Hi all, I would like to start by saying that I am not a veteran trader and have just started trading ES after almost 5 years of research (part-time). So there you are, please don't slam too much In my opinion, which is based on applying various trading strategies and hours of observing and reading, I have come to a conclusion that daytrading something like ES is quite possible, but as a few experienced traders have mentioned in their posts, is not for all. In this post I would like to discuss the very basic analyses of trading. My main understaing why it does not work for the majority of people who pursue the job of a daytrader is because they do not understand, that if their strategy is based on formulas designed by others, they have to keep in mind that floor traders and other major participants in the electronic trading know pretty much all well established analyses, therefore making it quite easy to squeeze the novice/scalper trader, whose stop losses are in the region of 2-3 points (assuming ES) away from entry. I have paper traded for a long time now and have seen it happen so many times, when my "predicted" general direction is correct for the day, but stop losses have been triggered before you get a chance to reach your "goal". That is why I agree with other posters, that if your capitalization is inedequite, stay clear of futures.
I would like to add the following to my above post. This is a real life story, that happened to my Mum. About 18 months ago she has been diagnosed with Ovarian cancer with stage 4 with metastases in liver and liquid forming in the abdomin area and lungs. She was in a bad way. In the very short time we had to research this illness, we have established that the chances of survival going along with traditional medicine are low. We have also met a Doctor, who used to be an oncological surgeon in the past and is now practising alternative medicine. She, herself, has had another form of cancer 15 years ago. Traditional medicine could not help as the cancer has progressed to various parts of her body. She knew that if she doesn't do anything - she will die. As a doctor, she knew that cancer cells love our body atmosphere and of course oxygen. So she decided to stop eating. She only drank a little water to sustain body functioning to the minimum. She has literally starved herself for 74 days! And the result was astonishing - the cancer seemed to just vanish. Sounds almost unbelievable, but it is a fact. But in the case of my Mother the conventional treatment could help, but no guarantees. At the time we (well she in fact) had to make a decision - which route to take. She has decided to take a risk and go along the route of not eating. She only drank some water and a little honeycomb for 24 days. To a lot of people, doing that, would seem crazy. But in fact what she did, is analyse the odds of survival going along with common established world medical practises. She does not have cancer at the moment. When we get cancer, the medical society is not really interested in explainging to us how our body functions, they are more interested in research, which leads to generating profits. Oncological treatments are extremely expensive - chemotherapy for instance, what wouldn't we pay to save the person we love? The above, in a way, can be compared to daytrading futures. Sometimes to win, we have to go against logic (ie trading strategies, various formulas, indicators, etc) - and that might seem crazy.
I have often thought that if I ever get cancer I would starve myself. Very interesting to hear about your mothers story. re: trading ES, the big traders do know every trick in the book so the best thing to do, imo, is stay out of their way and only trade when volume is high. When the market is moving fast, no one is in control. I avoid trading from 11:30 to 2 unless something unusual is going on.