Advice for new trader

D

deb_shaw13

Hi everyone,

I've decided I'm going to try out trading futures as a part-time career. I want to play with a simulator for 6 months before I start trading with my own capital. I have about $25k saved up for this business venture. I was a part-time research analyst for Refco while in university, so I do have a basic understanding of how this works (I used to cover equities). I also intend to fully document my trading experiences in a blog with ebooks, and I have an ad network lined up that can push traffic to any digital products I publish. I have extensive experience in the internet space, so this is one of my strengths.

I've installed NinjaTrader, signed up for a practice account with Velocity Futures, eSignal and Trade The News. I intend to spend quite a bit on training. I also have a 9-5 job, so my goal is to trade after-hours. I don't want to quit my job and trade full time until I can sustain a basic standard of living.

Here is my dilemma: I know that most of the action is news-driven that occurs during market-hours. What securities should I trade after work? Are there any that display good volatility that make it "fun" to trade? And maybe more importantly, if you were in my position, what would you do to learn futures trading after 6PM Eastern Standard Time (North America)? Thanks for your help everyone,

Deb
 
foreign fixed income such as euribor or short sterling.....you probably need a mentor and alot of time in practice before you start.
 
Quote from deb_shaw13:

Here is my dilemma: I know that most of the action is news-driven that occurs during market-hours. What securities should I trade after work? Are there any that display good volatility that make it "fun" to trade? And maybe more importantly, if you were in my position, what would you do to learn futures trading after 6PM Eastern Standard Time (North America)? Thanks for your help everyone,

Deb
More...
CME Curriences during London hours ... and for what you're doing here, you don't need Trade the News, it's a waste of money.
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Start studying and researching strategies, risk management and money management.
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Since you're new and exploring the opportunities, try working with the automated trading setups in NT, this way you could trade (while keeping an eye on your ATS) and work at the same time.
 
Oh yeah, if you want to trade term structure products fixed income or for scalping there is foreign equity index futures and also "yuck" FX......
 
Henderson:

Sorry for the newbie questions, but what are term structured products? Are they liquid enough to trade for scalpers? I like the idea of trading a foreign equity index, I might try trading the DAX.

Mandelbrotset:

Thanks for the advice. I'm really put off by currencies, I think I might try looking up commodities that I can trade on London time (early in the morning),

Deb
 
More liquidity in the fixed income than other markets look at open interest as a good proxy.....

Get used to looking at the EUREX and LIFFE exchanges. Its a late night but pays well. There is enough action in the outrights for decent scalping and you can spread it off (into months or areas of the term structure). Galen Burghardt's Eurodollar Handbook is a great read on this.
 
and I fully agree....start as conservative as possible, get training that you don't pay for from some rip-off firm, and get a mentor to help you. PM/email me if you get started in fixed income and have questions.
 
Quote from deb_shaw13:

Hi everyone,

I've decided I'm going to try out trading futures as a part-time career. I want to play with a simulator for 6 months before I start trading with my own capital. I have about $25k saved up for this business venture. I was a part-time research analyst for Refco while in university, so I do have a basic understanding of how this works (I used to cover equities). I also intend to fully document my trading experiences in a blog with ebooks, and I have an ad network lined up that can push traffic to any digital products I publish. I have extensive experience in the internet space, so this is one of my strengths.

I've installed NinjaTrader, signed up for a practice account with Velocity Futures, eSignal and Trade The News. I intend to spend quite a bit on training. I also have a 9-5 job, so my goal is to trade after-hours. I don't want to quit my job and trade full time until I can sustain a basic standard of living.

Here is my dilemma: I know that most of the action is news-driven that occurs during market-hours. What securities should I trade after work? Are there any that display good volatility that make it "fun" to trade? And maybe more importantly, if you were in my position, what would you do to learn futures trading after 6PM Eastern Standard Time (North America)? Thanks for your help everyone,

Deb
More...

1) If you are going to have a blog, don't spam us by posting it here. It is against the terms of service and rather a rude thing to do. Sponsors pay for the privilege

2) if you are serious about learning and not a lowlife (#1), then stay far away from scalping. The slippage, commissions, fees, chances of broker/trader error are about the same as someone who holds for hours or days, and even serious traders struggle to overcome this huge drain.

3) Regardless of what most say, probably 90% of new traders try to use things like TA indicators, Gann, Elliott Wave, Fib, simple candlestick patterns and other junk. And 90% lose. And they do not test well in the studies that have been done. If it is easy or published in a Trading for Dummies book, it does not work. But that will of course trigger the howls from the believers and other paper traders. But again, probably 90% of traders use these, and 9o+% lose. Do the math

4) You need to become REALLY good at money management (leverage, stops, profit targets) and trade management (entries, exits, % of account leveraged, diversification). REALLY good. The most important statistic is Risk of Ruin. It is about 100% sure for almost every profitable trader, eventually.

5) 6 weeks of paper trading profits means absolutely nothing. And you likely are not really accounting for the trading costs
 
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