Osho,
I tried to be a swing trader but found that scalping is what suits my nature.
When you say you are making money already, are you talking about real trades or simulated. Real trading is very different from paper trading. If you can make 20 points a day consistently then in a year you will be a millionaire because you can keep increasing postion size. Basically things are not so easy though.
I scalp futures everyday including YM. In fact I am not making money consistently yet but many people are. Probably over 95% of those who start to do this professionally will give up because it is hard, it takes capital, time, and character.
Unlike most professions it is both skill and gamble - and not everyone can accept that.
I think Ym is not the best market as the tick return is only $5 so you have to make over a tick to be profitable (becuase of commission) and the volume is thin, but is good for beginners as losses will be smaller than say ZB (bonds) where the tick size is over $30, or the nikkei where is is almost $100. And you will lose for the first few months or more.
there are many good chatrooms where Ym, Nq, Es ZB are traded in real time . You could try woodies, as this is free, to begin.
I have put about $40,000 as my investment in learning , capital etc. And expect to spend considerably more before becoming a real trader.
If the market moves against me by 2 or 3 ticks I am out. Or if it is too slow in doing what I expect it to do.
I dont use stops much because I am ready to close out at the blink of an eye, an average trade is 3 minutes but could be only 5 seconds and sometimes an hour and a half.
I trade almost entirely off price action and volume, seeing the patterns that the market makes. Along with support/resistance pivots and fibonnacci .
