So I just opened a new account to trade futures. I've been trading stocks for the past 6 months and have done pretty well although that all may have just been good luck. I've been watching ES and YM and have been learning and reading everything I can about them and why I will lose all of my money. Im starting with a $5000 account and I have committed that if I lose $1000 I'll close the account and move the money back to my other brokerage and forget about futures for now. So my question to you all is in the poll. Do you think I'll make it to $6000 or $4000 first?
hi jack what stocks have you traded ? ETF's like SPY and DIA ? what type of trading did you do in stocks ? any overnight positions ? did you ever average down a loser hoping to break even or show a profit ? good luck to you ... but the odds are against a newbie making money esp in futures
Thanks for the encouragement. I traded a little of everything lately teen retailers and tech stuff. I started strictly daytrading but opened up to swing trades when I saw that I was missing some long-term potential. I averaged down when I started and that was short lived when I figured out that it was better that I just get out and moved on. Yeah the odds are against me but I cant not try.
look ... do whatever you want to its your money ... but I have suggested to others in small size .... while you refine your methodology with ETF 's SPY , DIA in this case as you wish to trade ES + YM a few hundred shares max ... maybe even 100-250 each trade with no more than 1 time to average down intraday if you feel you are not willing to take a loss and review what went wrong with the initial trade if you must do overnights ... and swing trade then start small build confidence in yourself and your methods ... using these ETF's then after 6 more months report back here on how you are doing and if you are ready to switch to ES + YM ok ... I am stepping down off the mike.... once again ... good luck to you
i completely agree with the ETF as practice strategy papertrading is great, but since it doesn't involve emotions, it's not realistic by trading ETF's at $1 per point (for DIA per 100 shares), you still get the emotional involvement, you still get slippage and fills realistically, and you can test your theories/system, etc. with REAL trading i traded DIA over 500 trades (intraday DIA scalps) for my system/methodology before i ever once tried to trade YM it worked great also, if your system works with DIA, it will work with YM. YM generally has better fills, etc. for example, i have seen crossed bid/ask with DIA and SPY on occasion. also, sometimes there is more of a delay in filling a DIA or SPY order than a YM order if it will work on DIA, it WILL work on YM and it's a great practice, with smaller size/drawdown
Another likely scenario is that you make it to 20K before going back down to 4K -- always keep that in mind. Good luck!
Wouldn't that mean I made it to $6000 first? Actually if I make it to $6K I will pull out $1K to bring me back down to $5K. My method of paying myself and securing capital.
If you really want to go further in your futures trading, you will probably want to give yourself more leeway for future drawdowns and just leave the profits alone for a while.
u traded stock....what went wrong? if u couldn't make it there'n'then what makes u think u got a better chance with futs? runnin' out of options (and money)?