AMT4SWA Trueliquidity Lindq Opt789 Tango29 Crtrader AAA30 AAAinthebeltway I appreciate all of your replies, and advice! Have a great 4th!
I don't want to rec any s/w, as I am not up to speed on what is available now. There have been some recent threads on s/w, plus you can look at the s/w section of the site. What is optimal for you depends on numerous factors, including your programming ability, what you trade and how important cost is to you.
Trading the ES with 100 contracts with other people's retirement money? There must be a law against this.
There are many others but to get you started you can look at NinjaTrader. Its free and I think would work well for backtesting one item like the SnP. Its already been said but I will take it one step further. You IMHO should never trade more than one car at a time until such time as you feel you have a consistent profitable edge in the market. With trading the ES the odds are highly against you actually being able to reach that point. So why not find out with one car instead of 10 or even two. As a RIA would you recommend someone new to daytrading start with anything higher? Now with that being said I don't think you should even start out with the ES. If you want to be in futures start out with the NQ but otherwise the SPY is a great method. There is no such thing as a free lunch. You can not consistently gain by daytrading unless you have an edge that is greater than transaction costs + risk of ruin odds. If you can focus on what your doing and trying to learn for a year or more without worrying about trying to make money you may have a chance. If you just step up to the plate and try to grind out money from day one you have found the path going broke in a hurry. Best of luck to you Bob P.S. perhaps your clients could be put into some GE that is paying 4.3% and you could right some calls against it and take the proceeds and buy some puts to give you a delta neutral position. You would lock down 4% for your clients and if the market continues down you look like a hero. GE just being one example that I am working with myself for the same reasons. There are other stocks right now that can do the same thing
If you feel like you made a lot of money in 1 trade then you are trading too large of size. LOL, seriously thats a pretty good rule of thumb.
Please read the thread. I addressed this. I am trading my own account. And yes, there is absolutely a law (numerous) against a broker or advisor using their clients own money to trade with for personal gain. Not only would that be nuts to do, the person doing it would belong in jail. I'm wanting to daytrade actively (my own money. lol!) in about three years, and know ZERO about scalping, or daytrading as I use a system for managing retirement assets, that is "ocean's apart" from day trading, or scalping. Therefore, I was basically asking for guidance from daytraders who trade to generate an income.
As you have indicated to us that you a RIA would you not you have a lot of contacts within your fraternity that could direct you to successful daytraders...you have plenty of time and opportunities as you will not be "daytrading for another 3 years".
I've taken a look at ninjatrader. It looks like it will do what I need. Instead of papertrading right now, I should probably do some more research, backtesting, then starting with 1 contract, and see how that goes. As a RIA I don't recommend anyone daytrade with assets they cannot afford to lose. If they wanted to daytrade retirement assets, I would tell them that wasn't a good idea at all. I have a couple of Physicians retirement assets under management, and these guys like to trade a couple hundred grand with Schwab, Etrade, etc., In looking over those statements, there are usually many more losses than gains... Why the NQ over the ES? As for the SPY, are you going long/short with leverage? I appreciate the recommendation on GE! That's a good strategy! Sounds like you've been through a bear market a time or two.
The answer is oddly, no. I don't know any brokers, or other RIA's who know any successful daytraders. I guess that's because my "realm of contacts" if you will, are mostly managing retirement assets, which is totally different. I've spoken to several CFA's, guys at the clearing firm, people at the trade desk, etc., with no luck. One broker knew what I was talking about, but he wasn't experienced in daytrading, nor did he know anyone who was. You guys are the only people I've spoken with who know daytrading outside of the million and one different seminars, and marketing organizations who sell "systems." Who would sell a working system if it worked? So, you guys are about it when it comes to advice (mostly), and I pay close attention to it.