Trading e-minis with $1k starting capital

Quote from IndexScalper:

Feel free to comment, expecting well deserved criticism...
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Here's my critique:

You are foolish to be trading such a volatile contract with so little performance bond.

You're going for gains when you should be managing your risk (far, far more important at this end of the spectrum).

The only contracts you should be trading are the NQ and maybe the YM.

Funny, I thought you knew this.
 
Amen to that.

ER2 is my favorite stock index instrument.
But I gotta tell you, it has reduced me to tears so many times in the past, trying to trade this animal with less than $2,000, that I finally smartened up.

I'm still rooting for IndexScalper, though.
 
You broke YOUR daily max loss rule. And fwiw I agree with the various posters suggesting you trade a different instrument.

I have done this MANY times... that is, taken a sub 2K account and worked it! Trading ER, your daily loss limit of 10% account value is too low. Has nothing to do with intraday margin. ER and ES will blow you out with a small account if you don't have 100% accuracy, everyday the account has a sub 2500 balance and a 10% account value daily loss limit. And since you aren't working with daily goals, you lose the luxury of "forecasting" your account growth and basking in your successes and correcting your failures. Just as example, if your daily profit goal is 8% of account value, starting with 1100, after 10 trading days you will double the account. That is doable. And just like daily loss limits (which you MUST employ), you adhere to the daily profit goals. That doesn't mean to close an open trade just because, but it does mean the trade gets a hard stop, and when closed, you're done for the day. fat, happy and on target or better. Do I need to mention what that type of consistency means to a trader? Or what kind of momentum that creates?

Switch to NQ or YM. Your goal is 2-fold...
1) Stay in the game
2) Grow the account
In that order!

Good trading to you
Osorico :)
 
Traded awful and made several mistakes on the ES. I really need a positive day to get my confidence back.

Products traded: ES, ER2
Contracts: 27
Opening balance: 1,113
Closing balance: 977
Net P/L: -136
Discipline: 4
 
Quote from IndexScalper:

Traded awful and made several mistakes on the ES. I really need a positive day to get my confidence back.

Products traded: ES, ER2
Contracts: 27
Opening balance: 1,113
Closing balance: 977
Net P/L: -136
Discipline: 4
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Today was a tough day to trade ES
 
Quote from HolyGrail:

Today was a tough day to trade ES
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Every day is a tough day to trade the ES bro.

It started out with the usual head-fake lift-off, turned around dropped ... no plummeted to find support, consolidate for a while, and then provided a steady lift-off from mid-morning into the close.

It's a hard beast to game, but when you do, oh boy, when you do ... it's freak'in El Dorado, that's what it is! :D
***
To the OP, Osorico has a ton of experience on both sides of the fence ... if I were you, I wouldn't take what he says so lightly ... I don't. :cool:

Best wishes man, but you look kinda hard-headed.
 
Quote from HolyGrail:

Today was a tough day to trade ES
More...

Actually found it rather straight-forward today and I'm not a fan of the ES (only when it trends hard). Setup doesn't get much better than that nice double bottom between 810 and 845am after a hard early am drop. Took 10.25 pts on two longs.

IMO and like what others have expressed, high frequency and under capitalized scalpers will lose to the ES in current environment. $1k start with such tight stop losses is just too difficult when it's chopping 2-3pts in 3min time frames. That would drive me nuts and IMO are better off playing some trending pinksheets where doubles on small capital are rather common these days.

OP, can you come up with $5k+ and then use your strategy? You're not giving yourself a fighting chance.

Osorico has it right...consider switching to the NQ.
 
<i>"ER2 is my favorite stock index instrument. But I gotta tell you, it has reduced me to tears so many times in the past, trying to trade this animal with less than $2,000, that I finally smartened up."</i>

Once upon a time the ER was pure gravy to trade. Smooth, wide swings and trendy in nature. That lasted for a few years, but it's changed dramatically of late.

Yesterday and especially today I saw the bid/ask spread a steady two-ticks wide... sometimes three ticks wide in the first hour of trading. Bid 698.10 ~ ask 698.30 and would trade next fill at 698.40 or 698.60

Also made a number of 1 index point ~ 2 index point whipsaws counter to the overall direction it was heading. Size on the dome is 1/2 to 1/3 what it was mid-year 2007. Hence the illiquidity and issues that follow.

I'd be surprised if there are 10 people total in this entire forum who have turned more ER2 contracts than I have since 2004. Trust me when I say it is a very different animal now than before, and much more difficult to trade for everybody.

I'd opine that a majority of former retail traders in ER either blew out and quit when volatility ramped, switched to other markets or some combination of both. Migration to ICE and uncertainty of its future also plays a role.

**

In a perfect world the ER could handle 20-lots or bigger, keep a tight 1-tick bid/ask spread and limit the counter-move spikes and whips to a minimum. Give us that and it'd be no problem to average +50pts to +80pts ER monthly ten out of twelve times per year.

About two ER sessions on average per week now are still gravy... but the other two - three are just like today. Sketchy to brutal.

This applies to all systems, methods and approachs in ER without exception. No one or nothing is immune to widened spreads, erratic movement and rogue spikes knocking out stops every which way. The days of stepping into ER and knocking it out of the park every session are, I'm afraid, over with. The dome and charts do not lie.

As for the ES, it was only choppy midday. The first hour and final hour were pretty clear trading, as I imagine the YM and NQ were too. The only symbol with real liquidity = erratic behavior issues right now is ER. Very good advice for small accounts to work the NQ or YM instead.
 
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