Years ago, maybe a couple of years after the ES came out, I attended a series of trading seminars featuring experts none of whose names I remember at the moment except a guru who talked a lot about spending time in Thailand and who tried to sell us his book along with a compass-like thing for finding Fib ratios by hand. At the time, daytrading naz stocks was hot and a lot of people were so flushed with profits that having to shell out several thousand bucks for a weekend seminar didn't seem to prevent a grand ballroom from being packed with attendees. In any event, as I look back on it the most memorable part of the weekend was when one of the speakers got up in front of a roomful of stock traders and predicted that those of us who last will eventually end up migrating to the e-mini stock index futures. When he was asked why he thought that, his answer was "cuz they always do." In my case, at least, his prediction was accurate.
To me, daytrading the e-mini, the ES in my case, is everything daytrading naz stocks in the go-go years was pumped up to be. Of course, daytrading naz stocks now is not the same as it was then so the comparison has less relevance today. Nonetheless, without going into the details, my view is that trading stocks is relatively "easier" to pick up from scratch than trading stock index futures. Having said that, my feeling is that anyone who is operational in stocks is not entirely starting from scratch trading index futures.
How much work will be required to become operational in index futures will depend, I think, on how the person was operational in stocks. Good stock selection removes a lot of risk off the table for stock trading. For trading a single index, the analog to stock selection is perhaps participating only when risk is lowest and being sidelined the rest of the time. For directional traders in stocks, the transition may not be that difficult. For rebate traders, traders who play opening orders only, etc., becoming operational in index futures will likely involve some work. But becoming operational is, in the end, all about acquiring knowledge, skills, and experience. In your case, you will just have a head start compared to a person having no experience making money in stocks.
My suggestion would be to find someone who is successful and learn in person. If that is not available, start with the minimum (1 contract) and limit your participation only to those times you identify as presenting the lowest risk to you. What I just said may have little meaning to you, which is fine. It helps you assess where you are starting from. Knowledge is the easiest to acquire, as it can be got through study. A person can acquire skill through drills. Experience gives both knowledge and skills, but experience is obtained only through successful doing, which is not possible for most people learning on their own. So a person can start by acquiring some knowledge about trading index futures. Acquiring myths makes it difficult to obtain knowledge. A person starting out on his own should stay clear of those.
It's very similar to mine.
