Index Futures Trading

[m3power222]

If you like forex and options, futures is hands down takes the best of both. Been trading futures for 2 weeks and absolutely amazed/impressed. Had a friend tell me about it in December when I was really liking options trading and was having good returns so really didn't investigate further. I was trading index/sector options via fundamentals. Ever since Obama (time frame reference so not knocking the prez) got into office seems the market traded more on "hope". This caused me to hold onto options positions as they went south on me. So really haven't been trading as capital was tied up.

So I got free time and looked into futures as I remember my friend saying it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. All I can say is wow as I'm trading the index mini S&P. The insane thing is trading is done with no news/indicators/fundamentals/etc. Trading purely price action/trend on a 1 min chart. This isn't get rich quick but it appears to be consistent.

The biggest disadvantage about options is the time decay if you are buying in the beginning of the contract month (after 3rd fri) monthly. Futures contracts, no time decay and if need be role over the contract as they are quarterly.

Forex trading platform is pretty much the same as futures (buy to go long, sell to go short). Forex can't trade indexes as it is for currency. Basically it's 2 different countries battling it out. Futures, can trade indexes i.e. emini S&P.

Your prob wondering what is a emini S&P. It is a scaled down contract size. A full on futures contract for S&P is $1250 a contract. EMini contract is $12.50.

Only thing you need to learn about futures is the terminology for price. So every .25 move is called a tick. 4 ticks ='s 1 point.

So what I've been trading is 10 emini contracts ($125) to turn a 2 to 4 point ($1000 to $2000) profit daily. Most of the time I just got for 2 points. I only trade between 7:30am-9:00am pacific. So after all the noise settles from market open to before noon when the traders go to lunch. Average trade takes 10 minutes. In/out lock in profits, shut the computer down and go enjoy the rest of the day.

I got the strategy from watching these videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/daytradetowin
I have no affiliation to this person but was very intrigued about his strategy of no indicators/news and trading purely price action. So simple I can't explain. Trend trading in it's simplest form.

Perhaps some of you will try it and hopefully get the same results. I'm hoping it is not just beginners luck. I've taken screen shots of my trades. You can see the time frame and direction of the trade to the target.

Hope this will benefit some trades out there.

[m3power222]

Trades/Charts

The trend is your friend until the very end, don't trade against the trend. As you will see not all of them are the best entries, but the trend carried me through.

[jweigh]

I'm interested in your approach. I trade the emimis as well as other indices and currency futures. A newbie of three months. I have tended to use cross trades in the direction of the trend. Not bad results but not great either.

So what is you entry strategy?

Where are you based?

Regards

[FuturesTrader]

Unless you are talking about roundtrip commission on an e-mini, the 12.50 per contract appears to be erroneous. You must have around $6,250 in equity for each E-mini contract you trade if you intend to trade overnight, or about a fourth that if you want to stick to the regular session. Also, as a round trip commission, $12.50 is very expensive. There are places as low as $4.50 per contract.

I took a look at the YouTube link of a live trade. He left too much on a table on a clearly opportune entry.

[kevinlee]

I'm curious how this guy is doing now. I've been a futures trader for over 10 years... great market, but difficult for newbies to make money unless they're using the right strategy.