Futures Trading

A little about Futures Trading.

I recently began trading futures again. The last time I trading them was in 1999, and things were different then. Back then, futures traded wildly, and were too much for my faint heart. Today futures trading is less volatile, you can trade any commodity or index you want. I have chosen the mini S&P 500’s. I use daily charts to trade off of the support or resistance levels. You can use technical charting, fundamental analysis, or a combination of both to gauge risk and determine entry and exit points.

To get started you only need $3,000, and have margin requirements on the S&P 500 Mini’s of only $400 per contract. This means you could trade about 7 contracts at a time.

Be careful though, in the event you loose on a trade you could have to send money in or liquidate to fulfill margin requirements. It is a good idea to either send in more money in the beginning, or trade under margin requirements, in order to avoid the dreaded margin call.

Futures trading can provide extra income if you are successful, and possibly more if you are good at this type of speculation. I am planning on not getting too caught up in this because it can easily consume your attention. In other words, keep your day job till you are certain you are able to make some money doing this over a period of time.

There are numerous web sites that offer free trial accounts that simulate real time futures trading. I highly recommend studying and using a trial account before attempting to trade real time. It is one thing to trade with fake money and another to trade with real money.