Thanks. For the past few years I have focused on trying to learn how to trade stocks, mainly through daytrading them. I'd say the past few months I have kind of realized that I might be better off focusing on futures and only focusing on a few markets. Also trying to expand my holding time to days/weeks. I have read his book a few times, but will go back and take a another read through. As far as futures goes, where does one start? Does Chicago have any good offices to look at? If I trade emini's holding overnight, is an account with 25k enough to meet the margin requirements?
i kind of came to the same realization as well. the advice that i might have is to first trade the ETF's of the underlying futures first and then work your way up.
I think the biggest challenge facing every trader is discovering their identity in the markets. Every trader has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of focusing on one market, you kind of have to "date" a little first. It's sort of like just saying I'll just marry the first woman I see. LOL. Once you date around a little, you should learn a lot about yourself and what you want and don't want in the market. Once you discover this identity, then you should settle down and focus on one market. Like Hoop suggested, if you want to give futures a whirl, you may want to start with their corresponding ETF's. Almost all of them have one now. Admittedly, stock trading for the most part is dead, at least intra-day. I think a large part of that is actually due to ETF's. Most of the "dumb" money has given up on stock selection and instead are focusing on sectors and niche ETF's. This is actually a good thing on their part. But bad for traders who take the other side of their trades. I gotta warn you though, the futures markets are not handing out any welfare checks either. They trade very differently then stocks and they trade very different from each other. It might help if you first try to identify what kind of trader you would like to be. Trend follower, swing trader, momentum, mean reversion, etc. Then try to find the market that best fits that style.
http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/marc-fishers-house/view/?service=1 For you home gamers out there, here's a little taste of what ACD can do for you.
Wow... I know its not right to be envious, but wow thats a pretty amazing house. Any idea of how much he started off with? Thanks for the post on the futures, I appreciate it. I guess my answer would be more in terms of a swing momentum trader. I've read this book 'A traders first book on Commodities' http://www.amazon.com/Traders-First-Book-Commodities-Introduction/dp/013324783X it was pretty good, but most I had already learned about in college. Any suggestions on books or other resources to learn about the futures market more? I have a buddy who runs a small group at the CBOT and has offered to let me use his group to lease a seat, but said he couldn't really help me along the way. His clearning group wants 50k and I won't be able to hold overnight (which I feel like is a disadvantage to me as I prefer more of a swing trade approach) What I kind of need is someone to just show me the ropes of futures market (front month ect..), I don't really need strategies. Are there any firms in Chicago that if I opened up an account might help me out? I don't think I actually need to be on the floor, however I have heard it can be an advantage. For example if you are trading beans and then you see a breakout on the chart, but notice the option pit on the beans is kind of dead, it could be a clue that the breakout is false and you might want to reverse your position.
As someone who knows several people who own clearing firms, I can tell you that very little money is made from them. Clearing firms stopped making good money right about the time Fisher started his. That's when short term interest rates plummeted. Being that Mark at one time was the "largest" energy floor trader in the world, I'm sure he pulled out enough ticks to set himself up nicely. I will say he did pocket some coin on his NYMEX seats when they were bought out by CME.
Would it be accurate to say Fisher doesn't really look at chart patterns? He prefers to know pivots, number lines, ect..?
I don't think Fisher has ever mentioned a pattern. At least not the standard ones you read about in technical analysis books. He believes in formulating a bias and then managing the risk around that bias.
In the book he mentions that if you have 100 different indicators telling you one thing, but ACD is not confirming, then don't take it. But like Mav said, I don't remember him ever mentioning other technical patterns that he watches for.