Hello, I have been trading stocks and options for a while, albeit part time. I am planning to day trade S&P E-Mini futures. Ofcourse, first step is to get a education. I thought of signing up for a course which looked very good on their website, and then came to Elite Trader and found that I was about to get ripped off. My question is, for a beginner like me, is it better to sign up for a trading room for a start and build the skills from there? Is signing up with a mentor is a good idea, if I could find a good one :-(. I am researching following trading rooms, LBR Group, NationalFutures.com, and TradewithLogic (Teresa Appleton). Any advise on others? Thank you. Also, can you guys recommend good mentors. Thank you. This site is a gold mine. Thanks for all the contributors. Best Regards, SBTrader
SB - I would start with the CME and CBOT's website - they have many educational FREE items there. You could spend hours there clicking around and downloading PDF's. In my experience, A LOT of the educational vendors out there are basically pushing what you can get for free there. You may not get glossy binders with it, but it's a good place to start. Next, click around ET as this question has been asked over and over again. I see now why some guys just stop posting to these particular threads b/c you are simply repeating yourself. Good luck and welcome to the ES! PS Don't rule out the NQ or EC either!
SB- Click on the SEARCH button, upper right, and put in your search criteria. I'll bet there are at least 1000 pages on trading the ES. Good luck- Don PS- I was wrong, there are over 9000 pages
SB - one more idea - check the Journals area out on ET as a number of those journals are about trading the ES.
sbtrader, Were you successful at trading stocks and options? If so just modify your strategy to fit the emini then stay in simulation mode until you have it down. At that point start small and go for it. That is what I did and have been very happy with the change. I still do some options but daytrade the ES. Hope that helps, 4re
Thanks for all the suggestion. I will definitely check out all the suggestion. If you guys know of any good mentor, please let me know, or PM me. Thank you very much. 4re, I was largely doing position trading in stocks and options. In options I was not doing directional trading, instead income strategies. I figured day trading is totally different. Thank you. Best Regards, SBTrader
sbtrader You are correct directional trading is where the golden nuggets are. e-mini Es (trade instruments with the largest volume because the setups are followed by many others and that is what you want in your setups). A word of advice: trade one instrument such as ES, get to know it very well, then as time comes you will get a feel of what is next. Support/resist levels as they travel from one to another is what others are also looking for. Many say using simple strats is not good, i disagree, what you want is FRIENDS in your setups. Good luck and keep focused day in and day out. Playing hopscotch is fun when we were kids but playing hopscotch will never allow you to become proficient in the ES. Stick to stock index, forget EC, that is a horse of a different color, not to mention that the primary mkts in currencies are when we in this country sleep, getting well rested to fight the ES when the pit opens. I assure you...following just one instrument like ES as a 5 minute daytrader is all a well rounded individual needs and provides more than enough action, profits setups etc. To prove that point, think of all the money that the ES traders leave on the table every day. Remember hopscotch and jumping rope is for kids not serious traders. Good luck.....as for a mentor, if you can find one it would be sweet. Many et folks give good advice but in the same breath i must say many are just twisting in the wind and are totally lost. In the long run you will only learn from making the common mistakes that we all went through to acquire the skills and mindset to play the ES. Many in the forums have bombed out and say the ES is trash, yet many make a terrific living. In general, much advice from ANY forum is more to confuse than to learn from. What is going to be helpful and what is garbage is for you and you only to wade through. Again, good luck, please be advised the learning process is expensive, so trade ONE contract at a time, you need MORE time than money my friend. :eek: CME web site is indeed a good spot to start.
I disagree that the EC should be kept away from. I would consider the ES and EC together. Yes, the argument is to learn 1 and just 1 market at the beginning and I won't argue there. However, the EC is a great additional market to consider b/c the ES at times is very choppy and congested. Maybe your trading style capitalizes on that, but if not, you are stuck staring at little movements on 1 market. If you are looking at 5, 10, 20+ minute charts, looking at 2 markets is not going to be terribly difficult in my opinion. If looking at 1 or 3 minute charts, it may be hard at first. It really all depends on YOU and YOUR trading style. I would highly recommend monitoring the EC and ES and the previous poster said forget the EC.