WOW !! I have been swing trading stocks for over 7years now. And was also heavily trading Options for a few years. And recently, been trading YM futures on Simulator. And I must say intra day trading on YM is just absolutely overwhelming and unbelievably dynamic !! ( And from what I hear ES and NQ are much so more) After just a short time doing simulator I think I am just going to throw in the towell and move back to my ole bread and butter of swing trading stocks. I have a long term proven track record of success there. You cats who make it fulltime at these futures have all my utmost admiration. You guys are Gods ! I will be starting out in futures with a measely 3k to begin with and I have noticed that ALL my stops in simulator are repeatedly getting hit because they have to be tight. (1.5% per trade of my total equity is a rule of thumb , so 3k go figure) This is just with one contract. I totally get it when you guys say you really have to be well capitalized to even have a glimmer of chance with these futures. Anyone who thinks differently is fooling themselves. If you start out with 50k you can have much more wider stops. Like for one contract you could have a 150pt. stop loss on 1 YM contract. What a nice scenario that would be !!! Room for the YM to play out and a better chance for you to have a successful trade. If I do get started with live trading I realize that the 3K or so is money that will already be gone. Money that is the expense of opening up a new business. Being in this business awhile, I realize that. Its tough , but I know thats what it takes to be successful. Went thru the same thing with regular stock trading. That being said, are there any suggestions of dealing with this scenario of having a small amount of capital in YM and consequently NOT having any wiggle room for stop losses ??? Or is it just too violatile and dynamic of a market to deal with this ?? I have a strong strong suspicion there is no other answer except to get better capitalization or go ahead and count this 3k as tuition money. In all honesty after this eye opening experience with futures I think rather than paying this 3k business expense and then putting up more capital I will just stay with my proven successful endeavour of swing trading stocks. Thanks for any insight, comments or suggestions from felllow traders.
<i>"If you start out with 50k you can have much more wider stops. Like for one contract you could have a 150pt. stop loss on 1 YM contract. What a nice scenario that would be !!! Room for the YM to play out and a better chance for you to have a successful trade."</i> With all due respect, please stick with what is working for you now. You are many months away from understanding the emini game... stay on sim and don't leave until you are nauseous over how consistently profitable you are. Give the natural learning curve its time