File – Beginning Emini 4-30-11 Beginning to Trade the S&P 500 E-Mini TOS Symbol /ES Steve Fought Version 4-30-11 File – Beginning Emini 4-30-11

DISCLAIMER The following is not an investment or trading recommendation. The losses in investing and trading can be very real, and depending on your investment vehicle , can exceed your initial investment. I am not a licensed trading or investment adviser, or financial planner. You should make your own trading and investment decisions based off your own research, and tolerance for risk. What follows are just some tips which hopefully you will find useful.

How to find other information on S&P 500 E-Mini on the OC Traders group web site

Go to XS Profits.com

Click the PRESENTATION TAB

Check out this presentation for some good background info on the Emini

What is the S&P 500 E-Mini ?

S&P 500 E-Mini General Information The S&P 500 E-Mini is the most popular equity index FUTURES CONTRACT contract in the world. Commonly called just the “E-mini” - ticker symbol is /ES on the TOS platform, E-mini is a stock market index futures contract traded on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) Globex ELECTRONIC trading platform. The CME created the Emini in Sept 1997 because the value of the existing (big) S&P contract cost was over $500,000 EACH at the time which (of course) is just too large for many traders. Hedge funds like trading the E-Mini over the big S&P because the big S&P still uses the open outcry pit trading method, which has inherent delays, versus the all-electronic Globex system. The average daily implied dollar volume for the E-mini can run over $140 billion, far exceeding the combined traded dollar volume of the underlying 500 stocks. Following the success of this product, the exchange introduced other E-minis like the NASDAQ-100 geared primarily towards small speculators, as opposed to large hedgers.

WHY TRADE the S&P 500 E-Mini ?

HIGH PROFIT POTENTIAL SIMPLICITY LIQUIDITY And high loss potential Easy to track Returns Works well on Simulators (paper trading) The ES is a Simple but DIFFICULT trade LIQUIDITY Lots of volume Relatively easy to get in and out of trades

If you want a more in depth explanation on these 2 questions …… What is the ES ? and Why would people trade them ? Just click onto these 2 Links : http://emini-watch.com/emini-trading/emini-futures text http://emini-watch.com/emini-trading/why-trade-emini-futures video Or if the links don’t work, just go to Emini Watch. Com (Barry Taylor’s web site) Click the “EMINI TRADING” tab Then click on the 2 articles below: 1. What are Emini Futures 2. Why trade the Emini Futures

HOW to trade the S&P 500 E-Mini ?

HOW to trade is the Million dollar question. If you Google “How to trade the S&P 500 E-Mini” you will find dozens of sites where people are willing to sell you education on how to trade the ES profitably.

Here are just a few Trading Education Sources I found to be useful to myself specifically for Trading the ES http://www.tradingacademy.com/ ( Online Trading Academy in Irvine) http://electronicfuturestrader.com/jeffs-blog/ (Jeff Quinto) http://donmillereducation.com/journal/ (Don Miller) http://www.lbrgroup.com/ (Linda Raschke) http://www.dangramza.com/ (Dan Gramza) http://www.ireallytrade.com/ (Larry Williams) Others: http://www.proactivefutures.com/ http://www.eminiacademy.com http://www.unitedfutures.com/emini.html http://www.tradingconceptsinc.com/ http://www.daytradingcourse.com/ http://www.easyeminitrade.com/ http://www.daytradeemini.com/ http://www.daytradingradio.com/ http://emini-watch.com/ Etc, etc, etc

How do I trade the ES ?

INFORMATION GATHERING My current trading plan came from info gathered at internet web sites such as below: Jeff Quinto Dan Gramza Don Miller ThinkorSwim (Linda Raschke chats) Plus books: Larry Connors Larry Williams Mark Douglas Dr. Brett Steenbarger Brian Shannon, and about 10 other authors.

PRACTICE I started paper trading the ES in April 2010 I entered about 3200 ES paper trades or “practice trades” from April 2010 to March 2011 testing ideas and developing a trading plan. And the trading plan continues to be fine tuned

For the Jeff Quinto Video, just GOOGLE Jeff Quinto and watch the 3 “CME” “Getting Started” videos Or here is a link http://electronicfuturestrader.com/jeffs-blog/

Key things I took away from the Jeff videos These 3 CME videos gave me insight into developing a trading plan and the basic strategies for starting to trade the ES One key point Jeff stresses is don’t switch to live trading until you have developed consistently profitable trading on the simulator on a weekly basis.

For the Dan Gramza video, you can Google DAN GRAMZA trading Or here is the link to the video http://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/emck/index_content.htm Or also try Dan’s web site - http://www.dangramza.com/

The Dan video This Video offers about 35 minutes showing how to trade the ES with candlestick charts and Stochastics .. Much of this is similar to my trading plan.

TOS Chats - Linda Raschke Linda is one of the MARKET WIZARDS in Jack Schwager’s book You have to have an active TOS account now to access these videos. To get the Videos, just go to the TOS chat archives. Search on “LINDA” 4 chats will come up. Good one is : "Linda Raschke on Trading S&P 500 Emini Futures" Presented by:Linda Raschke on 9/1/2010 (TOS chat) Special guest Linda Raschke plunges us into the world of Futures trading. 1:28:42 length

Key Points from Linda The chats offers slides and audio for extensive discussions on how to trade the ES. (The videos last about 1.5 hours each or about 6 hours total)

Also, check out the link in the web site to TRADING after DARK DON MILLER Don’s blog is appears to be pretty much dedicated to trading the ES http://donmillereducation.com/journal/ Also, check out the link in the web site to TRADING after DARK for some actual trading sequence samples which are also similar to my trading style.

Tips ACTIVE TRADER STOPS TRADER ON THE OTHER SIDE TAKING PROFITS Use the ACTIVE TRADER (AT tab) in TOS TO LEARN ACTIVE TRADER also called the Dome or Ladder Just go to TOS chat archives and search on “ACTIVE TRADER” In TOS , click the SUPPORT TAB, then OPTION SCHOOL, then CHAT ARCHIVE. Then type ACTIVE TRADER into the search box There are several chats which will teach you how to set up the Active Trader screen Much easier to trade the ES off the ladder. STOPS Always enter your trades with a stop. Right now, I enter with a 4 tick stop Never move your stop if a trade goes against you. Let the stop take you out of the trade Reset and trade again in the future TRADER ON THE OTHER SIDE There is always someone on the other side of the trade And there are a lot of traders out there with more experience than you. This is a Zero Sum game. If you make $1000 , someone just lost $1000. TAKING PROFITS Right now I trade the 6-4-2 sequence but just 6-6 or 4-4 if market is choppy.

So, if you would like to try trading the ES …. Check out the educational links and Videos in this presentation. Especially watch the CME co sponsored videos from Jeff Quinto and Dan Gramza. Start trading on a simulator (Paper trade) Trade every day – Get in a lot of practice Don Miller has a video on the importance of practice and developing a feel for the market. Here is the link. - http://donmillereducation.com/journal/2010/07/page/2/ Manage distractions – probably the #1 trader killer. i.e. Trade every day. Test and develop your own style of trading … of course Don’t trade live until you are profitable consistently on the simulator

Note on Margins and Commission TRADING FUTURES OUT OF AN IRA TOS requires a minimum of $25,000 if you trade from an IRA. Just email to TOS and they will give you a link to the paperwork you need to fill out. MARGIN REQUIREMENT Different brokers have different requirements TOS requires $5000 per contract margin from regular accounts And $7031 per contract when trading from an IRA COMMISSIONS Different brokers have different commissions. TOS charges $3.50 a trade or $7.00 round trip Example, If you buy 1 contract of ES, it costs 3.50 If you buy 2 contracts , it cost 7.00 Same charges to exit trades