wskid

its encouraging to hear that 5K is feasible, I'm only looking to trade 1-2 lots in the eminis. I also would like to know if any of you guys know of brokers that accept Canadian clients. Any of them offer TT for free? I know AMP futures offer some interesting rates and TT but I don't know if they deal with Canadian clients. Enochbenjamin, I agree with withdrawing profits regularly haha. BTW thanks for the help guys I appreciate it.

My TT only costs $1500 per month, my broker charges 1.68 RT and add an overhead of $1000 for the prop shop. Yeah its bad....that's why I want to trade my own account, trade less and take longer positions. So your ninja trader is 63 per month? I heard you can buy the platform for 1K. I trade high frequency for small amounts, like 2-5 ticks. It doesn't suit my style, though and where I am now they don't let me take overnight positions so I am forced to trade intraday. What do you trade? How long has it been?

I guess from what I've seen so far, ppl throwing size around I figured I needed at least 15K to start. Right now I trade 5 contracts on fixed income derivatives with a scalping and sometimes position trading. With 5 contracts my max drawdown is $500/day but I seriously think it's too much. With one contract It should be around $100-150. In essence from what I understand to be safe it would take around 5K, but with which platform, I currently use TT costing me with desk fees $2500/month, which really kills me. I heard ninja trader was not bad. I really don't care about spreads for now so the important thing to me would be to have a DOM for the cheapest price. Also what broker offers the best rates? Again, my prop shop keeps us in the dark a bit and being new to the business, I feel a bit cheated.

Hello, I've been trading futures for a year now for a prop shop. I was wondering how much capital would it take to trade 1 lot on the e-minis. Putting the margin is not enough, you need a cushion, how much is enough? Also, is Ninja trader the best for a low budget guy like me? What's the best setup. I'm used to trading with DOMs. Thanks for the help!

Been a while since I wrote here, it's been a rough road, actually i just came back from 11 days of being down, total is about $2000 loss. I trade bond futures and lately have been very frustrated in trying to make ''big trades'' which I regretfully learned can kill you while you are trying. For the last 4 days though I cut the bleeding (and size). I sized back to trading 1 lots scalping for confidence building. Not much in profits, a meager $300 in the last 4 days, but getting back on my feet slowly. I don't know if any of you ever had such a loss streak, maybe you can share on how you remedied it with the rest of us? Tomorrow is another day and I am aiming for a 5th day of winnings... Cheers.

Thanks again for the reply, I know what you mean by trading all day and paying commisions. I am certainly not at the point where I can pint point amazing setups, so for now I just scalp everything is sight. When I do catch a move, I keep it for 5-10 ticks max, mostly I look for squeezing ppl long or short and scalp the trade. Hopefully one day I'll be able to really notice a setup. One of the main reasons I'm a trader is that I want the extra time for myself to do other things (even though I love trading). I'll check out the candlestick corner and see what it has to offer. BTW today I had my best day ever live, I don't know why but I'm done trading for the day. here's what it looks like.

Brownsfan I have a question for you. What is the basis of your decision making process on trading the bonds(literature, fundamentals, indicators etc...) I would really like to know because as of yet i m still just scalping and would like to know what to read to get better.

my monday was good, kept disciplined and focused. Good trade, bad trade....next trade. Here is what my day looked like trading some bond futures... Obviously I could have held on to some like the long at 125.19, which then traded at 125.79, would have made $1000 but I am too chicken to hold it, but hey at least I'm green today.

Fair enough, thanks again for your help. Tomorrow another day in the markets, I'll get to posting some numbers on here as soon as I can.

Are they competitive on the commish or do they kill you? What's an average round trip? BTW I appreciate your help man, thanks.

Thanks brownsfan!! How much do you pay now for your platform etc...? I'd be curious to know. Also, are my capital expectations reasonable to start a modest career in trading? Right now obviously I have size because of my firm capital so I can manage to make decent money but the splits are killers and I know eventually I'd like to be on my own.

Sweet thanks Atto. I dream of having my own trading business, all I have to do is get the capital to start...I'm thinking around 12.5K trading capital (one lots on ES, maybe ZN) and an overhead of about 150-200$ per month for data feeds like e signal. Does that sound reasonable?

Hey everyone, I've been glimpsing at some of these posts and I find it amazing that you guys share your numbers like that. I plan on posting my numbers here too, but before that I have a question. I'm presently a proprietary trader, just started not too long ago live. I was wondering if it would be better for me to eventually go on my own, since the profit splitting is a killer and desk fees are up the roof in futures. If so, which brokers would have decent fee structures tot trade a $10K account with X Trader from TT. I realize that this may not be the proper forum but it would be cool if someone could answer my questions. Happy trading!