sdaconsulting
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I'm hoping for some helpful advice on a change I am contemplating.
I started out daytrading stocks. Hit and miss, but I was not able to really get my head around the way all of the thousands of different stocks trade with their varying floats, volumes, prices, etc. I came to realize that much of the movement in stocks was based on the underlying market, and that I needed to get a feel for the movements in the underlying market in order to understand equity prices.
So I switched over to watching just a few indices -- XLF and SPY, and more recently just SPY.
I've been papertrading SPY seriously the past 2 weeks and am up 36% (on paper). Positive 8 days out of 9 trading. It is nice to feel like I have a better handle on what is going on by focusing on a single (highly liquid) index instead of the weirdness and vagaries of trying to daytrade stuff like LEH that will jump 50 points in a couple seconds, completely ignoring the chart and blowing away my stops in an instant.
Given that I am seeing some pretty good success (on paper) and feel happy working in the SPY land, I'm thinking that it might make sense to look at moving over to trading emini futures since it is essentially the same market. I would start out paper trading (or simulated trading if that is offered) and if successful would move over to making actual trades.
Here are some questions that I have:
1) With my TDA iZone account, my round trip cost is $10. What kind of round trip cost would I be looking at with futures trading?
2) If necessary I could fund my trading account with $30,000. I would prefer to fund it with less cash at hand. It is my understanding that I can daytrade futures without the need to maintain $25,000 in the account, correct?
3) I was thinking of using an iPhone for trading futures. Is this a viable platform to look at charts and execute trades when I am away from my desk?
4) Trading equities (even SPY) with TDA iZone at market open (and even some market closes lately) is often an exercise in frustration with very slow trade confirmations. How is the eMini market between 9:30 - 9:40 and 3:40-4?
5) Mostly I get good stop execution on SPY, occasional slippage in fast markets (and occasional executions better than my stop when a reversal happens). What are stop executions like on the eMini?
6) With a daily volume in the 300 million shares x $100 / share, SPY is very liquid and usually moves pretty smoothly. Of course the past few weeks have seen some pretty amazing price movements at times (I can only imagine what daytraders in stuff like GS and the like were dealing with!). But by and large SPY is about the nicest, smoothest ticker to daytrade that I've worked with. How does the emini trade in comparison? Stable, or does it bounce around more than SPY?
6) Anyone else make this kind of a migration from equities to futures markets? Any advice for me?
TIA everyone for your thoughts, answers and advice here. . .
I started out daytrading stocks. Hit and miss, but I was not able to really get my head around the way all of the thousands of different stocks trade with their varying floats, volumes, prices, etc. I came to realize that much of the movement in stocks was based on the underlying market, and that I needed to get a feel for the movements in the underlying market in order to understand equity prices.
So I switched over to watching just a few indices -- XLF and SPY, and more recently just SPY.
I've been papertrading SPY seriously the past 2 weeks and am up 36% (on paper). Positive 8 days out of 9 trading. It is nice to feel like I have a better handle on what is going on by focusing on a single (highly liquid) index instead of the weirdness and vagaries of trying to daytrade stuff like LEH that will jump 50 points in a couple seconds, completely ignoring the chart and blowing away my stops in an instant.
Given that I am seeing some pretty good success (on paper) and feel happy working in the SPY land, I'm thinking that it might make sense to look at moving over to trading emini futures since it is essentially the same market. I would start out paper trading (or simulated trading if that is offered) and if successful would move over to making actual trades.
Here are some questions that I have:
1) With my TDA iZone account, my round trip cost is $10. What kind of round trip cost would I be looking at with futures trading?
2) If necessary I could fund my trading account with $30,000. I would prefer to fund it with less cash at hand. It is my understanding that I can daytrade futures without the need to maintain $25,000 in the account, correct?
3) I was thinking of using an iPhone for trading futures. Is this a viable platform to look at charts and execute trades when I am away from my desk?
4) Trading equities (even SPY) with TDA iZone at market open (and even some market closes lately) is often an exercise in frustration with very slow trade confirmations. How is the eMini market between 9:30 - 9:40 and 3:40-4?
5) Mostly I get good stop execution on SPY, occasional slippage in fast markets (and occasional executions better than my stop when a reversal happens). What are stop executions like on the eMini?
6) With a daily volume in the 300 million shares x $100 / share, SPY is very liquid and usually moves pretty smoothly. Of course the past few weeks have seen some pretty amazing price movements at times (I can only imagine what daytraders in stuff like GS and the like were dealing with!). But by and large SPY is about the nicest, smoothest ticker to daytrade that I've worked with. How does the emini trade in comparison? Stable, or does it bounce around more than SPY?
6) Anyone else make this kind of a migration from equities to futures markets? Any advice for me?
TIA everyone for your thoughts, answers and advice here. . .
