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 have been doing the "Funded Trader" route with TST, OneUp/MES, and LeeLoo, for the past few years. I have a journal on my journey with MES.
In that journal I got some comments that helped open my eyes to the benefits of the new CME Micro E-mini contracts and how someone might do better opening their own micro account and slowly building it up instead of getting on a "combine mill" that most people fail -- and only enriches the combine company.
Specifically, I have to thank @lemons and @caacapital for helping me see the light:
Caacapital, I think your observation is spot on. 100% truth. Five stars to you good sir.
I have been hoping for these micro contracts for about 10 years now, and I am excited they are finally here. I just started trading them last week on a $1000 …
While I think experienced traders can benefit from the combines and funding, they are very bad for new traders. Most combine participants FAIL.
Why? Because if you complete the evaluation in one month, then the required ROI based on available capital is 9% per day! This is clearly unsustainable and puts additional stress on a task that is already one of the hardest in the world.
On OneUp, you have to earn 9% per day, based on available capital if you do it in one month. $9000 profit/20 trading days=$450. $450/$5000 max loss is 9% per day or $2,250% growth per year. If you go two months, that is still 4.5% per day growth. Doable? Of course. Realistic over the long haul? Of course not. The best hedge funds are happy to get 25% ROI for an entire year.
Therefore, I officially have changed my stance to the following:
After you are consistently successful on a sim account, then open a live futures account and trade only the CME Micro E-mini contracts until your account is at least $5,000. At the $5,000 mark, it is large enough, and you are experienced enough to safely handle one regular E-mini futures contract in your own live account, allowing you to keep all the profits.
While I am still trading with both MES and LeeLoo, I have decided to put my money where my mouth is. I just funded a live AMP Futures account with $1000. And I will now record my progress.
Here are the parameters:
I will start with one (or two) Micro contracts.
I will allow an additional contract only after adding $500 in profits. (i.e. at $1500 I can trade with 3 micros)
I will attempt to earn at least 1% per day.
Once I have earned $5,000, then I will switch to one E-mini contract
I will continue to shoot for 1% per day
I will add a new E-mini contract for each $5,000.
This journal will be over once I reach a balance of $12,000 in profits. (1% for 250 trading days)
Please follow my progress, and if you are considering the combine mill, WAIT and consider joining me in your own humble beginnings with your OWN LIVE ACCOUNT trading just the Micro E-minis.
Not only do you get to keep 100% of the profits instead of giving 20% to the funding company, but you don't have to follow their many rules. While many of these rules are good, they get in the way of some excellent traders who have different styles.
Micro E-mini's I propose are the way to go.
Let's see if I can pull this off. 1% per day.
Is it MADNESS?
Perhaps....
[If you like this journal, then please VOTE for it [B]HERE[/B] during the July 2019 journal contest. Just click "Thanks" on that post.]
I agree that 1% long term is unsustainable, but for the first year it should be very doable.
And maybe even the second year. The total at year two would be about $135,000+.
This journal will officially end after the $12k mark is reached. Then let's see what new vistas open up in my trading journey.
My purpose is to show those willing to listen that they do not need TST, OneUp, LeeLoo, Earn2Trade (and many others cropping up daily) in order to prudently get started trading futures.
IF someone is patient, the Micro E-minis have made getting started very doable. Despite a litte extra slippage and commission expense, this is now a great LIVE proving field that should develop habits worthy of the best futures traders.
The goal again is to grow as a trader in technique, discipline and build enough profits so the trader can go to the regular E-minis as soon as it is safe to do so. I define safe as $5k to $10k in the account IF the trader can keep the max daily losses reasonable and has a good track record.
One of the reasons I am finally becoming successful as a trader is directly because of TST and OneUp. The pain of pushing the reset button finally got to me. I started to really pay attention to their risk parameters, especially the max daily loss and the max account draw down.
The massive volatility that erupts with virtually every single Presidential Tweet, tariff news, Brexit news, etc over the past 18 months since the first new market high has been quite the school master. Is there anyone who escaped some level of significant carnage???
The only way to make any profits is to have a tradable account, and therefore capital preservation is significantly more important that making a new high-water mark each day.
So I now humbly embrace the rules as guardrails on the scenic journey to keep me from going over the cliff - instead of barriers to my wealthy ambitions.
Here they are:
Hours. Trade only during the first two hours of the New York session. No pre-market trading. No holding overnight.
Instruments. Trading only MNQ and MYM. The MES contract is an option too.
Scaling. One micro contract max per $500 in the account. One mini contract max per $5000 in the account.
Targets. Scalping is okay and targets are flexible, but factor in $1 per RT fees mentally. Try to stay with the trend as long as the trade is good.
Emergency Stop. Max loss per trade is $15. Set emergency stop with the trade entry or immediately after entry.
Get out immediately. Notwithstanding the emergency stop, do your best not to let it get hit. If you sense the market is turning against you, get out as fast as possible. Take your loss and move on.
Daily loss. My max daily loss is 5% of the account. This will give me 20 trading days to blow up the account if this is what I am destined to do. Starting out, this will be $50. If I lose 5% of the account, I will stop for the day and report it here.
Thanks Steve to putting it up. I think it is also worth outline what would be your execution based upon. Are you going to watch just Micro contract or NQ and YM and then make an execution in Micro.
It should gives us more clarity on your approach.
Otherwise it looks straight forward and plan is good.
I am a momentum scalper who is learning to use volume profile and bigger targets. Let's see what I can do with this account.
I am watching the ES, RTY, NQ, and YM. I use cumulative delta and volume profile, and Support and Resistance levels. I watch the 50 SMA on multiple time frames on the NQ and YM. On my fastest chart I use HA candles and a standard MACD. I will be happy to post more info later.
