trading futures

Suggested minimum depends on how much risk you want to take on. Most people reccommend 1-3%, so on each trade, you should only risk that amount of your account - the amount of money you lose on a trade which is stopped out should be about 2% of your account.

I'm not sure of the specifics for futures, but I THINK they require a bigger account thean you would trading forex (with the same level of risk).

Try looking for a site called 'elite trader' and check out the forums there.

good luck

you're up against banks and hedge funds who have literally billions invested in this, your chances of success r slim - I've seen it done though, it's how I got started too

bump*

i began trading commodity futures 2 days ago. i believe the best way to learn is from your mistakes. im currently trading gold and corn, 1 contract per trade. would someone like to share insight?

Before you start trading with real money I would suggest paper trading using a platform like Xtrader, Ninja, or Trasnact until you have the feeling of "wow this is easy" Keep thorough records of your trades. After you have collected a reasonable sized sample of trades. The shorter your holding period the larger the sample you are going to need. Determine your average loser in terms of $, multiply that amount by 100 and thats your account minimum, and basically you have 100 "bets", you can afford to lose 100 times in a row before your busto.

The next factor i would look at would be flexibility in bet size, that is how many contracts you can trade. You want to really be able to press great trading opportunities that have strong reward to risk relationships.

sounds like a great idea. i'm just not sure how likely my paper trading style will simulate my real trading.

Am I the only wondering, why the OP said just "Futures". Commodities/FX/etc are not all valued in a similar way, for instance Oil/Coal/NatGas/Gold all derive their value from different things.

He did say he's trading gold and corn ... both imo can only go up currently.