Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I'm living in Canada. I'm looking for some clearly defined steps to begin trading E-minis on the S&P500.
I've fairly exhaustively searched the internet for some clearly delineated process to begin trading emini futures but I have been unable to find anything that takes you from A to Z without some critical steps being lost along the way.
I'd like to know the following as clearly as possible with any links if possible.
- Which Brokerage is the best, not the best for me or one other person, just the highest rated for trading E mini's in Canada specifically.
- What is the minimum investment to get started, I've heard several different ones and need some concrete information on this.
- I'm having a lot of trouble and would like some clear and concise guidance on how to get started down this path.
I appreciate any help
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
1- cant comment on brokers outside of USA... I think IB would work for you.
2- learn price action Al brooks is a common one, google/youtuube PATS es trading
3- whatever cash you can take outside and burn I call this stripper cash anything you throw away is what you should put in your account... for some its 20k and for others its 2k.
look on price action in the search here
google google google
-P
"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie"-Miyamoto Musashi
You say you've looked exhaustively but all info is readily available. Figure out which platform you want to use (Ninjatrader, Sierra Charts etc...).
IB (Interactive Brokers) is the biggest and safest bet for Canada I believe. You need a 10k deposit to trade futures.
If you haven't traded before or practiced and studied A LOT you will absolutely lose that money. As stated above, don't use money you need to live thinking you will make some extra easy cash...
Then begin the several years most of us seem to take to become profitable (or even breakeven).
"alacrity" had to look this up. nice (English not my first language)
Best brokerage depends on your personal pref but considering the nanny gov limits your choices IB is the best solution imo.
requ mini 10K better 12
As for your first post "clearly delineated process" it's personal preference again. FT71 and or Brooks webinars are extremely informative for me and many others. Brooks latest shows you a clearly delineated step by step process.
Jeff Quinto a CME member published a doc which I think is worthwhile to study. https://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/education_team_booklet.pdf
Well, if you are looking for a brokerage that is located in Canada is IB.
If you don't mind USA brokerage that accepts residents in Canada there are few I can think of.
GFF Brokers, Stage 5, Cannon, and Generic trade. If you are not in BC I believe there are few more brokers out there.
You have to research which platform works with each broker though.
As far as your initial investment or required minimum deposit, you can easily contact them directly and they'll be happy to help you with margins.
For Canada IB. There might be something else out there but IB is adequate.
$10,000 minimum to open an account. You should probably have more so you can have a little drawdown room.
IB has a demo account you can play with. If you can't make money with a demo you are not going to make it real time. Even if you can make money with demo it doesn't guarantee you will do OK real time because the fills and the emotions are different real time.
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
We take Canadians, but do you have a preference for a software? A lot will depend on that.
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email [email protected]
Trust me I know what you're going through, Canada is the backwater when it comes to futures. Info is inconsistent and hard to come by, often contradictory and incomplete. I've just finally set up my trading desk after many, many emails and phone calls to brokers, data providers, etc etc...
So, the best broker to go with is IB imho, there are a few in the states that you can find but, they are probably not as well known, no protections (think IIROC) and they may not be as able to provide what you need at tax time. So first off set up an account with IB, which in itself will require a lot of paperwork and back and forth. Don't be afraid to ask (call) many questions when setting up an account. You will get one answer from one person, then another from a different dept - use the net as well to finally hone in on an answer. When applying for trading for futures with IB your liquid net worth has to be north of $100,000 USD with an income to match and you must be an 'expert' (years of futures trading exp with > 100 trades). Mind you they don't exactly vet the info you enter when setting up an account...
You'll also need to subscribe to CME data from IB - even though you should go with a 3rd party data provider to properly
populate your charts.
Once that is set up you should use a order entry system besides TWS (native IB platform) since it does not support tick charts (best for futures trading) or have proper unfiltered tick data. Ninjatrader is a popular choice.
After that you need a data provide for the tick data that you will use to populate your tick charts in NT (or other order entry application). A popular choice is Kinetick - note that some data providers don't provide data to Canada? Once again don't be shy about sending MANY emails asking questions. If you're not sure of the answer, send more emails to clarify. Most companies are actually pretty good about responding since you are a prospective customer.
Then you need to tie it all together. Set up your OE system to connect to IB and your data providers (change config settings in app) and change config settings in the IB TWS system. If you go with IB you still need to have TWS running at the same time as your OE. This actually isn't that bad (in hindsight) but you're going to again have to send emails/make phone calls to do it properly. It's GOING to be frustrating but you can get through it.
Lastly be aware of your running costs. A good OE like Ninjatrader will cost between $60-75/month USD. Data providers will be in the are of about $50 - $75 USD. And of course you'll need to pay for the IB CME data as well.
Account mins at IB for retail I'm not sure (I use a corp account) but either way there is no 'deal' on margin when buying or selling a contract - you pay face market value, approx $4,000 and change CAD at the time of this post. Once again we're in Canada so we just can't get those sweet deals of like $500 per contract. It sucks but if you want to do this its the way it is.
Good luck! It's a lot to do but when you finally see your chart live that in itself is an accomplishment (in Canada anyway)
