New Futures Trader. TradeStation?

[wjrusnak 10]

Hey all,

 

Another new person to the futures market. Anyways I have been trading equities with TradeStation and I was thinking about opening a futures account with them. I read over a lot of futures tutorials and other info; I just need to review some of the basics:

 

Is Tradestation a good choice as far as commissions and platform?

 

What is meant by price per side and price per contract? I know in equities a contract is generally 100 shares of a stock. How is this in futures?

 

Can you daytrade futures? Are the daytrading rules for futures the same as equities (i.e. $25,000 acct. minimum)?

 

What are the general hours of trading for futures? (i.e. I notice crude oil is changing as long as a market is open anywhere in the world)

 

Any info will be appreciated.

 

- Bill

[brownsfan019 17]

Bill,

Before you even think about where to trade, learn WHAT you are trading.

 

http://cmegroup.com/education/

 

Good luck and have fun!

 

[BlowFish 10]

Bill,

 

If you are thinking of changing instruments it may be time to re-evaluate brokers. Have a search round the forums there is a thread about TS, some people have problems with them now and again. There are also a handful of brokers that get mentioned fairly often that have a good rep. having said all that, if you are familiar and comfortable with TS then why introduce another new factor into your trading.

[ZOSO 10]

OP, I really like TS for data and charting, but not for trading futures, so I pay the $100/month or whatever it is for TS and then use a dedicated futures broker with a professional feed such as NinjaTrader with Zenfire and TradingTechnologies.

 

Good luck and be careful out there.

[wjrusnak 10]

Alright, so I did some more research. Thanks for the link, brownsfan. The videos helped a lot. So my plan of attack is to keep Tradestation for equities, thus having it for charting futures. Now, Zoso, you recommend a dedicated futures broker. I came across some names via the Ninjatrader site and the TradingTech site: Alaron, Penson, and so many more. With that in mind, who would you propose is my best bet?

[ZOSO 10]

Haven't tried them all so I don't know the best.

 

I have accounts with Mirus for NT/Zen and AMP for NT/TT and am happy with both, albeit Mirus is more expensive because of Zen and I, for one, don't see any added value. If you held a gun to my head and made me pick one, it would be AMP with NT/TT.

[wjrusnak 10]

Well that's convincing enough for me. I'll check out AMP, which is ampfutures.com I presume. Thanks.

 

- Bill