It does take some time to learn the basics, but it’s really not that bad and can be done gradually. Once you learn the basics, the next part is finding what “SETUP” and “TIME OF DAY” work best and come up with a system to generate income.
Here are the first steps I would take before starting to trade ES Futures1) Register for a paper account with TD – https://www.thinkorswim.com/t/pm-registration.html
2) Go to http://www.shadowtrader.net/glossary/ – become familiar with the terms.
3) Watch all of these videos to see how to trade futures using Market Profile and Market Internals
Now you are ready for the GOOD STUFF
- How to Trade with Market Profile and Market Internals Webinar
- ST Uncovered 1.24.14 – Top 10 Futures Daytrading Setups (part 1)
- ST Uncovered 1.27.14 – Top 10 Futures Daytrading Setups (part 2)
- ShadowTrader Uncovered – 12.30.13 James Dalton on Market Structure
Daily routine
1) Wake up and look at the overnight action from 6:00 PM est until the market opens at 9:30 AM, everyday you draw a new purple line “the settle” or “close” and you see if the market is trading above or below it. Is the inventory “the people trading” the futures “NET LONG” buying above the purple dashed line, or “NET SHORT” trading below the purple dashed line.
2) Go to twitter, the first person up and posts is Scott Redlerhttps://twitter.com/RedDogT3
He posts a short video every morning “The Morning Call Express” which you can find on the T3 Channel –https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBj1BiYgmUJWdzqLhfInpJg
3) Around 9:00 AM, Peter will post on his blog about the overnight session and give his take on the potential outcomes to be expected, he is usually 90% right.
http://www.shadowtrader.net/category/peterspremarketperspective/
4) During the day I follow Rob Smith at https://twitter.com/RobInTheBlack he is very active on his tweets especially on the SPY which helps since it is so highly correlated with the ES.
If there is information on the global markets and current events then I go to Chris Ciovacco at https://twitter.com/CiovaccoCapital, he is always very active on Twitter throughout the day.
Both have their own daily and weekly videos that I subscribe to
Rob’s is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjfdiE6G-p1vQ6c4DoHiw5A
Chris’s is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ywfvIR2JrnMuZt33y7QYQ.
5) If you open an account with TD, it doesn’t have to be funded, just opened you can log on your computer to the ThinkorSwim Platform or use the mobile app, and there is someone commenting and trading with us, in the ShadowTrader chat room, the show is called Squak Box, it is from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM, 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM is the ShadowTrader uncovered show which is on the Tastytrade network, it use to be an hour, it sucks it’s only 30 minutes now… https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/ then 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. So they are there the entire day except for 2 hours for lunch.
Basically you learn the basics which aren’t hard and it gives you SUCH AN ADVANTAGE over most retail investors.Here is an example of how profitable just 1 contract can be over the course of a week. Over time you the goal is to grow the account size over $30,000 and ideally trade 5-6 contracts. That makes it possible to generate over $2500 a week by targeting a swing trade of 10.25 points a week, or 2 swing trades of 5.25 in a week. The daily range in the ES is usually over 10 points so this is a high probability and reasonable setup.
Trade Journal – You can copy this and use as a template to begin to track your progress.
3 thoughts on “Everything You Need to Trade Futures”
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This needs to get updated but is still a great start for anyone new to trading ES !
You updating it? I’d love to see the new version.
Great guide.