E-mini Day Trading Strategies – What Do Traders Overlook?

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Trading the Emini S&P Strategies requires a methodology to trade successfully, but there are other elements and factors that traders should not overlook. These are not elements that would help you choose a direction, but if you adhere to these rules, it would help you focus on your methodology only.

1)      Decide which time of the day you want to trade. Some traders trade during the first one hour or two of the early session. Some feel that gives them the best chance as oppose to day trading the whole entire day.  In the early morning sessions you will find there is more liquidity due to institutional flow, as oppose to the more retail flow that could dominate in the afternoon hours.

2)      Price Feed-here is what you are looking for when it comes from the exchange: unfiltered data from the exchange.

Here are 2 great platforms for it:  NinjaTrader and R-Trader Rithmic

3)      Back up broker – platforms will go down. It’s not “if”, but “when”. It’s technology, and it’s never perfect. You will need to know a broker, and or a trade desk person who can help you immediately help you. The “down” time can be because your net connection went down, or the data is down, it’s irrelevant. But, being ready and establishing a rapport with someone who can immediately tell you where you stand, is priceless.

4)      Stability – Go with a platform that is commonly used by day traders, and is commonly discussed amongst traders. You can find it on forums, discussions boards, etc. This is not a guarantee, but the more know platforms would be more accommodating for most traders from a feature and a stability stand point.

5)      Be conscious of commissions- Single dollars might not seem a lot, but it adds up pretty quickly and can have a tremendous effect on your trading results. Save! Save! Save!

Commissions should be competitive, but your level of service, frequency of trading should all be all taken into consideration. Don’t expect to negotiate unless commissions do have a tremendous effect on your trading.

6)      Study and Decide- What methodology best fits my personality? Day trader is very analytical and requires strong precision, while swing trading looks at a bigger picture as far as analysis. Also, day trading requires being “glued” to the screen a bit. Be objective about your time availability.

E-mini Day Trading Strategies – What Do Traders Overlook? is a post from: Futures Trading Blog for Independent Self-Directed Traders and System Traders