Starter Account Size for Emini S&P?

Quote from bwolinsky:

Do the math: $50/point. 1000 points basically in ES. What's $50*1000? There's your answer.
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That is the most stupidest thing I have ever heard!!

5 k under normal circumstances should do just fine, however nowdays many of the brokers require more margin than usually because of the extreme volatility. Check that out with your broker what they require for margin these days. But I strongly doubt you have to put up more than 3 k for margin, so 5 k should be just fine!

Good luck
 
newbies look for brokers who offer $500 es day margin.

gamblers look for brokers who offer $300 es day margin.

long term survivors trade on 3~4x overnight margin.
 
My feeling is if you can trade you can start with 1,000. Sounds crazy but why risk 20,000 if your just starting out in futures. I have heard of many who have succeded with less money more frequently than those who did. How so? with little money you cant afford to screw around and take those lets see what happens trades. Secondly if and when you grow your account to 20+ thousand you did so by trading and learning, not by funding. And if your going to blow up im sure it hurts more to lose 20 k rather than a few thousand. There are many cases where people stared with nothing and grew there account modestly over time. Best advice i can give is get on a demo and treat it as you would with only a few thousand dollars trading 1 contract. The goal is to limit your exposure while looking for trades that offer the best opportunity. Asking how much to start with varies. Some people have the talent and eat breath and sleep this stuff and to those people who take trading with a failure is not an option approach can probably do fine with less than 5k starting. while others may need the comfort of 20+ thousand. I might get attacked for this post but i can care less. Best trading to you.
 
Quote from CollegeTrader:

My feeling is if you can trade you can start with 1,000. Sounds crazy but why risk 20,000 if your just starting out in futures. I have heard of many who have succeded with less money more frequently than those who did. How so? with little money you cant afford to screw around and take those lets see what happens trades. Secondly if and when you grow your account to 20+ thousand you did so by trading and learning, not by funding. And if your going to blow up im sure it hurts more to lose 20 k rather than a few thousand. There are many cases where people stared with nothing and grew there account modestly over time. Best advice i can give is get on a demo and treat it as you would with only a few thousand dollars trading 1 contract. The goal is to limit your exposure while looking for trades that offer the best opportunity. Asking how much to start with varies. Some people have the talent and eat breath and sleep this stuff and to those people who take trading with a failure is not an option approach can probably do fine with less than 5k starting. while others may need the comfort of 20+ thousand. I might get attacked for this post but i can care less. Best trading to you.
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Excellent answer! Might as well just close this post now - need to say no more..
 
Quote from KingZardoz:

50,000 or 500,000 or whatever the hell you want
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14 posts and registered this month?

You are an ass, or, what was you previous/multiple alias?

jeees, should be a screening process on ET.
 
honestly, a lot of traders are well meaning but really out of touch here...kinda like being out of touch with "Joe the ES trader"...those that say you need $10,000 or $20,000 or even $50 or $100k to DAYTRADE trade 1 ES contract is crazy...totally crazy. In my opinion (my opinion only, do your own research) $5,000 is way more than enough to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract. If you are going to hold the position over night that is a whole different ballgame. But come on guys, I believe that even $2,000-2,500 is enough to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract with the right safeguards in place...mental and hard stops, automatic max loss feature locked in...how is "Joe the ES trader" to get $50k or $100k or even $10k to trade with in order to gain "trading experience" etc...this concept of needing more than $5,000 to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract is well meaning but totally out of touch with the average "Joe the ES trader" dudes...BUT, to the person who opened this thread...do all of your research and ask questions and again, note this is my opinion and my opionon only...no trading recommendation to you...best trading to you!!
 
Quote from increasenow:

honestly, a lot of traders are well meaning but really out of touch here...kinda like being out of touch with "Joe the ES trader"...those that say you need $10,000 or $20,000 or even $50 or $100k to DAYTRADE trade 1 ES contract is crazy...totally crazy. In my opinion (my opinion only, do your own research) $5,000 is way more than enough to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract. If you are going to hold the position over night that is a whole different ballgame. But come on guys, I believe that even $2,000-2,500 is enough to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract with the right safeguards in place...mental and hard stops, automatic max loss feature locked in...how is "Joe the ES trader" to get $50k or $100k or even $10k to trade with in order to gain "trading experience" etc...this concept of needing more than $5,000 to DAYTRADE 1 ES contract is well meaning but totally out of touch with the average "Joe the ES trader" dudes...BUT, to the person who opened this thread...do all of your research and ask questions and again, note this is my opinion and my opionon only...no trading recommendation to you...best trading to you!!
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I have to agree with you, and I certainly will do my research.
 
My Plan

5k Starting Balance
(1 point stops, 5point daily profit target net)

Add: 1 contract for every 5k net accumulated up to 5 Contracts

Add: 6th Contract when 60k net operating capital has been acheived. 1 contract per 10k up to 10 contracts and 100k.

Then maybe 20 contracts when 200k has been achieved, who knows...
 
Quote from EminitraderDM:

Am I on the right track here?
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I know nothing about your trading techniques, but short-term could mean minutes or weeks. Please specify.

If minutes, and you have been trading a few years, there is no reason why you need to reserve overnight margin amounts for intraday trading. None at all. I started with $1500 and a $500 margin per contract, and never looked back.

I papertraded forever before going cash, but like I said it depends on how long you have been trading. Another factor is what systems you use, yours or someone else's. There some black boxes and gurus out there with such obscene stop orders that you need a full overnight margin amount just to safely trade them, albeit without profit, such as a 50-pt stop loss to gain 7 points profit (PureTick).
 
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