I think its great that you are searching for what best fits you, but le me save you a lot of time, money, and energy. What do you want to do in the market? scalp? position trade? swing trade? intra day trades? narrow that down.. then go to the next step? what can you do to better your trading style? I personally trade patterns and break outs .. but not itn he ym because it doesn have a large enough point size for me.. i don't like e mini 500 due to 4 ticks = a point.. i love mii russell and crude oil.. r2k is very challenging to trade.. do not trade it until you are ready and it may not ever be what you are lookign for.. study the volume and price action.. you need to start by pickign a time frame. remember a 5 minute bar is made up of 5 1 minute bars, 10 30 sec bars, and 30 10 sec bars.. watch what is happening intra bar as it is forming. Watch the volume and go with the med to short term trend inta day .. I have been much more successful and have had less stress when before the open I say .. ok I am going to only get long today .. or I am only going to get short today.. i focus only on those set ups throughout the day. ym is a great place to start trading.. i also like some of the writings by DBphoenix on the trade2win.com board. Do not waste time sim trading.. I personally believe it sets you up for disaster.. you can open a very small mini fx account for about 500 bucks.. great way to play on the cheap. Good luck.