astralmarket

I agree Amatulic. Good points really. CL is not for some one without experience. It can be incredibly fast or sluggish. At times it follows all tech rules and other times it can be treacherous to say the least. I mean all this in minute trades.

Agree with you and Roztom. It is all one's own practice, deep understanding and a real will to get into the heart of it. If we notice many successful people in their careers fail in trading for they take it lightly and "believe" it is just a play. Markets have reached a sophistication point where any novice or hobby players are bound to be thrown out mercilessly unless one puts in real efforts.

After working on all 4 for few years I found that TF Mini Russell 2000 is the best bet for intra day moves. ES is only good for market makers or very big players. NQ and YM are inconsistent and require great deal of observation and practice. They prove to have never been gainful trades in my case. Best so far has been Russell 2000 futures despite its lesser liquidity. You have to observe it for few days and you will find it much more interesting and clearer trends.

Tams I know that I mean fair is quite fair if a broker allows you 1000 $ margin for a 6k contract. Obviously it is monitored and only worthy for real good traders. It can ruin any inexperienced traders for over trading.

I mean to say 500 to 1000 as intra day margins for people with less than 25k accounts:) I think besides fair trading costs as fees, fair intra day margins the most important is to execute the trades and for that we need a real good trading platform. For options and stocks any platform can work but for futures and specially day trading one needs a really nimble platform that can work with few clicks. I would love to hear your experiences cos there are only few thousand futures traders left. Over 90% of futures traders start with great excitement but most lose their account value soon, unfortunately.

If you have traded eminis for few years, can you list the best and the worst of platforms and also their providing brokers. Also the brokers that offer self directed trading with low intra day margins. Most good ones offer 500 to 7000$. I have tested many online web based and PC installed platforms for day trading futures. I notice that web only platforms are merely to fill orders and they are literally useless for by the time you executed its time to exec another order. The PC based platforms seem to be the most nimble and fast. i would love to hear any real experiences with the best of your platforms. To succeed in any futures trading specially the intra day, an efficient platform and a competitive broker is a must.

In case of options bcos of high leverage one must only do when fully conversed with futures or stocks. I have tested few brokers all nice but heavy commissions. If you want no frills but lousy platform try optionshouse.com I have had big losses due to their website based platform crashing in past 4 years yet I dint close my account despite having lost over 100k with them. They are most unfriendly yet the only thing was a focused site on options with clear options chains and order execution. So if you are just going to fill orders and you have your own charting resources options house is good. But if you are not computer savvy and cant handle website based platform its useless. I have heard that interactive and options express is good but high priced I want to try a new brokerage with a good platform. May be I will try tradestation.

For equities and equity options there are pretty good choices but for futures traders the choices are limited. I was checking Tradestation platform + brokerage but they wont allow you day trading 500$ margin which smaller companies offer. Can anyone write about the most competitive futures brokerage that offer online platforms?

Btw speaking of firetip, I found that firetip is offered by the same go futures, ironbeam or farr financial group. I applied for an account at proactive and chose firetip platform but the underlying brokerage was ironbeam. I already posted my experience with them for being flickery, unreliable and charging for platform $125 pm and other fees of $50 pm if you cant trade a month. See any company that plays tricks with customers and does not honor what they advertise clearly is not to be trusted.

I guess there are fewer offerings in the field of futures brokerage. Most are geared for large scale institutionals or CTAs. For individual pro traders there are fewer offerings but now luckily there are many platforms to choose from. I think as long as you have a clear idea n a good plan with experience we can work on any good and fast functioning platform. I have tested many but most are not easy to operative with nimbleness. Among all firetip was a pretty good platform so any one trading scalp minis etc. may like to try that. It is now offered by many brokerage houses.

I would like your comments and experiences of your online brokerage sites that can be relied by futures traders. I am looking for a brokerage that offer online, multiple platforms and will be pleased to hear from others with experience. Has anyone worked with proactive traders NY?

I am referring here futures brokers. I am looking for a new online broker with multiple platforms. By the way just to alert others, I used farr financial who use many names and sites to lure customers with their 99 cent commission gimmick but they are unreliable and plain morons. For example they will charge randomly for platform or for any other imaginable service without any information. They will never ever stick to any fixed rule or contract. So beware of their tricks. Farr financial is based in San Jose CA and use names like go futures, ironbeam and probably more. You will end up getting frustrated with them and their unethical and unruly customer service that will change their stand each time they charge you for no reason. They will give nonsensical and stupid excuses for the charges. So beware of farr financial and other services offered by them.