I have been considering getting into trading treasury bond futures using depth of market/order book, but I am having some qualms about whether it is the right path.
I have a little over $3m and I am in my early 30s. I am a corporate lawyer (with lots of finance experience so I have a decent grasp of finance although not much experience with derivatives). But I don't want to stay in this field. But given my young age and the family we're starting (one kid), I can't just leave my job....I don't have enough money to essentially retire....I need to bring in some income. That is why I became interested in trading.
But I could just invest some money into a hedge fund or prop fund trading treasury bond futures using depth of market who are probably a lot better at it than I could ever be (OTOH the funds charge fees). There is also the question of whether that is the best return that I can get with that money. I have financial advisers and hopefully they are picking good investments and are more capable at doing so than I am.
So it really only makes sense for me to pursue trading treasury bond futures if I can reach the point of (i) making a pretty sizable amount of money each year (say $100k pre-tax) and (ii) making a pretty high ROI (so I make that $100k using a pretty small amount of capital...maybe $200k or even less if possible). I have no idea whether these things are realistic. I know it would take awhile for me to become good. And then I know that I would be up against algos. Personality wise I think I would be well suited to trading but I can kind of tell that it probably is not what I am looking for.
There is a great thread here in ET that explains some of the Order book/DOM techniques.
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/can-it-be-done.228757/