Any market is bad if one does not have a well defined set of tested rules. And if the account is headed downward, there is no purpose to trade more than one contract as all futures value is much greater than funds needed to trade them. You can lose big by pitching pennies against someone who knows what they are doing. The early years of any trader, they must think in lines of conserve at all cost your funds in your account and conserve your body. It does not mean to start trading just cause you have money. It means to test your ideas till you are blue in the face. It also means to have a life outside of trading cause it will be a long road before you see profits. Go for a two mile walk each day or a run, exercise will simulate your mind, a poor body lessens your chances of doing well. As far as the market being bad right now, indexes have returned to normal, they are a congestive hedging instrument. Most traders don't realize that futures were made as a hedge and that is why they don't trade the same as stocks. And the ES is the best controlled market there is, the premium gets too high/low, program trading occurs. It still gets down to knowing what you are trying to do, test it 3000 times, if you have to think what to do next, you should not be trading.