I am a novice trader of the futures market. In particular, the e-mini Russell 2000 because of its liquidity, low investment, and high potential gain. I have been trying to achieve a reliable and consistent strategy to pull even just a few points out of the market a week. My results thus far have been weak. I have had some gains, but my losses slowly eat away these gains and then some. Consequently, I see my account slowly decreasing. Does anybody that reads these things trade futures and have any advice or a decent strategy on how to consistently gain a few points a week in the futures market? Thanks in advance.
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4 Comments on “What is a good strategy to day-trade the e-mini’s or other futures contracts?”
Rabbit 12th October 2009
Wow, a "novice" daytrading futures, that’s like riding a motorcycle ‘flat out’ on the first try. First, find a trend, and as a beginner, find a big trend (oil or corn perhaps) and go with the flow. (never buck the trend, never)
The traders have all the news well before you do, so if you are trying to nickel and dime your way to riches by picking a little spurt to long here or a little sag to short there, don’t–they’ve already done it and moved on by the time you spot it.
Also, be very, very careful of the proportional share you trade with, compared to the larger account value. I was trading potatoes once, um, a while back, and some rich guys tried to steer away from a long-established trend. I got a margin call during one of their ‘force it’ moves and the brokerage confiscated my whole account value and sent me a bill for the rest. Instead of paying off my mortgage, I was paying on my debt for two years. Without the extra traffic, the general trend was right and I would have profited nicely–but I didn’t have enough reserve for when it suddenly went radically against me. I do have one consolation, though, something like 90 millionaires got caught in a still larger default, and several dozen went to jail.
Feel lucky that your account balance is "slowly decreasing"–things could be much worse. Check the charts for agricultural spreads and straddles, many of the patterns I used to rely on don’t work any more, but see if you can find some of your own, then play it safe. If nothing else, go to currencies and short the dollar and go long on almost anything else. Good luck.
zyberianwarrior 12th October 2009
dont even think about it rookie you will lose your shirt, house and whatever else you value.
carlos z 12th October 2009
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katerschenko 12th October 2009
There is no ‘one ‘ good strategy. You need to develop your own strategy which will be different from mine.If everyone used the same strategy or the same software we could not possibly make money.
Three tips: A money management plan [ to ensure you do not lose all your capital ], never risk more than 5% of your capital on one trade,do not overtrade.
2] Have a risk management strategy… decide on your pain point, have stop losses on each trade but be careful as the stops are often taken out by other traders if the stop is too close to your entry point. Always have two exit points one for profit and the other for pain.
3] Ride your winners and be mentally strong in over riding your emotions to cut your losses.
Finally, remember the markets are not human, they are erratic and ultimately they will go where they want to go.
You are the human but you need to become supremely emotionally detached from market movements.
In your favour, an account slowly decreasing is a good start, most beginners are wiped out in a couple of trades so, well done!