Day trading the futures market.

Day trading the futures market is one of the most popular activities today. Day trading is the type of trading which opens and closes a transaction within a single trading day. Some of my favorites futures contracts are the E-minis SP-500 and the Russell 2000. At times I also trade the Dow futures when the market seems uncertain to me. At times I feel Russell 2000 is too fast for my heart , and Dow is just right for me if I want a slow and steady trading day,

Traders have become attracted to futures day trading for few reasons. Some like the action level of an increased frequency of trades while others like the fact that day trading carries no overnight risk. In this manner , no particular catastrophic political or business event , which may happen after the close of the futures contract will affect those who have already closed their contracts out during the day. The objective for traders here is to not allow any potentially adverse market conditions to affect their trading position.

Futures day trading can be both rewarding and profitable. The important point here is to have both a good futures day trading system and an excellent level of discipline to take action as needed.

There are many ” wrong ” behaviors in the futures markets and only a handful of ” right ” behaviors. In order to succeed , you must eliminate as many of the wrong behaviors as possible , and cultivate as many of the right behaviors as possible. This takes time. I still have some wrong behavior to handle as of today …

Remember - the important aspect of any trading program you implement is Consistency. You must be consistent in applying the rules of your program if you want to succeed. Finally you must be Persistent. Do not give up on your program of change just because it does not get results immediately. Many traders make a switch from other trading to futures trading , but gave up too soon. These people expect overnight results , which is not going to happen ! Losing behaviors are learned over the course of many years. They will not disappear overnight.

While results can be very quick when using some of the techniques , there is no way to predict how long it will take before you are successful. Many traders are happy with good results from their day trading too fast. They eventually returned the money to the market …

But successful you will be , if you first identify the problem , target behavior toward your goal and then implement a step by step plan to introduce the new behavior , reward it and practice it faithfully.

To your trading success !