Can you make a living trading futures?

[tymjr]

gemini: “Do you day trade or do you hold positions overnight?”

I predominately daytrade but I will periodically hold small positions overnight that have already moved significantly in my favor.

“I am looking to improve my risk to reward ratio and am considering holding positions overnight. Any thoughts on this?”

It would all depend on your method, your account, your risk tolerance…etc.

I know, through my experiences, that it is not necessary to hold overnight to achieve a good average profit to average loss ratio (Avg P/L Ratio). As I said, depending on certain factors, there is nothing wrong with holding a position overnight if you’ve found a way to limit your risk within parameters that are acceptable to you.

“Also, how many points are you normally trying to pick up?”

As many as I can.

I don’t regularly shoot for a particular target for each setup. I employ a method of trade management that attempts to maximize my profits in different market environments. I have an Avg P/L Ratio for each of my setups but I don’t necessarily pull the plug on a trade based on this information.

For further info, please see the link to gemini’s earlier question:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=24803#post24803

 

[MORE]

daytrading Eminis SP and NQ

There is something I don't understand very well :
Limit up/Limit down. I read about on cme.com but it results not very clear for me. How to know that limits ? Where is the danger ?

thank for comments

 

[tntneo]

yep, IB DOM is very late.. it is polled not often enough (true for ECNs too at IB).
Just change the polling time.. please..

Is it useful ? Not right now.

well, if it was fast enough, I surely would not enter some trades sometimes. (well optimizing the entry or exit).
The CME java display is faster but it does not have IB nice 'cumulative volume' feature.

I even believe the CME java is on time (maybe only internet lag).

Again, I don't use them in normal market conditions, but during the summer I made some good money scalping with it while everyone was dying with longer setups.

any extra info related to price and volume is valuable, it has to be timely and accurate of course.

tntneo