intothefutures

Thank you again BlueHorseShoe. Yes, that does help, and I'm sure that in a few years from now, I would look at my post and scratch my head. How do you feel about Van Tharp's ideas about money management? That's mostly what I learned so far that made sense to me: position sizing, expectancy, etc. As for statistical analysis methods and market micro structure, I am not familiar with those concepts, but I will Google it and see what I can find out. If you have any specific resources in mind I will definitely check them out. I started paper trading the ES today without a real plan, without a clear idea of how to configure my charts, and without really knowing how to use thinkorswim, and I see what you mean about just how long the journey might be...

Thank you BlueHorseShoe and MightyMouse! That was very helpful. I understand what you mean now. I was just curious what you meant, because I wasn't able to follow your line of reasoning. Now I can. Question... if I start with a 20k account, trading 2 contracts, what are some of the best ways to get consistently profitable as a beginner? Trade gaps? Trade 2-3 hrs in the morning only (EST)? What kind of setups and indicators is it best to use, and why are people using tick charts instead of candlesticks? I realize these are loaded questions. Just trying to figure out where to get good quality info on how to get started with futures day trading. There seems to be an abundance of information and e-books, and "trading schools" but I don't know who's credible, and some are asking for a lot of money, or teaching platforms like Ninja Trading, which I never heard of. I was thinking of using ThinkorSwim. Is that okay for futures, or do I need to get something like TradeStation? Lastly, I've heard conflicting opinions about whether or not to paper trade. Any thoughts? Thank you in advance for any info you can provide.

MightyMouse, can you elaborate on this comment? I'm a newbie. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. If you have $25k, and you trade 2 contracts, how do you end up with 20 contracts, and how do you risk only 4 points for a 60 point gain? Sounds great, but I'm just confused on how you would accomplish this.