Future account with 5k...which brokers?

Quote from CollegeTrader:

scale up in size = problem solved.

Well, that's the entire premise of the thread - starting with a $5K account precludes that.
 
Hey man, not sure what prompted you to give the sermon but all the original poster asked was a recommendation for a broker.

Yes; and what you write is mostly correct. Dont see how it could help someone who is interested in the market to learn. Stop pursuing the interest and get a regular job.. and dont think about trading. Will that make you happy. What is your point?



Quote from bone:

This entire premise of high frequency manual trading, of scalping, of daytrading - the odds are just really daunting these days. Intentionally choosing to compete directly with machine-created turbulence that operates without emotion and in a rules-based realm - on a tic-by-tic basis.

The concept that some kid in Boise with a PC, a $5K IB account, and some common TradeStation indicators wants to survive in that timespace occupied by the automatrons... I find that to be naive and a bit depressing.

The concept of some guy manually scalping 300 positions per day with a mouse and a keyboard as an effective strategy that endures and holds up over time is incredibly rare. Not impossible, but rare. In that respect, I am afraid that I would agree with EMG about the success rates for retail traders.

The notion of someone opening an account with $5K to scalp ES based upon tic data and common variations of standard technical indicators is just nonsensical in this day and time - might have worked swimmingly in the past, but the bots and the algos dominate the domain in today's environment.

All of these fresh young faces looking to learn to daytrade with that image which endures circa 1998 tech boom or those silly youtube promotional videos - well, good luck.

It is a complete waste. A meatgrinder, a virtual waste dump for broken and naive souls perpetuated by retail brokers and "training" educators and charting package providers. Look at 90 % of the forum material on ET. Every day we see a fresh thread started by some fresh faced kid wanting to learn how to day trade, or scalp, or trade 'price action'.

The pity is that some of those naive newbies ultimately would have made excellent traders.

You just cannot be common. You must Zig when the everyone else is Zagging - and I am not talking about fading markets. I am speaking strictly about strategy. The last thing you need to be doing in the marketplace is replicating what you perceive to be some sort of "blueprint" defined by others living off your vigorish.
 
Quote from shamund:

Thanks all for the constructive recommendations; I had initially decided to go with Mirus, but b/c I work at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, they required a bit more approvals.

I will look into the firms suggested.

Jesus, you don't give them legit employment info. Anyone with the coin and a pulse can open an account.
 
Fair enough - i did in fact assume you mean all you want is to trade with 5k.

I've been a fair amount of work on figuring out minimum trading sizes for strategies in the futures space; I don't think even 25k is enough for meaningfully testing a decent futures strategy with any chance of making good money these days (I echo bone's sentiment. There's no more low hanging fruits in futures space anymore).

You are going to georgetown, eh? Good for you - you probably don't want my advice at this point, but I'd suggest you try to use the great resources that that education and insitution offer you and see if you can land an internship at a decent shop (I know I know, I'm assuming you aren't already doing that - if you are - awesome; good for you). I think you'll see that books like Disciplined Trader, Trading for Living is VERY far from the bleeding edge of the modern trading is.

Quote from shamund:


I plan to read several books (Disciplined Trader, Trading for a Living, Candlesticks Explained) on this subject and then do some simulated trading, while all the while adding to the $5k account that I "opened." I plan to research and become familiar with the markets over the next 6 to 8 months before placing an actual "trade." By this time, I will have put aside approximately $20-25k that I can risk.

For some odd reason you "assumed" that $5k is "all" I have to trade; quite the contrary. That's all I'm willing to put into an account at this moment.
 
Even if you had only 5k there is nothing wrong with starting at that amount. $500 intra-day margin gives you 10 lots to play with. Begin trading 1 lot and you are using 10% of your capital, which is a reasonable amount. Don't listen to the people critcizing you. I think you're better off starting small. Personally, I wouldn't even increase the account to 20 or 25k until you are successful with the 5k.

Quote from shamund:

Dude if there is anything idiotic, it's your assumptions...and we all know what happens when we assume. First of all, who said I planned to "trade" with only 5k?? I specifically said "open an account." And if you had done any research from more established traders and authors who have written on the subject, you would know that they suggest starting with a relatively small account from 5k to 10k.

I plan to read several books (Disciplined Trader, Trading for a Living, Candlesticks Explained) on this subject and then do some simulated trading, while all the while adding to the $5k account that I "opened." I plan to research and become familiar with the markets over the next 6 to 8 months before placing an actual "trade." By this time, I will have put aside approximately $20-25k that I can risk.

For some odd reason you "assumed" that $5k is "all" I have to trade; quite the contrary. That's all I'm willing to put into an account at this moment.

Moral of this story: become more informed and a bit more constructive in your approach before ass-uming and making worthless posts.
 
Listen to this guy - he actually knows what he's talking. Future point sizes are large enough even for eminis that almost no reasonable trading strategies trading 1 lot won't blow out 5k.

Quote from bone:

Well, that's the entire premise of the thread - starting with a $5K account precludes that.
 
Stops are not free. People often forget that on this board. How many ES points is $500 or 10%? How often will that happen? Will it happen before your strategy has a chance to work (or are you perfect in your entry timing?) If not, how many times will you lose that 10% before you hit a win (even if that will run a huge profit)?

Things to think about.

Quote from the1:

Even if you had only 5k there is nothing wrong with starting at that amount. $500 intra-day margin gives you 10 lots to play with. Begin trading 1 lot and you are using 10% of your capital, which is a reasonable amount. Don't listen to the people critcizing you. I think you're better off starting small. Personally, I wouldn't even increase the account to 20 or 25k until you are successful with the 5k.
 
Maybe think about all of the electronic funds wiring charges you are going to incur simply because you were idiotic enough to start a futures account with $5K just for the sake of proving some non-sensical point about what exactly who can be sure - that somehow discipline ( or ? ) is gained with the prospect of going down with a just a few rookie mistakes, perhaps ?
 
Stick with the 5k and 1 lot.. That will give you (+/ -) 70 -80 points(pending on commissions and freq. of trades) on the ES to figure it out before you have to ante up again.

Going with 10 lots on 5k will give you a margin call with only a couple of ticks against you (of course you could sell 1 or 2 to cover)

Start small. No need to start out with 25k. Obviously starting too small with say 600.00 would be silly giving you a 2 pt margin of error before you would have to ante up again.

I am opening an account with Global Futures. They have 400 or 500 intra margin pending if you go with RCG or openecry(ES). They also have some promo going on with 300 margin(ES). I didn't read up on though since its only a 100 bucks less.

Good luck!
 
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