Noob question about futures

[3dawgs2533]

Hi, all. Just joined the forum yesterday. I've been playing around with paper trading futures (/6N, /ZW, etc), usually trading just one contract with my fake $10k account. If/when I decide to ever move real $$ into my account, is it possible to trade just one contract if the signs all look good to me? For example, I went long on /6N recently, and it worked out. I was wishing I'd done it with real money!! Is that all there is to it?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[dangkevin]

You can trade as many contract as you want. If you are new, I would look at MES and MNQ. Trade small first to build your confident.

 

[RedDuke]

Hi, all. Just joined the forum yesterday. I've been playing around with paper trading futures (/6N, /ZW, etc), usually trading just one contract with my fake $10k account. If/when I decide to ever move real $$ into my account, is it possible to trade just one contract if the signs all look good to me? For example, I went long on /6N recently, and it worked out. I was wishing I'd done it with real money!! Is that all there is to it?

Thanks for any tips.

Yes you can trade just 1 contract. Your ability to trade more depends on the margin. Check with you broker.

 

[3dawgs2533]

Thanks, all. Is there anything different with futures as opposed to stocks that I need to be aware of? I know futures contracts have an expiration, but since I'm planning on swing trading these, maybe that doesn't matter? Thanks again.

 

[speedo]

Yep, that's all there is to it....pick the red Ferrari.

 

[dangkevin]

Futures have no day trading rule, buy and sell as much as you want. Contract expire every 3 months. More fun to trade than stocks except when you lose money.

 

[IAS_LLC]

Biggest difference is you can lose a lot more money than you put at risk due to margin. Read up on futures margins/leverage. You can buy an ES contract for ~$500....but you can lose a great deal more.

 

[RedDuke]

Thanks, all. Is there anything different with futures as opposed to stocks that I need to be aware of? I know futures contracts have an expiration, but since I'm planning on swing trading these, maybe that doesn't matter? Thanks again.

It does only close to expiration. Just load next contract and once volume about the same just start trading new one.

Futures are traded in a single exchange to you do not have that whole crap with 50 exchanges and hft

 

[MattZ]

If you are afraid to take on too much leverage, you can ask your futures broker to set the lots to ONE only.

 

[murray t turtle]

Yep, that's all there is to it....pick the red Ferrari.

%% LOL;
actually that's all there is to a sim account, But a simulated polar bear + simulated bull elephant =big difference between those+ real animals/markets. I like the way IBKR does it- in the unlikely event of a margin call/situation-they simply auto liquidate /sell. Bad fills usually but a bank doing an auto repo gets a bad fill, but quick price...….