Trading e-minis with $1k starting capital

[austinp]

<i>"My plan is to papertrade for at least a week to gain confidence in my system."</i>

That's a fine first step. While you are starting fresh, let me repeat myself and strongly, strongly implore you to demo-trade the NQ.

The ES is by far toughest emini to trade. You have to work the hardest for least amount of money relative to other eminis, simply due to its nature. The ONLY feature ES has above all other contracts is size... open interest. That's it, there is no other advantage ES holds.

NQ is slower paced, much more directional when it comes out of consolidation at key points on the chart. You can actually trade it with a -2.5pt initial stop (-$50) seeking +5.0pt profit objectives (+$100) and prevail. The frequent +10pt (or greater) pops are what really drives an account balance higher.

In the ES you are battling big money and automation for small gains... they create the noise by attempting to profit from it. The NQ has much less of those games, it is the lowest hanging fruit on emini tree right now.

Give yourself every edge, every cushion possible to succeed. Trade the most forgiving market, not the least forgiving. If your #1 objective is profits above all else (above the personal challenge, ego, accomplishment, etc) than you need to work where most probable chances for meeting that primary objective exist.

 

[fearless9]

Quote from austinp:



The ES is by far toughest emini to trade.

In the ES you are battling big money and automation

Give yourself every edge, every cushion possible to succeed. Trade the most forgiving market, not the least forgiving. If your #1 objective is profits above all else (above the personal challenge, ego, accomplishment, etc) than you need to work where most probable chances for meeting that primary objective exist.

excellent advice Sir

regards
f9

 

[mgabriel01]

IndexS - thanks for starting this thread (and throwing yourself on everyone swords for that matter!)

I've learned a great deal from it

AustinP -- what are your thoughts on intraday YM v NQ? (or ES for that matter)?

Quote from austinp:

<i>"My plan is to papertrade for at least a week to gain confidence in my system."</i>

That's a fine first step. While you are starting fresh, let me repeat myself and strongly, strongly implore you to demo-trade the NQ.

The ES is by far toughest emini to trade. You have to work the hardest for least amount of money relative to other eminis, simply due to its nature. The ONLY feature ES has above all other contracts is size... open interest. That's it, there is no other advantage ES holds.

NQ is slower paced, much more directional when it comes out of consolidation at key points on the chart. You can actually trade it with a -2.5pt initial stop (-$50) seeking +5.0pt profit objectives (+$100) and prevail. The frequent +10pt (or greater) pops are what really drives an account balance higher.

In the ES you are battling big money and automation for small gains... they create the noise by attempting to profit from it. The NQ has much less of those games, it is the lowest hanging fruit on emini tree right now.

Give yourself every edge, every cushion possible to succeed. Trade the most forgiving market, not the least forgiving. If your #1 objective is profits above all else (above the personal challenge, ego, accomplishment, etc) than you need to work where most probable chances for meeting that primary objective exist.

 

[mgabriel01]

I respectfully disagree with this advice


signs of concern (If I was the OP, I'd be concerned)

the OPs account has moved sideways for over 2 weeks --- and is now net negative

he is generating alot of trades, and far more commisions for the broker than profits for himself

he has trading days where he loses up to 20% of the total value of his account on any given trading

he is changing his strategy on the fly

time to regroup- and trade paper for a while --- food for thought:
if you can't double your account trading paper ---- you probably can't double it trading real money

just my 2c

Quote from SusanaDT:

Don't let this dumb asses discourage you.

You got to 1200+ and now barely below 1000. That's just a pullback in an uptrend.

Looks like discipline is your biggest hurdle, not your strategy.

Besides, you playing with 1K, not exactly something hard to recover from. In the meantime the education received will possibly be much higher than anything else out there as far trading goes and that's assuming the experiment fails. My point is, even if you fail, you will succeed.

Good luck to you and best of skill in your journey.

Susana

 

[MandelbrotSet]

Quote from bakrob99:

I thought the risk was limited by the stop loss. How would the trading capital base increase risk?

Perhaps you mean - sounds like you won't have much of a cushion. I'll accept that - but risk is a different animal.

To begin with, Don Bright is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, so the reason he doesn't beat his chest like the rest of us monkeys is because he doesn't have to ... now, continuing in the educational vein of the thread and to use football analogies:

1. Risk is never limited to stop loss. A fast moving market will blow through your stop loss quicker than a dominant offensive line will blow through its weaker counterparts on defense, sack their quarterback and bustup his ribs for good measure.

When you see that you're down twice your stop loss and the market is still moving against you, you'll know what I mean.
***
With an account that is too small in relation to the indicie being traded the focus is on not losing, whereas the focus should be on:

1. a very strong defense,
2. consistent execution of your game plan,
3. an excellent running game where you can constantly move the ball into advantageous field position,
3. with an occasional high profile pass which gets you over the top and enables you to consistently win the game.

However you rebuild your system IndexScalper, try to always be cognizant of who is in control of the ball on a macro level (Bulls or Bears) before executing your play (trade) on a micro level.

Believe it or not, it is excruciatingly difficult to lose consistently when doing so.

Good Trading.

 

[MandelbrotSet]

Quote from mgabriel01:

Itime to regroup- and trade paper for a while --- food for thought:
if you can't double your account trading paper ---- you probably can't double it trading real money

just my 2c

change "double your account" to "triple your account ... twice" and you will have hit upon the key to sequeing from using a SIM account to trading live.

Ah, it's so refreshing to just talk about trading.

Good trading.

 

[good one]

good to see you take a step back. To me the reason traders fail at such a high rate is that they want to fly fighter jets before they even know how to ride a bike.

Also, you don't have to prove anything to anyone. Trying to take 1k to a career to prove your the incarnate of Livermore is just foolish.
Step back, learn to pick up the crumbs that the great traders leave behind because they are too big to eat them. Those crumbs are still way more money than anything else you can really get at outside of trading.

 

[rcn10ec]

[... what price likes is history. It is a history buff. It is drawn to the scenes of the almighty battles of the past where the bulls and bears have poured thousands of contracts into a say 5 tic range.]

f9,
I know you like the ES so using it as an example, in your opinion, what timeframes are most helpful in finding the battlegrounds, or would using range or tic charts be helpful in finding them? Also, do you look for big volume in general or do you look at the size, rate, or number of block trades?

Much obliged for you guys taking your time to share. (f9, austinp, etc...) It's like what has been posted by you guys is just falling into place for me and it IS helping my trading. rc

 

[increasenow]

Quote from austinp:

<i>"My plan is to papertrade for at least a week to gain confidence in my system."</i>

That's a fine first step. While you are starting fresh, let me repeat myself and strongly, strongly implore you to demo-trade the NQ.

The ES is by far toughest emini to trade. You have to work the hardest for least amount of money relative to other eminis, simply due to its nature. The ONLY feature ES has above all other contracts is size... open interest. That's it, there is no other advantage ES holds.

NQ is slower paced, much more directional when it comes out of consolidation at key points on the chart. You can actually trade it with a -2.5pt initial stop (-$50) seeking +5.0pt profit objectives (+$100) and prevail. The frequent +10pt (or greater) pops are what really drives an account balance higher.

In the ES you are battling big money and automation for small gains... they create the noise by attempting to profit from it. The NQ has much less of those games, it is the lowest hanging fruit on emini tree right now.

Give yourself every edge, every cushion possible to succeed. Trade the most forgiving market, not the least forgiving. If your #1 objective is profits above all else (above the personal challenge, ego, accomplishment, etc) than you need to work where most probable chances for meeting that primary objective exist.

excellent advice on the NQ...do you solely daytrade the NQ...?

 

[austinp]

<i>"AustinP -- what are your thoughts on intraday YM v NQ? (or ES for that matter)?"</i>

YM is fine from what I see, haven't traded it in years myself. I do see where it breaks directionally a bit better than ES, both track closely unless Dow and Comp are divergent intraday.

In today's case, ES and ER both opened somewhat flat and dropped lower while NQ pretty much held its daily pivot and other supports. The other symbols reversed off lows where one would expect them to, while NQ just lifted straight from support.

Less guesswork, fewer reversals in NQ than other eminis. The 250 tick chart for NQ paints about same number of bars (straighter) as 500 tick chart in ES. What does that tell us? ES has twice as many price changes while price movement stays sideways.

NQ and YM are the easiest of eminis, if "easy" is a term that applies anywhere in trading at all. Clearest or most forgiving are apt terms of description