Future Trading

Future trading:

1. Consider Margin Requirments.

1Future = 50 times of SP500

If SP500=1100, then it costs $50*1100=$55,000.

How much it cost for 1ES?

It costs different on the different platform.

Usually it's between $5000.00 and $6000.00.

If you have 20K account, you can trade 7 ES.

E.g.
TOS platform trade IRA 1ES at $7031.25 price at all day all night.
TOS platform trade normal account 1ES at $5625.00. However, the intraday Margin requirement is 25% of $5625.00=$1406.25.

IB platform trade normal account 1ES at $2500.00 at the intraday. Othertime, it costs $5000.00 for 1ES.

2. Future Trading Range Estimate http://enthios.com/
Good to check this site every morning to find the trading range.

3. Naked VPOC: Point of Control
http://www.pivotfarm.com/futures.html
http://www.pivotfarm.com/advanced-trader-notes.html

The matrix provided by them is excellent. Depending how much you want to make everyday - you can use the matrix to trade only at important levels.

4. Many people think Euro is dead and they now use AUD:USD, JPY:USD, and CAD:USD to track FX mkt.

6J for jpy:usd
6A for aud:usd

5. Asia people love gold, European people hate OIL
In normal mkt, usually if you short gold at asia high and long oil at german low, close both position at U.S 12PM EST, 85% time you make money.

6. Usually HG tells n=mkt direction

7. Do not trade during consildation time. It's easy to take your stop out. It's best to trade when the market direction is clear.

8. Option expire: Index options stop trading on Thursday morning. Friday is all stock option expired date.