losing its liquidity. Any class of a second chart during the last few weeks during Street hours has been dispersing. That's likely to change, but it could continue to get worse. Very few winning trades in that instrument as of late. People are looking elsewhere. Best of luck to you.
trade 1 contract with a 5k account & keep tight stops grow from their as you gain confidence & profits choosing a contract is based on personal preference & risk es & nq both very liquid & good choices
Hey Rob, 1) Great info from the previous posters. Also depends if you're trading afterhours or RTH. I trade mostly the overnight sessions so I like the 6E for some liquidity but lately have been dabbling in the NQ (although jumpy is the best description I've heard). But I rarely scalp anymore so even if the spread widens out, it's not a huge concern to me. Plus you may like the $5 tick to start 2) From what I've gathered from others, I believe most demo's try to offer realistic algorithmic fills. I personally like NT because I've used it but Sierra Charts does offer a better Cumulative Delta feature than ninja. However, the NT 3rd party indicators are a real bonus. And ninja is free without the ATM features. Try out as many as you like as long as they're free, all boils down to personal preference. 3) I'll defer to the experts on this one! However ES is the richest and deepest market hands down. Depends again on your style I suppose. Good point in noting the stock risk in the YM though. Best of luck!
you could trade the spy,100 lots at a time ,or 10 or less,learn to chart,read charts,stay in sim until you get it, it might take 6 months-2,3 yrs,if you start trading now without the knowledge you most likely will lose,your trading against seasoned pros, watch a rookie in any nfl game,there is a psychological stigma to losing in life,in trading you have to accept it, if you open several accts losing and starting up, the cuts will be deeper and the learning to accept will be a longer education and slow down absorption in the other areas you need to understand,learn to read the market first as you would learn to walk a tight rope in practice 1 foot off the ground,only a fool would start 20 ft in the air,that's the equivalent of opening the acct without the required basic understanding,or in the previous reference ,balance
you do want to stick to trading regular market hrs. where you have volume holding overnights is dangerous to say the least for anyone not something to do at the begining in trading futures