You folks probably heard all of this before but I've been reading the past threads and can't really find the answers to my specific questions. I am going to start futures trading, but I have to find a broker first. Margin power for stocks are pretty much the same wherever you go, however, Futures, I hear different stories. Which firms out there provide great leveraging power? Also I've heard good things about IB, and their cheap commissions, are there any other brokers out their with cheap round turn prices, in addition to great margin power? Antoher question that confuses me is the cost or capital needed to trade a single contract. How much capital is needed to trade the naz minis, sp minis and dow mini as opposed to the big ones? I really appreciate this board and anyone who can provide any sort of help. Thanks MAXTRAX
nq and es contract specifications: http://www.cme.com/httpwrapper.cfm?wrap=/wrappedpages/clearing/spex/equityGroup.htm go to cbot's website for dow mini. I've heard lots of good about IB too. My particular experience was terrible though. Maybe their better now, but once burned I''m scarred for life. I was doing high volume with them, and they couldn't give a shit about me, so what to speak of small volume traders. If your trading is important to you, go with a good broker. It's better to pay a "little bit" more to get good service and reliability. Commission price should never be the deciding factor when choosing a broker. It should be one part of it.
A friend of mine put a million dollars into a futures trading account. He's a software developer. Wants to learn to trade. Asked me the same questions. After a long discussion, WE AGREED. He will trade one-lots in the e-minis until his net-net-net-net profit will cover the max drawdown of his system times two. We didn't discuss his entry system much. But we talked about his exit system at great length.
Lowest margins are at Global Futures (www.daytrade4less.com). $500 for ES and NQ, $750 for YM. Their commission rates are a bit higher than others, though. Cheer, kp
I am in the same boat with you making a transition over to Futures but further up the river. Before you risk any capital use a real time simulator and trade it like it was real. I've been using FFastrades simulator which lasts about a week and their platform is a no brainer. However I believe they want you to pay a platfom fee if you sign on. Check it out anyways because the simulated trading is worth the experience along side your chart service. Stops are most important with any thing but just as much with futures. In example on Friday when Osama Jr. was reportedly arrested you could not have even tried to fix your mistak because of the flurry in the futures. If you were short and not stop protected then say la vee. I use IB as well and they are fast an cheap but don't expect them to hold your hand they are a do it youself operation. There are also others out there all wanting the business and now it seems things are dropping. Maybe they are all sensing the next bull market or are hard up for making monthly projections. Happy Trails
Maxtrax why don't you try clicking on the link at the top of the page of this thread. FFasttrade is the Futures Trading sponsor, and has arguably the lowest fees for e-mini and other futures products.
While FFasttrade may be a good company, their fees don't compare to IB's unless you trade the minis very heavy. In fact, because of their monthly $500 fee on top of their round-trip charge, you would need to make 338 round-trips per month just to equal IB's rate. That comes out to a little over 16 round-trips per day, every day. Except for the quarter and half-point scalper, that's quite alot of trades on average, much more than most people make.