Yeah been successfully swing trading stocks for over 7 years now. But the last year I have been getting tired of doing it. Analyzing hundrends of Charts a night, reviewing so many Income statements, Balance sheets that your face turns blue,getting an overnight downgrade on a holding or preguidance to the downside,and being on the short end of the stick when news comes to light about company corruptnes bringing down the price etc ..etc...etc... It just racks your brain and becomes "unfun" after awhiile at least for me Recently, have just been starting to trade YM futures. I have been studying intensively about it for months now. And have taken the next step and have started to intra- day trading it. And I tell you what. Its tough and not easy but after doing it for awhile in the last month I tell you now I will NEVER trade stocks again !! NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN. PERIOD , FINADA , END OF STORY !! No studying Charts til 3 in the morning. And NO overnight downgrades to worry about again No worry about whether I should be trading in the tech sector or oil sector or blue chips. Its just me against the YM And for a number of years I have heard many other traders talk about this but I just scoffed at them and told them they were nuts to trade such a risky endeavour as futures. I was nuts not to get involved with futures sooner. Iwill never go back now. BTW, I know there is alot of competition in eminis but if you are patient enough and start out very small I believe it can be the way to go for many traders !! Right now I am trading 1 contract of YM And will do this for at least 3 months. I may add another one by Summer. Mainly using three strategies that have been working good. I fad the premarket Gaps. I also use candlesstick charting on the 1 minute and five minute charts trading Hammers, Dojis, and engulfing patterns, (with stochastics at bottom to confirm entry points), And finally I trade using a 9day ema and 18day ema crossover with OBV used to make entry points clearer. And BB which is used as an exit tool indicator. This strategy is more for following the basic Trend of the YM for the day than the other two above. The main point I can say that really has benefitted me so far is the principles I acquired in risk and money management thru swing trading stocks for so long. Its clearly applicable in scalping the YM and I have found it an easy and successful transistion . And the emotional stability I have developed over the years in trading stocks has really been of great value in trading futures. Anyway, I wish I had been more involved with futures earlier. And learned more about them before now. Any comments or valuable insight about emini futures from other more experienced future traders would be appreciated. Thanks !!
Be careful, leverage can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you use it or abuse it. I have seen both sides of that coin first hand. Have a plan in place in case the CBOT goes down, which it does to hedge against your open position. I agree I like futures. I trade NQ, ER2, and possibly QM soon as well. I don't like YM as much, because once you get really good and want to pile on contracts, the YM doesn't handle much volume relative to say NQ and ES. Forget the ES IMO, it is polluted by program trading and computer bots. Good luck and use the seach in top right. There is alot written on trading futures on ET, including the YM. Dan
The thing is if you were involved in futures much earlier, do you think you could have done as well as your stock trading with what you had known at that time? (Food for thought). Congrats on the switchover though; there's 359 different ways to trade the markets and no one ever said you had to stick with 1 Definitely though anyone doing futures or starting out in it can trade 1 or 2 contracts for a few months and build up a nice balance by compounding all or some of the profits garnered by shooting for a few ticks each day on said lots. After which point of continued profitability, the lots can be raised a bit...and then again.
Ahh yes I share your passion for trading futures. There was a good post that gives a list of reasons why we prefer futures to stocks Rather then repost the message, here is the link to that post: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84523 CajunSniper / Puretick.com Administrator-Trader
The volatility has gone to hell. I was just thinking of going back to stocks. hehe Probably will tough out the low volatility for now given you just reminded me why I left stocks behind 6 years ago. p.s. you might educate yourself on the wonders of futures options.
In the US indices perhaps. Plenty of volatility in FX futures, crude, gold, Asian markets, etc. Broaden your scope.
Been there, done that. Didn't suit my trading style. "a man has to know his limitations" - Clint Eastwood
jimmygold, would you mind telling us a little more about your method? seems pretty simple, and sometimes those are the best systems.
if you have a trading system that works, then you have nothing to worry about. But if you are hoping to work out a system as you go along, then you might lose everything. Remember trading futures is about risk management. If you ever find you are in trouble in the future (I hope it never happens to you), then drop someone a line and ask for help. We are all here to help future traders!! We have all been there when we needed help and someone helped us without requiring anything from us!! It's us against the Wall Street big bad boys!! http://lauristonletter.blogspot.com/