From 2000 to 2004, I sold options on futures on the phone (unsuccessfully) and worked in the brokerage back office. I've attended futures conferences and read many books, including books about taxes on trading. I tried to trade options on futures on a very small scale unsuccessfully. Now I'm going to try to day-trade emini futures full-time.
I will try to use some indicators to help decide entry points. If the market confirms the direction of the trade within, say, 5~15 minutes, I will stay in til I make 4+ points or more (if the market continues). If the market does not confirm my entry, then I will exit. I hope to limit losses to, say, 4 points. Obviously I may lose more in fast markets, or gain more if the market goes in favor of my trade.
Over time (weeks, months) I hope that I can at least break even on winners vs losers. I think one key will be whether or not I can win more each trade than lose each trade.
To the extent I can do that, then I am counting on compounding (as in compound interest) at a relatively quick rate (compared to, say, "stockes compound at ~9% / yr over the long run") to build the account to hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions in 3-5-10 years.
Another critical key I'm counting on is to increase the number of contracts I trade as the account grows, and reduce the number of contracts whenever the size of the account goes down (per Ryan Jones - The Trading Game, Playing by the Numbers to Make Millions, a rather opaque book about cash mgt). Hopefully this will maximize the effect of compounding during increases, and reduce the risks during draw downs.
I think I am self-disciplined enough to make it work. We will see.
Any thoughts on my strategies from successful traders?
