More futures
I know how I am. Once I become fixated on something I tend to virtually ignore everything else. Food... work... women - all the same shit. If I find something I like I go full throttle till I either hate it or find something else to interest me. So, with that... my new fixation is futures. Now, I still go through the motions with gathering my stock watchlist and stuff, but really... my mind's on futures. It's just simplier to follow. Please don't confuse that with me saying futures is easy... it's not. But it's also not so damn distracting like following 20 different stocks.
Look into it... you may like it.
Today, I was 2 for 4 in futures.
ER2: 2 wins, 1 loss
ES: 1 loss
Ended up +4.6 ER2 points. EDIT: It's actually +3.47 points.
Here's a snapshot of my trades with prices (won't be doing this all the time)
NOTE: Just like anything else, I use stops and once they're hit... I'm out. So, no HPT scenario for me, thank you very much.
Posts
20 comments:
Hey OONR7,
On a per contract basis, approx. how much does a point gain(loss) translate in terms of dollars? Is there a big difference between ER2 and ES, in other words is it linear - ES being approx. twice as expensive per contract than ER2?
Thanks.
Funny you should ask that... as Richard over at movethemarkets.com helped me through this. Basically, there's no cost per se when you buy or sell a contract but it's based on margin. So, IB charges approximately $2100 in margin for 1 ER2 or ES contract. You basically need to have enough cash in your account to cover this. Now, as for profit and loss... every point you make in ER2 is equal to $100 per contract. With ES, it's equal to $50 per point, per contract. Hence, the more contracts you have... the more profit. This link has the contract specifications for the CME: http://www.cme.com/clearing/clr/spec/contract_specifications.html?type=idx
Great, Thanks.
Nice result! Are you also using the Eotpro indicators or something else?
Hi,
Did you find a blog that trades futures, and where did you get most of your knowledge on futures, internet, books?
thanks
Hector
Well you can probably guess I am the same way. For a couple weeks I went through the motions of gathering my stock watchlist and trading both... but then I kinda got sucked into futures trading altogether. Still don't know if I'll ever go back. Looks like you have been off to a good start!
jamie: I should mention that the $2100 in margin was for IB. Richard uses Tradestation and it's much less... like $500 per contract.
eyal: not using the eotpro indicators simply because the platform and charting programs I use don't have the indicators. I would need to open a Tradestation account for that (which I may do to take advantage of the lower margin requirements per contract). I'm currently using a few different indicators for my signals. Don't really want to get into specifics as I'm really not sure if they'll stick. I've been 'testing' and monitoring this homemade approach for only the last few weeks so I'm not sure if it'll hold up through the test of time (another reason to get Tradestation... backtesting).
richard: I really know what you mean. I think what I'd like to do is just stick with the pre-market gappers and look for only the best setups from those. I've been pretty relaxed (although bored at times) trading futures the last few days. Thanks again for your help.
1: I like future too, ES, no MM no specialist, purely computer.
2: Nice volume and fast filling.
3: These past couple days, the gap play doesn't work well for me and the market is choppy plus TD datafeed has lots of false signal, I mainly look at future too.
4: you have a fixed bid/ask spread, 0.25
Another question OO:
I know when you put stop-limit entry for stock you do 0.02 higher than the entry bar's high, for example long, do you still do that in future? 0.25 higher?
And what's your R? I typically use 2.5 point.
Do you use QT and IB to view future?
I like use future to gauge the market, But when I used QT and typed ES or YM, it showed something else.
How do you set it up?
An unreal fade day. Etf's were in order, or short the brokers...and anything else. Damn.
hammer: yes, my entries right now are two ticks above the high/low of the previous bar. As for R... well, that's all out of whack. I pretty much don't car how wide a candle is as long as it's a valid signal. Also, I hold for 3 point gains in ER2 and 6 point gains in ES... then sell immediately.
jerry: I emailed QT to resolve the problem of not being able to see futures. Basically, for ER2 and ES you need to type in the following: GLOBEX:@ER2H8 and GLOBEX:@ESH8... then just make sure IB is your datafeed. Here's a link for other symbols: http://www.quotetracker.com/help/ib.shtml
Thanks man.
good luck NR007. there are alot of threads on trading futures over at www.elitetrader.com
OONR7,
I don't currently trade futures, but from what I hear there is even a tax advantage to trading them. Guess I'll look into trading them myself....
don't know about the tax situation however I thought I read it was a higher tax rate than equities. If you have any information, please send me a link. Thanks.
www.greencompany.com/educationcenter/gttreccommodities.shtml
This site has some info on tax advantages of futures vs stocks. Hope it helps......
Quentin
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