Duxon's Archive

[expiated]

@studentofthemarkets

Regarding some of the comments you made to ET contributors whom I have on ignore…

NOTHING is harder to make money with than binary options. Accordingly, I will NOT be comparing trading U.S. index futures via AMP with trading binary options via NADEX or Deriv.com. Rather, I will be comparing it with trading foreign currency pairs via OANDA. It will not be a fair comparison though, because the only two options AMP gave me with respect to leverage were 1:1 or 1:200, whereas the maximum leverage permitted by U.S. regulations when it comes to Forex is 1:50.

All that notwithstanding, I CAN close early when trading via NADEX, up until the last three minutes before expiry. As best as I can tell though, unlike how they operated in the past, Deriv.com no longer allows traders to close early at all, or at least not when it comes to foreign currency pairs.

The starting balance I selected for my AMP demo account was $1000, because if I open a live account, I am likely to do so with no more than that, and no less than $500.

I will be trading YM, EP, ENQ and RTY. Also, the approach I am using does not involve scalping as I define it. My goal is to trade with the two-hour and/or two-day trends, so I am not trying to get in and get out all that quickly.

 

[expiated]

NOTE TO SELF - Generally speaking, when trading the U.S. indices, the maximum settings I will be using are 3.5% deviation for the four-day price range, 2% deviation for the two-day price range, 1.1% for the eight-hour, and 0.50% for the 90-minute. The Russell is very different from the other three though, and therefore has its own separate maximum settings.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

@studentofthemarkets
NOTHING is harder to make money with than binary options.

Well, that answers my question then, thanks. I will definitely be sticking with futures for my own trading.

@studentofthemarkets

The starting balance I selected for my AMP demo account was $1000, because if I open a live account, I am likely to do so with no more than that, and no less than $500.

I will be trading YM, EP, ENQ and RTY. Also, the approach I am using does not involve scalping as I define it. My goal is to trade with the two-hour and/or two-day trends, so I am not trying to get in and get out all that quickly.

That sounds like a good plan!!!

 

[expiated]

That sounds like a good plan!!!

If I am seeing what I THINK I'm seeing, it sounds to me like that was an impossible plan...

If I apply my understanding of place value to the prices on these indices, each unit of the DOW, NASDAQ and Russel is worth $6.25, $20 and $50 respectively. (I was unable to trade the S&P 500 and therefore could not perform the same calculations on that index.)

Consequently, I had to scalp the futures, because I could not afford to set my stop loss far enough away from the entry price to trade with a two-hour or two-day horizon.

But, this is crazy! If I'm not misunderstanding the above record, theoretically, I could DOUBLE my $1000 deposit TODAY—BY THE END OF THE NEW YORK SESSION!!!

So then, I will have to wait until I am ready and willing to "throw away money" before I will try trading futures via AMP with a live account, if ever. For one thing, it would be WAY to easy to go about losing my capital in a "fast and furious" manner. For another, I kept getting messages saying I'd entered an "Invalid S/L or T/P" when I would try to trade the NASDAQ sometimes, and when I would try to trade the S&P EVERY time.

I will have to find out/understand why this was before I trade real cash. And finally, I find the price action on these instruments to be extremely spastic and jittery. I don't like it at all. But, what the hey... If I could make a thousand dollars a day, every single day, I could learn to live with it.

WAIT A MINUTE!

I just remembered that I could have selected 1:1 as the amount of leverage with which I would have been trading. So, if I open a live account with AMP, THAT'S what I will do (instead of 1:200, which was my only other choice/option their platform gave me) so that I can enter positions at key levels and then sit back and let them run without being afraid that I might lose the shirt off my back if things turn against me. However, this would put futures on an equal footing with foreign currency pairs (i.e., no more making a week's worth of salary trading just a couple of hours a day).

 

[studentofthemarkets]

If I am seeing what I THINK I'm seeing, it sounds to me like that was an impossible plan...

View attachment 263785

If I apply my understanding of place value to the prices on these indices, each unit of the DOW, NASDAQ and Russel is worth $6.25, $20 and $50 respectively. (I was unable to trade the S&P 500 and therefore could not perform the same calculations on that index.)

Consequently, I had to scalp the futures, because I could not afford to set my stop loss far enough away from the entry price to trade with a two-hour or two-day horizon.

But, this is crazy! If I'm not misunderstanding the above record, theoretically, I could DOUBLE my $1000 deposit TODAY—BY THE END OF THE NEW YORK SESSION!!!

So then, I will have to wait until I am ready and willing to "throw away money" before I will try trading futures via AMP with a live account, if ever. For one thing, it would be WAY to easy to go about losing my capital in a "fast and furious" manner. For another, I kept getting messages saying I'd entered an "Invalid S/L or T/P" when I would try to trade the NASDAQ sometimes, and when I would try to trade the S&P EVERY time.

I will have to find out/understand why this was before I trade real cash. And finally, I find the price action on these instruments to be extremely spastic and jittery. I don't like it at all. But, what the hey... If I could make a thousand dollars a day, every single day, I could learn to live with it.

WAIT A MINUTE!

I just remembered that I could have selected 1:1 as the amount of leverage with which I would have been trading. So, if I open a live account with AMP, THAT'S what I will do (instead of 1:200, which was my only other choice/option their platform gave me) so that I can enter positions at key levels and then sit back and let them run without being afraid that I might lose the shirt off my back if things turn against me. However, this would put futures on an equal footing with foreign currency pairs (i.e., no more making a week's worth of salary trading just a couple of hours a day).

Something doesn't seem right to me. It's easier to understand the increments in ticks. The Dow is always $5.00 per tick, the Nasdaq is always $5 per tick and the ES is always $12.50 per tick for the e-minis. And micros are 1/10 the size of the e-mini contracts. I have no idea what you mean by selecting a leverage amount. I just go by the margin required.

Why are you looking at the e-mini contracts to start off with? Micros won't bleed your account as fast and still give you the potential to make money fast.

The ES is the calmest of the indexes, so you probably won't think of it as being spastic/jittery.

The micro ES has a margin of $40 required. This is a 5 minute chart and it shows the amount in ticks and dollars the distance of 2 possible trades.

Before you give up on the idea of trading futures, I'd just like to ask you, do you like the look of the 5 minute micro ES chart? Is that something you think you'd like to trade? If not, then maybe forex is the best fit for you.

Time zone on the chart is central time.

 

[expiated]

Something doesn't seem right to me. It's easier to understand the increments in ticks. The Dow is always $5.00 per tick, the Nasdaq is always $5 per tick and the ES is always $12.50 per tick for the e-minis. And micros are 1/10 the size of the e-mini contracts.

No doubt this is true, but how is it reconciled with the account history in Post #544 that was provided to me by AMP Global USA?

Why are you looking at the e-mini contracts to start off with?

That's what was offered in the MT5 platform I downloaded from AMP.

I have no idea what you mean by selecting a leverage amount. I just go by the margin required.

When AMP walked me through the steps for setting up a demo account, the only options they gave me for leverage were 1:1 and 1:200.

When it comes to ticks, as best as I can tell, they mean one thing when dealing with this asset, and yet, another thing when dealing with that one.

Consequently, when conceptualizing ideas so that they make sense to me personally, I use terminology that does not change in my mind—hence my analysis in terms of units.

For example, Investopedia states that: "Point, tick, and pip are terms traders use to describe price changes in the financial markets. A point represents the smallest possible price change on the left side of a decimal point, while a tick represents the smallest possible price change on the right side of a decimal point."

However, when I look at the numbers along the right side of the e-mini Dow candlestick chart, there is nothing on the right side of the decimal point. So, what is Investopedia talking about?

No need to answer... I'm just saying that this is why I was using my own vocabulary to get a sense of what was happening with the money in the account as I was trading.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

No need to answer... I'm just saying that this is why I was using my own vocabulary to get a sense of what was happening with the money in the account as I was trading.

It's OK. I will answer anyway.

I just think in terms of ticks because it's the smallest increment that can be traded on futures and it's what I use for scalping. Points are the dollar amount. You're right that YM doesn't have anything behind the decimal, and because of that each increment can be called a tick or a point.

Micros indexes are 50 cents per tick except for the micro ES which is $1.25.

 

[expiated]

I'll use what you typed and what SunTrader typed in another thread to figure it all out. And I'll also send an email to AMP concerning what you wrote about leverage, margin, having me trade e-minis as opposed to micros, etc., and see if they actually send an email back to me that addresses my questions.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

and see if they actually send an email back to me that addresses my questions.

They've always been very helpful when I've called them or used their online chat. I hope they will let you trade the micros in demo too.

 

[expiated]

They've always been very helpful when I've called them or used their online chat. I hope they will let you trade the micros in demo too.

No, when I contacted them by email, Victor just sent me a six-word response saying: "Yes micros are available on demo." Woop-de-doo!!!

When I used their chat to ask where on their website do I go to request it, after getting transferred twice, I finally got Johnny, who simply gave me the link for downloading the MT5 platform, which I already downloaded yesterday.

If you give me a link to apply for an AMP micro futures demo account, I'll check it out. Otherwise, I'm through with these guys.