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Day Trading Eminis

I have been day trading eminis for almost 10 years now.  I still remember like it was yesterday when I saw my first tick charts and embarked on a new profession, a new lifestyle.  After day trading for roughly 10 years, I now day trade eminis and travel around the world teaching and training others via this website (see my travel blog).

Below is a complete list of articles that will give you information and teach you everything you need to know about day trading Eminis followed by an introduction:

  • What Are Emini Futures? Facts About Eminis
  • How I make a living trading emini futures – coming soon
  • Emini Trading Strategies – coming soon
  • Emini Trading Software – coming soon
  • Emini Trading Training – coming soon
  • What Are the Best Emini Brokers – coming soon

The Lingo

The E-mini futures market has different terminology that you may not be familiar with.  First of all, there are tons of different E-mini markets that are all valued differently and move in different increments (listed below).  Stocks move in dollars and cents while futures move in ticks and points.  A point is a dollar and ticks are cents.  Forex, which is the futures market for foreign exchange (Euro vs Dollar), moves in pips and points.

Contracts

Since futures contracts were originally contractual agreements to take possession of a commodity at a certain point in the future, E-mini futures contracts expire.  Since the contracts expire, we have to trade the current contract.  Crude, being a commodity that is in such high demand, expires every month (known as delivery month).

Most Emini Contracts Expire every Quarter

  • March
  • June
  • September
  • December

Most contracts have letter coding systems for the current contract month (Tradestation).  So if you are trading the March 2012 contract the symbol would be ESH12.  NinjaTrader classifies the contracts with months which is much easier to find and understand.  The September 2012 contract would be ES 9-11 for example.  Below is a list of the contract letter codes in case you need them:

Tradestation 2012 Emini Futures Contract Codes:

  • January: F
  • February: G
  • March: H   (For Emini S&P: ESH12)
  • April: J
  • May: K
  • June: M      (For Emini S&P: ESM12)
  • July: N
  • August: Q
  • September: U   (For Emini S&P: ESU12)
  • October: V
  • November:  X
  • December: Z     (For Emini S&P: ESZ12)

Symbols of E-mini Futures Contracts

  • 6E – Forex futures for Euro vs Dollar
  • CL – Futures for crude oil contracts (most profitable-New York Mercantile Exchange)
  • DAX- The DAX index future of the DTB (Deutsche Boerse)
  • ES – The E-mini S&P 500 index future of Globex (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
  • GC – The E-mini Gold Future (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
  • NQ – The mini Nasdaq index future of ECBOT (Chicago Board of Trade)
  • TF – The mini Russell 2000 index future of Globex (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
  • YM- The mini Dow Jones index future of ECBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) 

emini-futures-markets-and-point-value

Different E-mini Markets

Once you are ready to expand your growing trading empire you can move into any of the markets listed below, the highest profit is the 6E and Crude.  Remember that the futures markets move in ticks and points (Forex is pips and points).  Depending on the market there will be a different amount of ticks per point.  The ES market is 4 ticks per point (4 quarters in a dollar) while the YM just moves in points.

You can view my personal trades from the ES via the market recaps page.

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