NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





TOS feel but for small account


Discussion in Traders Hideout

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one techa with 7 posts (1 thanks)
    2. looks_two wldman with 2 posts (1 thanks)
    3. looks_3 centaurer with 2 posts (2 thanks)
    4. looks_4 Cloudy with 1 posts (1 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one centaurer with 1 thanks per post
    2. looks_two Cloudy with 1 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 ldcapital with 1 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 techa with 0.1 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 3,404 views
    2. thumb_up 9 thanks given
    3. group 7 followers
    1. forum 17 posts
    2. attach_file 0 attachments




 
Search this Thread

TOS feel but for small account

  #11 (permalink)
 techa 
Wilmington, NC
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Infinity Futures, TOS
Trading: ES, MES
Posts: 75 since Apr 2019
Thanks Given: 75
Thanks Received: 92


techa View Post
I have been futures trading on paper with TOS for awhile and my win to lose ratio is roughly 4:1 with my losses being on the minimal side and my wins at times being quite nice. I have had some $500-$1000 day profits trading only 1-2 contracts at a time so I was thinking I was ready to go with a live account, but really don't want to get burned. I do know that TOS is misleading in the fact that orders get filled as soon as price point is hit (rather than sitting in a queue line to be filled in reality), but I was profitable on Ninja Trader demo and Infinity Futures demo as well.

My thought was that with a 3k account, if I risked 5% on two contracts that's 6 ticks which is where I start my stops. I take my first profit at 3 ticks and move my stop up as long as it is moving in my favor, and often sit it on break even or break even plus one and let the other contract run as much as I think the market will give it. I don't plan on going on more than two contracts at a time until I can get my balance up to like 10k. Real $ is going to be more emotional for sure, but I am trying to stick with my system that seems to be working well which includes walking away when the market is spanking me to wait for better set-ups later.

I don't want to presume I have this all figured out, because I do not by any means, but am finally starting to feel it is making sense and I can actually do this. I have been reading about the micro e-minis though and maybe that is a better place for me to start as I believe it will be a tenth of the size of the ES contracts.

Started this thread Reply With Quote

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
NT7 Indicator Script Troubleshooting - Camarilla Pivots
NinjaTrader
Deepmoney LLM
Elite Quantitative GenAI/LLM
My NT8 Volume Profile Split by Asian/Euro/Open
NinjaTrader
ZombieSqueeze
Platforms and Indicators
 
  #12 (permalink)
 centaurer 
south africa
 
Posts: 169 since Dec 2018

TOS simulator if they give you a 100k paper account and you trade 2 contracts you are only using 3:1ish leverage.

To make it the same as a $3k account with 2 ES you need to be trading 34 or 35 contracts with a $100k account.

It has nothing to do with emotions. It is that trades that would be winners with being properly capitalized get called or liquidated when over leveraged and turn into losers.

IMO paper trader is a total waste of time anyway. People just try stuff until something works so just end up using an over fit system to what happened in the sim.

Reply With Quote
  #13 (permalink)
 techa 
Wilmington, NC
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Infinity Futures, TOS
Trading: ES, MES
Posts: 75 since Apr 2019
Thanks Given: 75
Thanks Received: 92



centaurer View Post
TOS simulator if they give you a 100k paper account and you trade 2 contracts you are only using 3:1ish leverage.

To make it the same as a $3k account with 2 ES you need to be trading 34 or 35 contracts with a $100k account.

It has nothing to do with emotions. It is that trades that would be winners with being properly capitalized get called or liquidated when over leveraged and turn into losers.

IMO paper trader is a total waste of time anyway. People just try stuff until something works so just end up using an over fit system to what happened in the sim.

Sigh.
Back to research....

Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #14 (permalink)
 MoparCar 
Boulder, Colorado. USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Tradovate, TOS
Broker: Tradovate
Trading: NQ, ES
Posts: 20 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 118
Thanks Received: 15

Check out Tradovate. They allow a small account size and have good rates and margins. Plus their data feed is low cost. I haven't personally tried them but am considering opening an account with them. They have a free two week trial.

Reply With Quote
  #15 (permalink)
 ldcapital 
FORT WORTH
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: tastyworks
Trading: es, nq cl
Posts: 6 since Jun 2018
Thanks Given: 6
Thanks Received: 10

Take a look at Generic Trade. They have no account minimum to open and very generous intraday margins and commissions are 59 cent per contract. They do have a $59.00 monthly platform fee. It's worth checking out especially for a small account. Good luck.
LDCapital

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #16 (permalink)
 
wldman's Avatar
 wldman 
Chicago Illinois USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Advanced
Broker: IB, ToS
Trading: /ES, US Equities/Options
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Hours
Posts: 3,507 since Aug 2011
Thanks Given: 2,046
Thanks Received: 9,491

who just turned 19, trades his own money on a thing called Robinhood. When he was describing it to me I though it must be a fraud...commission free, very small trades etc. BUT I looked at their clearing agreement and talked to an old fried that actually knows their "risk guy".

In Chicago there are some brilliant hard working people developing Tasty Trade and Tasty Works. I give them my full endorsement...but I do not know margin minimums or how they are applied at either place.

Do NOT be insulted by this...it is meant as perspective, not indictment: If the lowest margin requirements and transaction fees are your focus rather than interest rate spread and firm wide risk policies you might not be suited to futures markets. My UNSOLICITED advice: Build a 100 share position...or even a 50 share position in SPY and learn to trade your speculative directional strategy from the short side against that long position. Even if you execute terribly and are clueless you will discover that "the worst thing that could happen" will be instructive and it wont hurt your balance too badly or your ability to stay in the game.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
  #17 (permalink)
 techa 
Wilmington, NC
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Infinity Futures, TOS
Trading: ES, MES
Posts: 75 since Apr 2019
Thanks Given: 75
Thanks Received: 92


wldman View Post
who just turned 19, trades his own money on a thing called Robinhood. When he was describing it to me I though it must be a fraud...commission free, very small trades etc. BUT I looked at their clearing agreement and talked to an old fried that actually knows their "risk guy".

In Chicago there are some brilliant hard working people developing Tasty Trade and Tasty Works. I give them my full endorsement...but I do not know margin minimums or how they are applied at either place.

Do NOT be insulted by this...it is meant as perspective, not indictment: If the lowest margin requirements and transaction fees are your focus rather than interest rate spread and firm wide risk policies you might not be suited to futures markets. My UNSOLICITED advice: Build a 100 share position...or even a 50 share position in SPY and learn to trade your speculative directional strategy from the short side against that long position. Even if you execute terribly and are clueless you will discover that "the worst thing that could happen" will be instructive and it wont hurt your balance too badly or your ability to stay in the game.

Not insulted at all, I'm grateful for the advice! I think I need to be more patient and build my starter capital before I invest $ again. I played with a small amount on Robinhood when I was first learning but it was with stocks and options. I am leaning towards micro e-mini which is rolling out in a couple of weeks and will be 1/10th the size of ES. It will help to minimize my risk until I can prove myself with a cash account. Your idea sounds like a great step two in my plan before moving on to the full ES contracts. For now, I'll keep saving, studying and will watch how MES plays out in the first few months as far as volume. Thanks!

Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #18 (permalink)
jmp470
San Antonio, TX
 
Posts: 96 since May 2019
Thanks Given: 46
Thanks Received: 56

My first post, since I joined today. While I'm getting the lay of the land on this site, I can tell you that TDAmeritrade did discount my futures trading from their stated amount. They were going to discount them even more once I did over 100 contracts per month, which was pretty easy to do.

However, I dropped them yesterday for full disclosure.

I'm not searching for a better software system.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:




Last Updated on May 3, 2019


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts