Mca, I can appreciate learning from trial and error, but perhaps one would be better off learning the game by playing a relatively slow-moving NYSE 25$ stock with small sample sizes of 50-100 shares? No novice should start off trading the equiv of a 90$ stock with 500 shares unless they have a hella lotta cash to burn... Of course this is just my own opinion and there is no 'right' or 'wrong' here.
Hey Applehead, she said "Hi, I'm relatively new to futures". Why not find out what other experience she's had rather than assume she'd had none, unless you're desperate for an opportunity to show off how much you don't know? --Db
That's exactly how I broke into the nq/es arena. Traded their blood brothers in small lots. Great idea.
I didn't assume anything DB, the title of the thread is titled "should a novice play NQ or ES?" IMO the unequivical answer would be neither, unless you have a lot of money to burn... Why not start with an 'easier' market and gradualy work your way into the futures arena or play spiders and Qubes with sample sizes? Like I said why start your boxing career throwing down with Sugar Ray... I was not looking for an opportunity to show off anything apple She asked for opinions and I gave her mine.
Nitro - Didn't happen overnight. My tuition cost me over 8 grand in about 6 easy monthly payments. It's nice to be finally wiring money OUT of the broker instead of IN
thanks for all the replies! If you need to know my story....I think i've turned a corner in trading...I eventually lost my "trading tuition" to the point where i didnt have enough for 1 contract anymore....for me trading is like entering a football pool....I dont care to watch it unless i'm betting on it...we all do that dont we? like i'm gonna bet on a game and then just listen to the sports report the next day?? probably not! (yes, i know thats gambling and shouldnt be compared to trading) The point is Ive tried "papertrading" before but found I never followed too closely. Well, I discovered that once the money was all but gone , I REALLY paid attention. And now I could just papertrade without the pressure....I was more relaxed....also readjusted a system....i decided "dammit, there will be no more trading UNTIL i know a system works". I knew that I would not be fooling anybody but myself if i said things like "well, if it was for real I certainly wouldnt have done that"...I was absolutely , brutally honest in my trades....when i said "BING" my trade was committed and i wrote it down. My problem was getting caught up in short time frames. It looked easy. I did the math and said "geezuz, even 2 pt. /day one could make a living if yer consistant...so get consistant!" I decided I needed to put EVERY indicator in my favour...even if it takes all day...wait for it ....and since i didnt have any money anymore , that wasnt a problem because we all know (eventually) that boredom leading to overtrading is a huge enemy. so the system im using now, papertrading the NQ, is just waiting until the stochastics in all time frames line up, 60min, 15 min, 5 min and let the 1 min 20EMA take you out...yes, the sell is too soon alot of the times so i may follow a 5min ADX if its screaming upward. I print the 15 min 5 day chart for the week from bigcharts.com and then I superimpose the 60min stoch (and MACD for confirming) by drawing it in pen on the 15 min chart. This is just so i can refer later as a record, to pound it in my head etc. Check it for yourself please. In the last 3 weeks it never failed me to scoop a few points. The hardest part is the discipline of course. Never trading against the longer-term indicator...just learning to be happy with the 5 pts you got by waiting all day for it. It will add up later when more contracts get added. Well, I just spilled a whole whack crap out didnt i. I just discovered ET a couple of weeks ago and its great to read from others who trade because learning to trade for a living is a very lonely experience when your friends and family just dont get it and dont understand why one would persist at something that to them will never pan out. good trading to all LP