What’s e-mini trading all about, and why should you do it? E-minis are merely “pint sized” futures contracts. Futures contracts involve two parties agreeing to sell a certain amount of some commodity or asset at an agreed upon price at a specific time in the future. All of these amounts and parameters are agreed upon today. When you trade in futures contracts, you are trading these agreements. You pay a premium to hold a contract for as long as you desire up to its expiration date (that’s that future date of delivery agreed upon in the here and now by the two parties). Your account gets credited with profits or debited for losses based upon the present market conditions of the underlying asset at that time when you decide to sell a futures contract that you purchased.

E-mini trading is for the “little guy” who wants to get in on the potential big money action of day trading futures. Day trading means that you are constantly buying and selling e-mini futures contracts. Day traders may only hold a contract for less than an hour, and they rarely hold one for longer than a few days. Hence the name “day trading”. Day traders seek to make profits during the trading day hours when the futures exchange is open. Day traders are not “buy and hold” traders. They don’t invest in stocks and bonds and then watch them for a year or two or five. If then can make a profitable trade every day, they will. They also don’t stick with a contract for very long if it looks like it’s losing unrecoverable ground. Day traders are quick to take profits and quick to cut losses.

E-mini trading is for the “little guy” who wishes to day trade with the leveraging power of futures contracts. Futures are so delicious to investors because a very small price movement means a very big gain. Likewise, if that small price movement goes in the wrong direction, it leads to a big loss. But day traders are active traders, remember. Therefore, the successful ones study and use trading techniques that have been proven to bring together low risk with high probability of profit. This does not mean that they never take losses. All day traders take losses. But the successful day traders profit significantly more often than they lose. Over time, their profits greatly outweigh their losses, and they live a prosperous lifestyle.

E-mini trading is futures trading for the “little guy” because the contracts are much smaller, but that in turn means their account margin requirements are much smaller, too. People who cannot afford to open up large trading accounts or who don’t have large amounts of capital to risk find their perfect trader’s home with e-minis. Even traders who could afford big margins and large risk capital are getting into e-minis because they are such a magnificent “deal”. So, study and master your e-mini strategies, and open up a whole new world of excitement and profit!