A Beginners Guide To Trading E Minis

Eminis, sometimes called emini futures, are smaller units of what some would call older futures contracts. These older futures contracts have been around for some time. The emini contracts are newer. They began being traded about 10 years ago. The “regular” futures contracts have existed for about 20 years. There are a few futures markets that have full and emini contracts.

The best known one is the S&P 500 futures. The S&P 500's emini contract is called “ES” on the ticker. Two years after the S&P 500 emini contract, the NASDAQ 100 emini was born. Its ticker name is “NQ”. One additional emini contract worth mentioning is Russell 2000. Traders call this one “ER2”.

These three Eminis may have differences, but they have one thing in common: they are traded electronically on Globex while the “adult” version is traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

The Dow Jones emini is traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and trades electronically. Its ticker name is “YM”. These Eminis are all futures contracts for stock indices. Trading stock indices is less liquid than trading commodities futures like gold, silver or crude oil. Consequently, it is riskier to trade them.

If you are just beginning to trade in the emini market, stick to well established markets that are less risky and can guarantee better volumes and trades because they are more liquid. These stock index Eminis show up more frequently as day trading.

Here you are trying to guess whether their price will move up or down. If you guess that the price will move up and you are right, you can sell these contracts for a profit. Even if you guess the price will move down and you are right,you will make money! Obviously, if your predictions are wrong, you will experience a loss.

Because Eminis are traded in day trading, you have the potential to make profits (or losses) on a daily basis. In order to make a profit, though, day traders use more than one contract in their trading because the commission on each trade is not that large. The number of emini contracts you can trade relates mainly to the emini margin. That in turn varies from one broker to another. It is smart to have at least twice the margin for each contract if you want to feel comfortable trading in the emini day trading arena.

Of course, you will not win all the time. Winning like that is never possible in the stock market, let alone in day trading. If you do lose, you need to keep in mind that some losses will cause draw downs in your equity.

To protect yourself, it is really important to have a cushion to protect yourself when those types of losses occur. A good rule of thumb is to have twice the margin as a minimum cushion to protect yourself should there be a downturn in your equity.

It is even better to have three times the margin for each contract, especially if you are a beginner in the field of emini trading. If you want to keep on trading, your equity can never go below the margin level. How many contracts you can trade depends primarily on the emini margin which in turn varies from one broker to another. Some brokers out there, those who cater specifically to emini traders, set their daytrading margins as low as $500 per contract, and sometimes even lower.

Most, though, require you to have at least $1000-2000 per contract in your account before you can trade. It is, however, highly advisable to have at least twice the margin per contract if you are to feel comfortable trading.

Not all of your trades will be winners; you need to account for losers as well. Since the losers will cause drawdowns in your equity, you need to have some cushion to withstand them. Twice the margin is, in my opinion, the absolute starting minimum, three times is even better, particularly if you are a total beginner.

In order to be allowed to trade, your equity must never fall below the margin level per contract. If this should occur, you will have to lower the number of contracts you are trading. If you can't do this, then you have to stop trading and raise enough cash again to be allowed to resume trading.

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