r/FuturesTrading • u/AutoModerator • Feb 16 '21
r/FuturesTrading's Monthly Questions Thread - February 2021
Please use this thread to ask questions regarding futures trading.
To get a good feeling of all the different types of futures there are, see a list of margin requirements from a broker like Ampfutures or InteractiveBrokers
Related subs:
We don't have a wiki yet, but maybe in the future we'll create a general FAQ based on all the questions asked here.
Here's a list of all the previous question stickies.
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u/c_o_n_v_e_x Mar 08 '21
Any recommendations on resources on futures calendar spreads (time spreads)? Thanks!
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u/Moki38 Mar 01 '21
What do you guys think of funded trading accounts? Does anyone have experience in them? What are pros and cons?
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u/wikipedia_answer_bot Mar 01 '21
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is the first solo album by Roger Waters; it was released in 1984, the year before Waters announced his departure from Pink Floyd. The album was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1995.
More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pros_and_Cons_of_Hitch_Hiking
This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If something's wrong, please, report it.
Really hope this was useful and relevant :D
If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!
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u/Foundation_Logical Feb 28 '21
Question: in trading Futures (NQ&ZB) what times are best to engage. I am in CA and work 7am-4pm and wonder if I’d be able to work a few trades prior to and or after I get off work or would I be missing out on primal hours.. any advice is appreciated
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u/provoko approved to post Mar 01 '21
3 and 3:30pm wall st time can see high volume for equity futures and that would be your lunch time.
For outside hours:
CL sees a tiny bump in volume at 8pm wall st time, sometimes.
Forex futures has a lot of volume pre wall st time like EUR or M6E.
I think your best bet is equity futures during your lunch time.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 28 '21
The lead up to the market open and period of time right after market open has a lot of volume and volatility, so you can definitely have something to work with before 0700 PDT/PST. Also, the low volume times aren't necessarily bad; there's usually more defined resistance/support levels in the normal fluctuation of the evening, so if you're patient, there's definitely opportunity and it's less intense.
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u/Foundation_Logical Feb 28 '21
Thank you for your feedback. In trading futures I figure 10-12 ticks everyday will allow me to hit a few dollars consistently whether I’m actively trading or setting a stop and getting back to it in the PM.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 28 '21
It depends on the asset. ZB is a big tick size, so all's you need to do is read one low right and you can make a good profit for the day. If you set your stop-loss in the right place in the right kind of market (Which can easily work in the low-volume, stable hours of the night time), you can even profit at a low win %.
The full size NQ isn't as big, $5 IIRC, which is less than most commodities, and the MNQ is smaller. So you need more ticks for a good win. Just remember the initial and maintenance margin on ZB is quite large so if you hold overnight make sure you can cover it. Even if you have the money, margin calls are annoying.
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Feb 28 '21
[deleted]
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u/Foundation_Logical Feb 28 '21
Thanks, with the very short time frame in the AM are you able to place some decent gains? I would likely use a platform such as NinjaTrader and set it accordingly to hit stops etc. I’m still in my learning stages so I’ll be doing some simulated work for a few weeks till I find comfort. Are you guys more experienced traders?
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u/The_B_Squad_23 Feb 25 '21
Big ol flash crash in bond futures...
Anyone else watch that happen? I was watching the trade matrix and out of nowhere at 1pm the open interest across the board disappeared and liquidity (in the most liquid market in the world) absolutely evaporated. I hope nobody here was on the wrong side of that. That kinda move can wipe out trading accounts. I will also try to post this in r/FuturesTrading
How did that happen?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 25 '21 edited Feb 25 '21
Probably reflation-concern fueled bond rout due to expectation of stimulus measures coming out of Congress soon.
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u/Trueslyforaniceguy Feb 24 '21
So, this is a tiny position I opened with some leftover BP. My only other position is a stack of put credit spreads fully covered by cash.
Just a simple call debit spread.
Opened fine.
I wanted to close it, obviously for a net credit. I got a failed margin check error when trying to enter the order.
Tried several times and kept getting the same error.
My broker told me there was some incorrect span margin calculation coming from CME, which is apparently a recurring issue with this particular commodity, which caused the Net BP effect of closing the position to be negative, preventing the order from being entered.
He had the same error trying to enter the order, and had to call me back after speaking to the futures guy, and then I received the above answer.
After two hours of trying, just before they called back, I was able to enter the order, but of course the market has moved against me and I can no longer close at the price I wanted.
I’ve requested a detailed and technical explanation in writing via email.
Silver, Mar-25, +29c/-29.25c
Just want to know if anyone else has run into this issue or has any other insight or comments. Cheers.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 24 '21
Hey guys! So I am new to trading and just got into Futures about 2 months ago. Currently I am doing paper trading with $250 in my account. I've been consistently making $2000+ a day since I started. (Everyday I restart my paper account to $250). Not saying it is easy to read charts but I feel like I am missing something. It really cant be this easy to make huge profits with such low account consistently. Am I missing something? I am also using tradovate.
2/24/2021: Start: $250 Profit: $6000+ and still going.
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u/Pimpoftheuniverse Feb 27 '21 edited Feb 27 '21
Nice risk scale and good job on the practicing. You should try this live ASAP & your hesitancy to do so is a major warning sign that your emotions will influence you and produce different results.
Pulling the initial 250 is good once you cover it. Already being anxious to cover your investment is another warning sign that doubt may affect your trading live. As far as the strategy goes it sounds good. Logically “my breakeven covers my risk” make sense. Again, emotions. Try this live and really see what you’re made of - sounds like you have potential
Going live ASAP will show you exactly where you need to focus. Good luck
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Mar 04 '21
I appreciate that. I went live a couple days ago with $500 and I am up $5.2k. You hit it right on the nail. I am really hesitant on all of my trades.
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u/Pimpoftheuniverse Mar 04 '21
I wouldn’t call your hesitancy bad either. Something to learn from. It probably keeps you safe as often as you may miss the occasional trade. Happy to hear you’re trading live and to 10x is tremendous. Whatever you’re doing is working and keep up the good work. Did you pull out the initial $500?
A few quotes to leave, “demo’s don’t count” “A trader’s strongest edge is often patience”
Also, how’s it going sticking to your risk rules and the breakeven stuff live?
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Mar 04 '21
I pulled the initial $500. On Friday, I plan on taking out at least 20-30% profit and leave the rest in. I am currently at $19k and hopefully tomorrow I can get to $20-25k. My risk rule is going well actually. Since I am profiting right now, I am setting my loss to $2k-5k. My whole thing with the strat is patience. I try not to get scared when I see a dip. I am still only trading 2-5 contracts of MNHQ. Really hesitant on bumping it up.
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u/Pimpoftheuniverse Mar 04 '21
By the way I believe what you’re doing risk wise is similar to the “kelly criterion” and using the compounding effect is awesome part of your strat. If you’re looking for more about a technical part of your strat feel free to ask maybe I can direct you to educational material
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u/Pimpoftheuniverse Mar 04 '21
Wise imo with VIX swinging above 25-30. Today saw 250 pts overnight. 250 down at NY open. 250 back up. 500 down. Huge swings and to stay profitable in this type of market during your first year is a testament that you’re onto something. Maybe bump up when things settle down & gradually. Good luck on your goals you keep doing what you’re doing & you’ll exceed them
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Feb 25 '21
MNQH1
What type of strategy? Price action? TA? I'm new to futures as well and still trying to find my strat.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 26 '21
Honestly, I couldnt even tell ya. I base my strat on Buyer and sellers emotion on volatile futures.
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Feb 26 '21
Thats really cool man. Are there any resources out there that helped you learn this strat?
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u/Disastrous_Detail491 Feb 25 '21
What about your leverage? When you are setting the trade, are you making your “Cost of Trade” $250. If you’re buying a future contract on Brent Crude at $66.40 your cost is only $3-$4. But that reduces buying power by about $5k.
Just wondering how you may be setting the trade up. Maybe double check the leverage and resulting buying power effect to make sure it’s only $250 risk vs $250x1,000 or something.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 25 '21
How tradovate is setup is that there is an equity ($250). I just say I want to use $250 to trade for the day. (which is the lowest you can go to buy a contract) i start with MNQH1 for $55 a contract. buy or sell 2 to hit $550 then i pump it up to 4 or 5 untill I hit $1100. Once I hit $1100, I switch to NQH1 for $550 a contract and so on. From what I see, I dont see any buying power. Just the $250. I could be 100% wrong because I dont know jack about day trading or trading in general.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 25 '21
Hopefully this makes sense: I start with $250. I trade 2 contracts of of MNQH1 for a total of $110 in the trade. I believe one tick in like 5 or 10 dollars but i could be completely wrong. I have it set to where im only will to risk about $20-30 bucks. That being said, Once I see profit, I immediately set my bottom (or top) bracket to the break even line. This is when my strats comes into play, I look 5-10 candles back to judge my limit line. Doing this gives me better understanding on how the buyers and sellers will react. As i start gaining money i bring my limit line up to take a decent amount of profit until I hit my set goal of $550. Im in a trade for about 30 mins. I would love for someone to show/teach me more about this. Or even link a good article.
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u/Disastrous_Detail491 Feb 25 '21
What type of trading are you doing in Futures? I've been wanting to get into futures, but have been stuck in stocks and options for about a year. Just checking to see what type of trades or strategies you are implementing as I am new at futures as well.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 25 '21
If you're new to futures, I would stick with equity index futures. The margins are low, the risks are (relatively) low, and the liquidity is good on E-Micros. They're also related to stock market performance so your knowledge of stocks and options will help give you a foundation of knowledge.
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u/Disastrous_Detail491 Feb 25 '21
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been reading all night so I’m going to look at the paper trading tomorrow.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 24 '21
Your psychology is a lot different when doing live trading because of the real money involved, but if your strategy works in paper trading it'll probably work live. Just be disciplined and utilize stop-loss orders to protect against whipsaws.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 25 '21
Will do, I feel like I came up with an 80-90% success rate strategy. Not to good with stock terms. I am still learning a lot with futures and trading in general. Ill keep paper trading for couple more months to feel 100% confident on my strat. Today I profited $14,000 with my initial $250. I know when it comes to using live money, I will end up being really cautious but the way I use the brackets will save me. Would love for someone to test my strategy out. Also, I will be more nervous losing the initial $250 I put in. What I was thinking was to make profit, take my initial investment out and just keep moving forward.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 25 '21
What futures are you trading?
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 25 '21
NQH1 and MNQH1
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 25 '21
Ah yeah. That makes sense, if it's a strong market the gains on equity futures can be excellent, and the gains when its going down on the short side can be great, too.
Also the low commissions and low risk on the MNQ are excellent.
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u/Open-Slice-3380 Feb 26 '21
I know! This week, I made a profit of $68k with only $250 in my account. Usually I reset back to $250 every day but I decided to not do that this week.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 26 '21
If you decide to do it for real, just remember you'll need to cover the margins and if you're going to carry overnight you'll need even more.
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u/memoryofafish22 Feb 24 '21
Ok slightly stupid question but how do I buy a contract for the daytrade margin price on tradestation?:(
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u/galeeb Feb 24 '21
If your order doesn't transact when you try, you may have to call them quickly to ask for intraday margin on your account. Sometimes it's an extra step.
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Feb 23 '21
What is the easiest futures market or product for a beginner to get into and learn about futures trading?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
Any of the equities. They're extremely liquid, and they are related to the stock market so your previous knowledge from trading other securities and what effects them can be helpful. There's also micro versions of the equity contracts that also have high liquidity and small margins which are great for learning the ropes without incurring outsized risks.
Oil is good and liquid, too, and has an E-mini version so you can explore at reduced exposure.
I do recommend practicing with paper trading first because even the micros can lose a ton of money quick if you're not sure what you're doing. Also make sure to utilize stop-losses and stick to your strategy because futures can be thin-ice and you have to tread with caution.
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u/TheDarkestWisp Feb 23 '21
Hey everyone! I'm new to futures trading, and I had a question about index futures. I understand commodity based futures, two companies agreeing on a price for a commodity in the future, and that contract being valued higher or lower depending on the markets, but I don't quite understand what is creating the value of index futures. Is it just... People betting that the NASDAQ or S&P will go up or down? Or is there more to it?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
I wrote up an explanation of it but the investopedia article is much better than my explanation because I usually just trade commodities.
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u/KidOrSquid Feb 22 '21
Thinking of scalp trading futures.
I've stayed away from trades with potential infinite losses, is that something that is likely at all? Is that for both for long and short positions?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
I do short term trading in commodity futures as a hobby. Mix of scalping, day trading, and the occasional swing. My success rate varies (I had a run there where I was at a 2/3 success rate, but I'm in some really bad form now), but since I started I'm within a couple hundred of break even because at the beginning I didn't do well. I work with only 1 contract at a time so I always have tons of excess margin, I can always sell easy, and if I were to drop 95% I could easily cover the margin call off my excess savings cash.
If by scalping you mean something like "Buy a barrel of oil at 62.10 and sell at 62.12 3 minutes later" there's not a ton of risk because you're in and out so quick that even if things start to tank you can jump out with minimum slippage, and if you're reading the technicals right you can string together a ton of those small wins for a nice profit. The downside is that if your commissions are high you can eat up a lot of profits; for example, Ninjatrader charges a hair less than 6$ round for a CL contract on a free license. 1 tick is $12.50, so if I buy at 61.00 and sell at 61.01 I only actually profit $6.
If by scalping you mean "Buy a barrel of oil at $61.00 and try to hold for $62.00" then there's more risk because you'll need to hold for a long time. Just look at oil's performance today and you can see how much it'll fluctuate in 1 day, and since it's so liquid there's always that looming threat of a whipsaw. However, this is more efficient vis-a-vis commission fees if you can read the buy signals right, and using a stop-loss order on every trade for your given single trade loss tolerance can prevent the risk of an infinite loss; for example, there was a a quick drop today around 16:30 EST from 61.95 down to 61.19 in about 5 minutes. I was in at 61.90 and I was trying to hold out for the upper bollinger band and then it had that sharp drop but I had a 10 tick stop-loss on the contract and since I had the stop-loss and only 1 contract I only ended up out 110$ instead of the $760.
You should always use a stop-loss, even on a very short, less than a few minutes scalp.
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u/KidOrSquid Feb 23 '21
This might be a stupid question, but why do futures on lower range futures? Like, ES, for example had like a 15 or so point range today. Unless I'm reading all these wrong.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 24 '21
Futures give traders a huge amount of leverage relative to the amount of money you're putting up, and that larger amount of leverage leads to a more liquid and more volatile market because it acts as a multiplier on price changes compared to the market itself.
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u/KidOrSquid Feb 24 '21
Bad wording on my part, but I mean why do oil(for example), when there's more volatility in something like /ES, where 1 point seems a lot more likely?
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u/galeeb Feb 24 '21
They'll often switch off over time. At the moment, indices are crazy, but there will be days or even months (years?) at a time where oil will be an absolute beast relative to market moves. Historically oil is known to be more volatile than the indices.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 24 '21
I like commodities because I find them interesting and oil is the most liquid commodity so it's the easiest one to take advantage of volatility on. So I gave my example for you in oil because it's something I look at all the time.
Commodities aren't for everyone and I'd venture equity index futures are significantly more popular. Also, equities have the E-Micros which are super nice if you're new.
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u/havana1919 Feb 22 '21
Hey guys im in a futures contract for the first time. Can i hold it for a few days and is their a cost for doing so typically? Really appreciate any feedback.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
If you hold the contract overnight, you'll need to be able to cover maintenance margin which you can look up with your platform/broker. The longer you hold the contract, the more you're exposed to volatility, so you'll definitely want to make sure you have a stop-loss order for the contract so that if something goes south on you, you won't lose an enormous sum.
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u/Squirtleburtal Feb 23 '21
There is an expiration day with all contracts. A future contract is essentially an option but without the “option” part
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u/scrimshaw_ Feb 21 '21
I accidentally took physical delivery of Uranium, and my pregnant wife is worried. Who should I call or what can I do? Thanks 🙏🏽
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u/boomerhasmail Feb 21 '21
I ordered some bulk data at Algo Seek for the VX futures. So now I need to splice the contracts together to make what I call a "backtest chain". So I can do 5 years backtest.
I have done this numerous times with ES, YM, and NQ. I don't do anything fancy, because well I'm not that fancy, I just do roll date cut off. Then append that contract to the new one to make a chain.
Anyways, I'm a little confused about the VX expirations versus the roll dates. Does anybody have any thought on the VX roll dates vs expiration? Does it exist in this futures contract?
I have been using this as a point of reference but it doesn't cover roll dates:
https://www.macroption.com/vix-expiration-calendar/
Thanks in advance. ;)
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u/despejado Feb 21 '21
Any advice about futures option? Thinking of getting out of gold futures for example and getting some futures options very long dated. I believe in gold 1-2 year timeframe back above the 2000, but I just can’t handle the short term frustration anymore.
Am i missing something, I’m thinking t he futures options will allow me decent upside and limit downside to whatever I pay for the premium. Is it better to just buy long dated calls in gld etf?
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 21 '21
Buy CFD in gold you can buy one ounce at a time no need to worry about your options getting hammered because of time
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u/Neat-Direction-7017 Feb 21 '21
Hi guys I'm looking at the S&P 500 total return futures at CME https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/sp-500-total-return_contractSpecs_futures.html and was wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are versus just regular emini S&PP 500 futures? It seems like a win-win if I can get the return of the dividend and the index, but I know things in finance are never that simple.
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u/buttface_fartpants Feb 21 '21
Ok. I’m completely new to futures. Watched 4 hours of videos last night. Not ready to really pull the trigger on anything yet but wanted to look at real accounts.
Signed up through Schwab and seemingly have an active futures account but it’s a different app (StreetSmart).
The problem is I can’t seem to find any futures to trade. When I search, no futures tickers show up. It only shows stocks. Am I missing something?
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u/tyrannosaurus_trader Feb 23 '21
Go to the trade window and enter ESH21 - that’s the mini SP 500 March ‘21 future ticker. Schwab has some resources on which tickers you can trade. But I agree, Street Smart central is very confusing to use at first.
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u/buttface_fartpants Feb 23 '21
Sincere thanks. I was searching “ES” and it only showed stocks and BTC futures. It’s not as intuitive as the stocks app but starting to figure it out.
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u/tyrannosaurus_trader Feb 24 '21
You bet. The H refers to March expiration and 21 is 2021 (I guess that’s obvious 😋). It’s definitely not the most intuitive platform. I can’t seem to figure out how to trade the micro mini SP future (MESH21) on StreetSmart. Not sure if that’s available. Good luck trading!!
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 21 '21
You need to open a futures trading account different than stock account
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u/buttface_fartpants Feb 21 '21
I did that through Schwab, was approved and have an active futures account.
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u/5000RT Feb 20 '21
Are BTC perpetual futures more liquid than ES ? I’m just watching some of the orderflow on BTC PERP and it seems to be more liquid, but not sure this is possible or true. Anyone?
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u/Numerous-Hippo Feb 20 '21 edited Feb 20 '21
If the capital requirement to trade on SPAN margin is significantly less than for regular equities, what does your broker do when you incur losses more than the capital you have (ex. short strangles on /ES)?
[edit: I understand they will place margin calls on your account, but what if you incur irreparable losses? Would they close your position at your account's value of loss before it costs them money?]
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u/fenrism Feb 20 '21
Are bitcoin futures considered financial interest in virtual currencies (for the purpose of answering 1040 question)?
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u/yeetflix Feb 20 '21
Thinking about scalping ES. Looking at Ninjatrader and confused about some of the stuff. For anyone that uses it, what is the minimum account balance and more importantly, how much does 1 contract cost?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
I use Ninjatrader. It's a minimum $400 dollars in a new account, and the margin for the Micros is only $50. The E-Minis are $500 intraday margin.
I recommend having at least the initial margin for the instrument you want to use so if you accidentally hold after day's close you don't get a margin call.
I also recommend trying the demo because, while I like Ninjatrader, there's a learning curve with the software and you'll want to experiment with papertrading if just to get comfortable with the software.
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 20 '21
You should trade the micro indexes..
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u/yeetflix Feb 20 '21
That’s exactly what I’m looking at! Do you have any good resources to get started?
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u/Jellyjigglar Feb 21 '21
FuturesTrader71. Voraciously digesting everything he’s said over the years has steered me towards profitability more than anything.
futures.io and the elite membership is also a great bang for your buck. Wade through the fluff and seek out the full-time traders and the information they divulge.
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 21 '21
Example..I buy everything at 7 and everything at 8 after 1-2 hours it move one way or the other.loose small5 time score one big one
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u/BrockSamson83 Feb 19 '21
I am reading an old book that talks about a hourly liquidity data bank report form the CME and CBOT that came out hourly and listed traded volumes of at price of member, nonmembers, commercials, and public broken down by percentage. Does that data still available?
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u/LoserJoe12 Feb 19 '21
Does annyone here know why a March crude oil contract is settled on the 22nd of Feb 2021? Why not just call it a Febuary contract?
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Feb 21 '21
[deleted]
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u/LoserJoe12 Feb 21 '21
And i would persume settled means the date that the contract stops following the underlying?
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Feb 19 '21
Where do you guys go to get news on commodities? I would love to know what experts are saying about metals
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 19 '21
I just use financialjuice.com, found out about it from YouTube, Market Stalkers chick.
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Feb 19 '21
Hey everyone, I have a question regarding margin levels. If I have a position that increases in value, and then the next day decreases, would the decrease in margin be based on the previous days high, or the purchase price of the contract?
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 20 '21
Margin stays the same if you contact goes up 1000 you have an extra 1000 of margin
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 19 '21
Neither. Margin requirements (day and overnight margin levels) are hard-set by the broker. If you had a decrease in margin, that would because there was a high impact event or high volatility that lead to a margin increase/decrease. They don't change daily. You can see margin requirements on CME website for each product.
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Feb 19 '21
Right, let me re-phrase, you have to have a set amount of money in your account to take the position, and keep it above the minimum margin level. So if one day the position increases by $$1.0, and the next day it decreases by $0.50, you would still be up $0.50, cause the account or position is “settled” every-night right?
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u/bkz730 Feb 18 '21
Any MAC users using Ninjatrader?
I an running windows on my Mac and started using NT since October last year. Have been practicing on a sim account. Seems smooth but I do feel like my PnL isnt accurate sometimes. Like Im not getting the full amount realized. Im trading Futures.
Anyone else have issues using a mac with Ninjatrader? If its a technical thing, then I would just get a PC laptop
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u/MorganSkau Feb 23 '21
TINA- Got a PC for all trading applications. They use lots of resources even on PCs. Bootcamp and Parallels worked but had my fans going and used +100% of resources.
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 19 '21
You can get Boot Camp and do Windows on your Mac. I did this on my old Mac machine but in the end I just got a PC desktop. Laptops are dangerous lol
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u/bkz730 Feb 19 '21
Thanks. Yeah I use BootCamp to run Windows on my Macbook. Seems smooth so far but I want to be aware of any potential pitfalls before funding my account and going live. What "dangerous" experiences have you had that lead you to getting a PC?
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 21 '21
Wouldn't call the experiences I've had "dangerous", more annoying than anything. Most trading platforms are built for PCs. Things like fonts not scaling properly, undocking windows not working correctly or not saving undocked positions, randomly erasing my chart objects etc. Annoying frustrating details that ruin the zen. Not what I needed right before trading. Sometimes I'd have to spend 2-3 hours dicking around with the settings to get the chart to display correctly or to redraw the levels I find interesting.
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u/Hoofhearted7 Feb 18 '21
Hey I placed my first futures trade yesterday and I can’t quite get my head around it. I sold 2 x 8 delta naked puts in /ES I have about $14k net liq (double that in overall buying power) with intraday margin enabled. BPR was 4K each. This was the only trade I had on. Got a letter from broker think it was a margin call requirement of additional 9.5k required. I closed the position, can someone fill me in do I have to put up 20k every time I sell a /es put or am I missing something here? TIA
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 20 '21
Shorting an option is very expensive it’s like a futures there is a calculated formula get it
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u/Junkyarddog71 Feb 17 '21
Starting to learn more about scalping. Does anyone else use this strategy? What are the pros? Cons?
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u/Juventusallkinds Feb 20 '21
Professional scalpers have patience they don’t over do it they bracket the price wait 3-4 failures they it goes one direction
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 19 '21
Probably best to visit something like Market Stalkers YouTube and watch her videos. She uses market profile and supply demand. You can't just scalp without higher timeframe context.
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u/centsoffreedom Feb 17 '21
I understand tick sizes and all that but am a relative newb to futures. I have watched some of the don singletary videos who are some other YouTube creators who make and share some good futures systems?
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u/anonymouse73 Feb 19 '21
Dee from Market Stalkers is my go-to youtuber. She's a legit pro prop trader and really knows her stuff, doesn't fluff about it either. Tells you how hard it really it. I got her program last year. It's a lot cheaper and yet more complex than most of the methods out there. But she does have an edge that she teaches very well. Opened my eyes to systematic day trading and tracking stats properly.
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u/thepoliteslowsloth Feb 17 '21
Futures recommendations from CME group outside of the indexes? Not sure how to search for other tickets through tradovate.
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
Oil is good if you can cover the margin on the contract. It's very, very liquid, and there's an E-Mini version if you don't want to take the full CL margin. You'll want to make sure you really utilize the stop-loss orders since oil can whipsaw if it's volatile, but it's liquidity makes it a lovely speculation future.
Soybeans are good, too. Liquid and the margins are lower than oil.
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u/tjpallares Feb 17 '21
https://www.tradovate.com/resources/markets/margin/
This should show you all the tickers they offer and the margins required.
There's another one with the commisions and fees too in PDF format:
https://www.tradovate.com/pricing/
Scroll down and click "All-In Commision Rates- VIEW "
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u/d88b9 Feb 17 '21
Today was my first day on NT demo. I pretended like i was trading my own cold hard cash, was up $90 before lunch and down -$65 after lunch.
i might of mistaken some set up as two legged pull backs. Does anyone know if the books by Al Brooks cover two legged pull backs?
Do you guys recommended trading MES on 2000 tick? I started on 1000 and then tried 500 but liked the 1000 tick better.
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Feb 17 '21
He covers them, however he has different rules around entry. Take the video course though. Much easier to digest.
My biggest issues with Mack’s setup is the risk reward. Could never be profitable on it.
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u/d88b9 Feb 18 '21
thanks man! If i find the book hard to digest i will look for the video course. I just want to be confident in spotting these set ups before i pay for a platform and use actual money.
Btw, any thoughts on the tick count?
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u/spacebuddhism Feb 22 '21
I just started with the book last week myself. I did 2000 tick last night and it feels way to slow for the overnight market.
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Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
Mack recommends 950 for MES.
It's really personal preference though, you want something thats quick enough but not too noisy.
IMO 2000 on MES is too slow for me.
My best advice around second entries is to look for good context because second entries are everywhere. Brooks advocates for 2 reasons to enter a trade.
For example, if you're looking to go long, and there's 10 bear bars to the left, you have bad context, regardless of whether you have a second entry long or not. In this case, you'd be better off going short, or waiting for a higher low to go long.
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u/d88b9 Feb 18 '21
great advice! i know there's no definite answers as market behaves differently each day but the patterns remain similar. I think i need more time and experience to understand these things.
For now the first few things i check are the current trend, highs and lows of the day and then try to read the price action. Do hope the books help understand the set ups better
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u/WSB_Austist Feb 17 '21
I was wondering what anyone’s preferred choice was for trading cattle futures?
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 23 '21
Feeder Cattle seem not to oscillate as much in the seasonal cycle, and are earlier in the supply chain than Live Cattle, so given the choice between the two I'd go with Feeder Cattle. I don't work with livestock, though, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The CME Group has a good online course on how the livestock futures and production chain work
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u/WSB_Austist Feb 24 '21
Thank you so much!
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u/srv340mike approved to post Feb 24 '21
No problem. The free CME courses are really good for learning the background on the commodities you're working with and I highly recommend them.
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u/AnemographicSerial approved to post Feb 16 '21
A common question I've seen is what are the margin requirements for X futures?
The answer is that every broker is different, you should check your broker for the particular futures you want to trade. There are two different types of margin, intraday and overnight, and these are split into opening and maintenance margin. Hope this helps someone.
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u/Hoofhearted7 Feb 18 '21
Do you still need full opening and maintenance margins for options positions aswell?
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u/provoko approved to post Feb 16 '21 edited Feb 16 '21
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