Screenshots of trades posted in Real time trades by realjumper 2 replies
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Hunt & Trades Futures From Futures Hunter 8 replies
Script/EA to balance losing trades agianst winning trades 23 replies
Daily Trades = Lazy Trades Journal 7 replies
DislikedSo basically what you are saying is it is smarter to just cover your postion and then enter a new position at the beginning of the next contract period? How do I know when they periods end?Ignored
DislikedI looked into this once, but one of my problems was not being able to get into and out of positions on the same day unless you open with $25K. This is the "pattern day trading rule". Maybe this has changed by now (but I doubt it).
With Forex, you can get into and out of positions all day long! From what I vaguely remember, with equities/futures, you can only do that 3 times before they require more funds to meet the minimum required. I don't think this was a specific broker rule. Let us know what you find out if this still applies.
FrankIgnored
DislikedI looked into this once, but one of my problems was not being able to get into and out of positions on the same day unless you open with $25K. This is the "pattern day trading rule". Maybe this has changed by now (but I doubt it).
With Forex, you can get into and out of positions all day long! From what I vaguely remember, with equities/futures, you can only do that 3 times before they require more funds to meet the minimum required. I don't think this was a specific broker rule. Let us know what you find out if this still applies.
FrankIgnored
DislikedYea I am also confused on how to read the symbols, is the exp month included in the symbol?Ignored
DislikedI've always remembered the $25k rule only applied to stocks, as this was no more than a knee-jerk reaction on the government's part from the daytraders who went broke during the dot com boom and bust. You can scalp futures all you want for $2k-$5k*... and in fact, some brokers even encourage it by enticing customers with volume discounts on commissions.
* The typical minimum balance at futures brokers.Ignored
DislikedYep. For example, if you want to trade the E-mini S&P 500, you've got ESM07 for June, ESU07 for Sept, ESZ07 for Dec., etc.Ignored
Dislikedso the letter signifies the month??
M is june
U is sept
Z is dec
am I right???Ignored
DislikedYep. I think the lettering system is explained on the various exchanges' (CME, CBOT, NYBOT, etc.) websites.Ignored
DislikedDood this is a great thread to breathe some life into Futures on this forum. you can trade currencies on futures so this is legit here. way cheaper and more professional to trade currencies on futures.
currencies move much more differently than equities. if you are trading dax, stoxx, s&p you can watch eurjpy, gbpjpy, gbpusd for correlation. many times you'll get the breakout on s&p during US session and make money on dax or stoxx with small stoploss. equities trade in a much tighter range while currencies whip around knocking out stops from the banks' perspective. banks can see all of the stops and move the market easily in currencies cause banks own the market. equity futures are awsome. they trade in a tight trend. it's not the country club mentality.
i am trying some new things. i've only been learning futures for one month so if you caught the bug like me then get familiar and you'll be running in no time. what i'm doing now is taking direction on the stoxx+dax+s&p. if we have trend confirmed by all then i look to GBPUSD or EURJPY and get in on wild bank spike and ride it back down where it should be. all banks know currencies spike like crazy. that is why their stops don't activate until close of candle. there is too much noise/hardship in currencies. the way to capitalize on this is to trade like i mention. take volatility into your favor. banks know that previous 30 pip spike means nothing so why not trade with them than against them.
that's just one thing i'm working on. volume shows some other interesting stuff too.Ignored
DislikedOk ill have to check that out..
any other major tips for futures trading?Ignored
DislikedBesides the usual tech. analysis and money management... none I can think of. I think we pretty much covered all the peculiarities of futures.Ignored
DislikedI used to trade with PFG... then Hammer, which was a division of Refco. Fortunately, by co-incidence, I closed that account a few months before they collapsed. The collapse of Refco sent huge shockwaves throughout the futures world as they were the clearinghouse for the CME. If you don't know much details about that, I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry on them.
Anyway, I've just been trading equity options the past two years or so, and occasionally play around with the $1000 I got parked at Oanda. I want to get a good system developed before going back into futures, and will probably go with Interactive Brokers.
IB is nice in that you can trade almost every market in the world with them, and their commissions are the cheapest out there. However, their platform and customer service has much to be desired, as they cater to "hands on" traders who want to program and build their own platforms.Ignored
DislikedFor my money the best platform and commissions is TradeStation. I use limit orders, get no slipage, just a nice voice: "Order Filled" really, realy fast. Instantaneous equity monitoring, very pleased.Ignored
DislikedFor my money the best platform and commissions is TradeStation. I use limit orders, get no slipage, just a nice voice: "Order Filled" really, realy fast. Instantaneous equity monitoring, very pleased.Ignored
DislikedI trade futures with tradestation and I have not had any problems with them. I have been trading globex products since 1999 and I have used many platforms. I have never used IB as a broker but I have heard good things about them. I use tradestation because of the automation and the programming language.
Start up fee’s for futures are sort of a hidden cost. Obviously the margins are bit higher. You have to pay for all of your quotes CME $35-50 and CBOT free-$50 monthly. Depending on what platform you use you might have to pay a monthly fee for that as well. $100-$500 and up.
I trade manually and automated. I use FX futures for my automation stuff. Most of my entry orders get hit while I am sleep and I always get good fills. I have had an instance or 2 where my target price hit and I didn’t get filled. Yes, I was upset but I understand with futures that I am not guaranteed a fill unless the market goes through my price. When I use the matrix screen to place scalp orders I always get the price I want.
I only trade electronic CME products and occasionally the $5 Dow at the CBOT. You have to have live data to trade the products electronically on tradestation.Ignored