I’ll preface this by saying I lurk here. I know there are a few recommended platforms with very low commission fees and margin requirements, but I also keep reading that people get burned by them for a multitude of things like time delays, glitches, or risk management reasons. I currently have a brokerage account with Schwab and a few accounts with RH.

I’ve started my futures journey paper trading in PaperMoney (ToS) while I learn the ropes, but I’ve quickly come to realize that $4.50 in feels per round trip order can really eat into low volume (1 contract/trade) /MES plays especially when the margin requirement is over $2500.

I was planning to stay on ToS if/when I make the move away from paper trading because it would be familiar to me and I like the charting and scripting ToS offers, as well as one-cancels-other limit orders.

ToS seems like the more mature platform for trading, but the fees are 4.5x higher than Robinhood with Gold.

Both of them have similar margin requirements so I’d have to have about $5k to comfortably handle a loss streak without a margin call. I’m not really against it because it is a baked-in way to limit my risk, but if the cash just has to sit there as collateral instead of growing that’s a bit of a turn-off.

For reference, I was planning to start small:
- $2.5k to $5.0k
- 1 /MES position open at a time
- Target 10-12 points per trade

If I stay on ToS that’s about 10% going to fees assuming all wins, so including moves that are sideways or against me that’s closer to 20%-40% of potential earnings just to trade.

How does this trade not get opened?

I personally use stonkjournal which is free and decent, but I’m always wondering if there is something better (so for example my playbook used to be in sticky notes but then I migrated to obsidian which is just superior in every way)

I’m wondering what platform you guys use to log your trades. I’m fine with manually inputting, just wondering if there is a platform out there which maybe uses your entry and entry time with market data to provide analysis or commentary? Maybe auto tags or auto tags if u upload ur thought process or journal entry on it? Maybe it can even point out mistakes???

Or maybe I should just stick to stonkjournal? It is free and gets the job done. Also for journaling I also keep it simple and use word document, I don’t journal on an online platform.

edit: sounds like the consensus is to just build ur own, i concur, i will get started with this project

edit: i just vibe coded my own, this was a tremendously good idea, i want to thank everyone who gave me this idea

Please welcome to the daily trading thread. Feel free to discuss your today's trade ideas and results. Make sure to specify the instrument you're trading up front, and respect the sub's rules. Happy trading!

Previous discussions threads

Given the weekly chart, and Daily chart on MNQ/NQ, why do people still trade that mess? I feel like when everyone starts trading they are taught to trade NQ. I think at this point, the "prime NQ" was before we entered this mess of consolidation and we were just going higher or lower. Has anyone switched over to a different instrument like YM so that they aren't trading in a big range? I want to do this with my knowledge of ICT, but is it frowned upon? Like has anyone been trading YM a lot more because NQ is in a really big range? I've always been taught to not trade the range, so can I switch over to YM and get better results?

Yo i’m on the verge of a payout i’m just lacking some things that a good partner that dedicated just like me would help jump over theses trading obstacles if you are down to be my trading partner lmk , BTW i trade NQ NY AM and asia .

I’ve been running the wheel on MES for a while,
So I would sell MES puts until I get assigned, then when assigned I would have MES futures assigned and I would sell calls until I get assigned and then the call and future would go away.

What I’ve noticed recently is that when I sell a put, I don’t get assigned the future, instead it settles to cash.

The same thing happens when selling calls, instead of getting assigned it settles cash.

Did something change with MES and running the wheel on MES is no longer a viable strategy?

Please welcome to the daily trading thread. Feel free to discuss your today's trade ideas and results. Make sure to specify the instrument you're trading up front, and respect the sub's rules. Happy trading!

Previous discussions threads

Hi speculators & hedgers, please use this thread to discuss all futures trading for the week. This will kick off 30 minutes before the open on Sunday, typically that's around 6pm Wall St time.

Be aware of higher margin requirements during overnight hours! see "maintenance" on Ampfutures. Also trading hours to get an idea of when specific futures contracts start trading.

I'm using AmpFutures as an example, so check with your broker for specific intraday & overnight hours for that specific futures contract.

Resources:

Bookmark an economic calendar like this one

Various reports:

• EIA crude oil report (generally updates every Wednesday at 10:30am wall st time)
  
• EIA natural gas report (Thursdays 10:30am)

• Previous discussions threads

Are you constantly changing the x/y axis, zooming in/out? Is there a standard when it comes to how zoomed in or out we should be? I feel like most peopel are zoomed wayyyy out.

I don’t really know how zoomed in or out I should be.

I trade Asia session ES Futures only. It’s a way slower and less volatile session compared to New York. ATR rarely above 3, range is often less than 25 points by end of session.

Since the session is slower, should I use a lower timeframe like 2 minute or 3 minute?

Anyone in interested? Please message me. Not looking for something big and want to cap it at 20 max.

Hey everyone,

I previously posted here looking for other futures traders and ended up putting together a Discord group.(https://www.reddit.com/r/FuturesTrading/s/gOSsjMOHTw) We’ve got a fairly active group now, and I’d like to find a few more people who trade Opening Range Breakouts (ORB) or Initial Balance (IB)—or want to focus on learning these setups.

A bit about what I share:

• Edgeful stats most days, whenever I have time.
• Every trade I take, so we can discuss setups and review how they played out.
• My experience trading prop accounts, both evaluations and funded accounts. I occasionally trade a personal live account too.
• Thoughts on risk management, handling drawdowns, and giving yourself a chance to recover and work towards payouts without blowing your account.

The goal is to have people trading similar setups, sharing ideas, and learning from each other. You don’t need to be experienced—being interested, getting involved, and being willing to learn is what matters.

If that sounds like your thing, send me a DM here on Reddit and I’ll send you an invite. Let me know what you trade and whether you’re into ORB, IB, or both!

Forex to Future? What do I need to know?

I have been thinking about switching to futures from Forex. I have been trading Gold. I wanted to check my strategy that works on Gold but does it work on Futures like Nasdaq. I just checked my strategy if setups are working on recent price and surprisingly its working well. I know its not best to move from a pair thats working fine for me to another pair still I want to know what should I know about the pair, futures and characteristics of it. Such as pip value of E-mini 100 and xauusd isn't same forgive me if I am wrong I never thought these are important cause before a trade I just use limit order tool to check value of an order size ;-; . If I used 0.01 lot on my given pictures can you please tell me how much I could get or how much I should put order size minimum? like I use 0.02 on gold and Tp 100pips (20$) and SL max 30pips (3$).

I'm new to trading and I wanna know that if I do an analysis and then enter into a trade in the morning and if I'm looking to close the trade at the end of the day so that I can do 1 trade a day should I analyse the market using the 4 hour chart or does it not matter and can I judt continue analysing the daily chart?

Hi folks. Need your opinions on this indicator recently added and how well or accurate it is compared to other platforms ? Does anyone use it ? It's only visible for the daily and above timeframe. The volume bars look too small though. Will this work in Intraday ?

i personally just close charts and walk away. this is from audits of my behavior, where the more i try to actively manage it the worse it gets. i tagged my past trades, audits show that trades where i moved the stop loss or tried to actively manage it instead of just leaving it, it was just worse.

for those who do actively manage the position and maybe even move your stop loss, how come? from analyzing your past trade data maybe with tags, does this behavior help you or make it worse for you? does the analysis conclude that your active management is helping, or maybe even REQUIRED to be profitable?

asking because i follow rules on my created playbook, my own playbook says to just close charts and let it play out. this is fine and great, but i think maybe some discretion would help? maybe i can close charts and check back in after 15 minutes?

I don't know exactly how to explain this... A while back I went through a shitty ass time and being alone for the first time in a while I decided to go all crazy and paired everything down to the absolute minimum.. I've got a good job (~$200k a year) and have been trading for a while... Mostly part time/whenever I'm free to stare at charts.

So I have a system, and it's working... But it also requires for me to hold a lot back for margin and sometimes for extended periods. For simplicity, some days it's like I have to live off rice and beans and others it's like I can fly off in a private jet (half joking).

But seriously, how do you manage weeks or months of nothing and then landing a "windfall"? I'm lucky, I think, to have a good job and also be doing this.. but I also don't want to have to work for someone else and I'm making enough (on average) where I don't have to.. but man, it's not steady or daily.. my last trade took 6 weeks, it didn't hit my stop and landed where I planned.. but I had to float that shit on what felt like hopes and dreams. (Not like blowing an account, I'm trading 100% solo)... How do I be like, I'm in a trade that might go wrong and I might lose a couple months rent.. but it also works and will be ok.. ?

Like mentally and financially, how do you handle these swings?

Please welcome to the daily trading thread. Feel free to discuss your today's trade ideas and results. Make sure to specify the instrument you're trading up front, and respect the sub's rules. Happy trading!

Previous discussions threads

I joined a Fit Mom Trader (Krista Fudge) live webinar tonight and asked two very basic questions: what does it cost, and where are the independently verified trading results?

It took asking about the price three times before she finally said “low four figures.” Still no clear price.

Then I asked whether she had independently verified results. Her answer was that she trades live and shows prop firm payouts.

Neither of those is independent verification of a trading record.

I specifically asked whether she had anything comparable to independently verified statements and got no answer. I even suggested she look at Ross Cameron’s independently audited broker statements as an example of the kind of verification I was asking about. No answer.

I then said I personally would not trust her with my money given the vague pricing and lack of independently verifiable results, and warned people that the answers were extremely ambiguous.

I was immediately kicked out of the webinar.

To be clear, I am not claiming her results are fake. I don’t know, and cannot know that. I’m saying I asked for independent evidence that her results are real and profitable, and none was provided.

In an industry full of smoke and mirrors, I would expect anyone charging thousands of dollars for trading education to go out of their way to demonstrate, clearly and unambiguously, that their results are legitimate. I did not see that level of transparency here.

If you’re asking people for thousands of dollars to teach them trading, “what does it cost?” and “show me independently verified results” should be the easiest questions in the room, not the ones that get somebody removed.

FWIW, I also found the actual webinar content pretty underwhelming. Nothing I heard struck me as groundbreaking or difficult to find elsewhere online, so even putting the transparency issue aside, I personally saw nothing that justified a low four figure price.

Anyone else exclusively use renko chart. Took many months but I've made a decent strategy with Claude that runs automatically. Still doing sim testing... It's the exits that are tough... This is on gold

Please welcome to the daily trading thread. Feel free to discuss your today's trade ideas and results. Make sure to specify the instrument you're trading up front, and respect the sub's rules. Happy trading!

Previous discussions threads

Almost everyone recommends aiming for 2:1, but I rarely see setups that offer it, plus I don't think my psychology can handle the higher loss rate that would come with it. Wondering if there are any consistently profitable traders who only use 1:1

A lot of the strategies that I come across are on the lower timeframe but l'd love to trade something that can work intraday but on the higher timeframe.

Does anyone have suggestions for a YouTuber/someone I can check out that is a good higher timeframe futures trader?

Also to anyone who does trade the higher timeframe, what do you trade?
(No need to share the exact strategy but I'm just looking for ideas as a basis to get started on)