What am I missing here? Here's a .png of IBs' margin page. Sixth row down shows YM and an initial margin of $1,350. I don't trade YM, so I may be totally in left field about this. Thanks
That's BS, at least technically. CBOT-YM has got the lowest margin requirement of all mini-sized futures. If you're scalping the YM, all you need is a minimum of $1,500 per car. If you aren't scalping, I'd recommend quite a bit more, not just since a 15-point drop would trigger a margin call on $1.5K margin (IB margin is $1.35K). However, Momento's statement has some validity, because personally I wouldn't suggest such high margin. $5K is indeed a good place to start trading 1 contract from, I generally use no less than $7.5K per car, often $10K/car margin (ES/NQ which is similar to YM), but then I guess I'm risk averse. It's up to you and your proficiency. Also, it makes a difference whether you're dealing more contracts. $2K margin on 1 contract - sure. But not so easy on 10+ If you use less margin than $5K - fine. But when the GLOBEX shuts down and you can't get out for 40 points (ES) or something else unexpected happens - as it does - the trading god loves Murphy's law by the way - Then I'll be the one who laughs last and best. Slow and steady wins the race. Your main focus should be on living for another day. Always bear than in mind when margining. Best is to calculate your risk model based on your stop rules; Take your average stop+1/2 ticks and then divide that stop by the margin you're planning to use. If the result is more than 0.02 (2%) then you're getting in muddy waters. If a shutdown occurs and you're rushing through 30X your stop (the smaller your stops, the worse in this case!), you're losing 60% of your equity. Just realize the mathematics of it. Logically, the smaller your stops / timeframe, the smaller the %risk per trade should also be! A lot of people get this wrong and think lower timeframe means less risk via time-risk distribution and beef up on the % risk per trade relative to their stops. I would generally recommend to not risk more than 1%-1.5% on a single pos. I know plenty of ES traders who risk only 0.5% max. 2% is definitely heavy going on futures. You can make shit-loads, namely several ES/NQ points per day with any risk between 0.5-1.5%. If you can't - Don't trade. And particularly not such high risk. Don't do anything stupid. ~Scientist
Okay, I got it...he recommends $5,000. Just got a little confused because another poster complained he would need $10,000 to trade YM. Yea, definitely would recommend at least $5,000, and even better $10,000 to trade one emini. You have to spell it out for me...kinda slow. hehe
No, you didn't get it wrong at all. You got it right in the first place. This is why I replied, to clarify this. It was Momento who conveyed misleading information because he didn't express himself properly. What you need and what you recommend are two completely different things. You don't need more than $1,350 to trade the YM. You should have more more than $5,000, though... Make sure you get it right, folks. Never assume other people are as smart as you are and just figure out what you mean. There's far too many idiots out there. And we don't wanna confuse them now, do we? ~Scientist
My bad My bad... (Wasn't trying to mislead...) and yes Scientist, I really meant it as a recommendation. Being undercapitalized with highly leveraged instruments is not recommended.
No, haven't had any problems yet - Quite amazingly enough. Seems to be very clean code. Definitely more reliable even than Futures-Trader or the like - I mean it's never crashed. There are a few conflicts and things that occur but you won't even notice them. If you do, you send them a bug report and they'll probably even reward you for it. At least they'll get the thing fixed till the next version - And they really work hard on it, a new version comes out every few weeks and it keeps getting better. They're really making an effort to become the best. There are even some ET's working on the development and feedback! All that said, I think the BT volume-pressure chart system and the fully programmable strategies on price-ladders already make it the best system out there! You can hardly beat it in terms of "being in full control". Well I sort of like being in control when I'm trading futures By the way, the thing with ButtonTrader is it isn't just written for futures - It works equally sweet with stocks, options, bonds - you name it! :eek: You can even (trading stocks) set different strategies with different routing parameters, then just click whichever strategy you want to use in that situation, i.e. Strategy A over ISLD or D over BRUT or whatetever - It does the routing for you - It's superb! Just my 5 cents, anyway. Yeah, it's a good program. ~Scientist
AMEN! To make that complete, add: Past performance is never a guarantee for future results. The brokers, advisors, software companies don't just say that for fun. As soon as a newbie (or even advanced trader) has really wrapped his head around this, he can advance to the "next level". Always remember it. Hang it up on your wall. It's a very good reminder that today's markets undergo constant change. If you don't honor this rule, you'll get stuck in or too shortsighted on your current method of approaching the market. You cannot do that. You have to constantly re-evaluate, adapt and modify your approach in order to really outperform. Current performance, if that, is all that counts. Past performance is no guarantee for future results. ~Scientist