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Hello fellas.
I am looking to getting into day trading futures.
Read a lot about it and it sounds super interesting and something I would love to begin doing and perhaps get into it full time in the future (pun intended)
I have gone through a ton of videos on how to make my first trade, or how to trade futures for beginners, but it seems non of these videos and webinars are really showing you how to physically do everything (form finding a broker to actually making the first trade)
All the videos are show/explaining is either what future trading is, or they simply just straight to a chart and a live trade.
Personally I have no knowledge on how to read these charts, how to analyse these charts, how to even find the stocks/futures that are being traded, and so on.
I am what you would call a full out beginner/noob when it comes to trading futures.
I do have stocks I am invested in but that is totally different from day trading.
Where do I begin? Where can I find ALL the knowledge I need to literally start doing this on my own?
I’m also interested and basically on the same page.
I’ve just started, and I’m in the process of reading a book on day trading, for learning at least the basics and fundamentals in order to understand what’s people are talking about here on the forum
In my opinion is to find a friend that can be a mentor. If you ask around, you will likely find someone that trades futures and will be willing to sit down with you and show you the ropes. I feel you really need someone to be able to ask the stupid questions to and learn the basics. I would not hire a mentor or join a trading group until you know the basics. Many of the trading platforms out there offer 30 day free trials that you can cut your teeth on, and almost all traders I know would be happy to sit down with you for an hour and show you the basics of buy/sell, long/short, candlesticks etc.
To be a good trader is 5% skill and 95% self control.
A lot of free, good content out there. Best money you could spend now would be to join Futures IO and get access to their trading webinars. Futures Trader 71 and Peter Davies with Jigsaw are two of my favorites on the webinars. Very different styles, but a lot of great insight.
Let me throw some fuel on the fire (or water!), a great TopStep Trader interview with SPX futures day trading legend and Market Wizard Marty Schwarz. He started out with a $50K stake.
At some point toward the end of the video he says he doesn't believe he can make money day trading SPX futures any longer and instead is trading neutral options trades such as strangles and making more money than he ever made in his career.
He also has an excellent book about day trading in size called "Pit Bull."
In my opinion the best platform to start with is tradestation. They are very reputable with a solid platform. Everything is included in terms of broker, platform, data, clearing... So you don't have to figure out all the moving parts when you're starting out. User interface is great. You can trade SIM. They have futures, options, stocks, etc.
Basically it's a great all in one package, when you don't know yet what you want or how you'll trade.
My other piece of advice is don't trade live for at least 2 years.
I do not want to be pessimistic. But, trading futures actively is basically for (1) professionals, (2) semi-professionals or (3) well-capitalized traders who only trade them at very modest leverage.
Here is advice for you as a noob so to speak. Feel free to disregard every aspect of it at your leisure or peril, whichever comes first. Also, I gave this training course about 30 seconds of thought and several of the decisions were arbitrary.
1. Before you get to use a 1 minute chart. I'd suggest you limit yourself to watching the quote only. Once you know where the market is at any time of the day with your eyes closed only then do you get to upgrade to an order flow program. During this time, you may glance at charts and certainly study them after hours but never during the trading day. I'd suggest a minimum of 60 hours of chart study during this period. You do not get the tape at this stage.
2. Now, you can upgrade to an order flow program of your choosing or ticker tape, as well. Study this for at least 3 weeks carefully.
3. Next, you get to "upgrade" to 1 minute charts only. No indicators to start with. Okay, you get two tools to start with: horizontal rays and a VWAP.
4. Once you think you can trade, limit yourself to 3% loss limit per day or 3 losing trades: whichever comes first. In the future, it possible to divide up the day into more sections to make this rule more flexible.
5. As for revenge trades or bad psychology trades that cause you undue stress, if you make any of those then you shut down for 2 days and add 3 additional days for every infraction. It is accumulative. You will quickly either stop trading or stop making those mistakes. Mistakes or even bad trades that do not cause stress do not need to be handled in this way.
6. Start in sim. But, if you are consistently making money then do not stay in sim for more then some period of time you set for yourself. If you are good you will regret all the money you lost. If you are not so good or if your techniques won't work in reality, it is better to lose some money then waste so much time, as well. I'm thinking probably 6 weeks to 3 months max in sim. Do not go live if you're not consistent and strong in the simulator. You'll just lose money.
In seriousness, I would also suggest you look at system trading too. Try to get exposure to a lot of different techniques. See if anything clicks well for you. Just remember, it is a difficult game. There are tons of free techniques. As for techniques, what I like to do is just get a vague sense of what another trader is doing: I don't want the details. This way I get to learn the technique for myself and learn it the right way. The nice thing about this method is that also you do not need to pay for expensive courses.
As for starting capital, I would recommend a start with a minimum of $7500 and no more then $25,000. This is regardless of how much you have. Because the contracts are big, in order to stick to the 3% rule, that will be difficult if you are starting near the lower end. The logic for not starting with more is that if you blow out, you will limit your loss. Please note this is not investment advice but just a general guidelines. It was given all of 15 seconds of thought.