I have been paper trading the FTSE Futures for over a year now, with occasional trades live. I would like to find other FTSE Futures Traders and compare notes.
I am consistently profitable on the Sim, averaging £400 per day allowing for commissions, but to achieve this I am doing 30+ trades per day. I trade one contract only, but add more if a trend continues. My average winner is £35 and my average loser is £20. My win/loss ratio is roughly 60% winners, 40% losers.
I am a very short term trader with most trades lasting 2 to 9 minutes.
My price targets are 6 to 10 points, depending on the price action.
My stops are usually 4.5 points if entered on a limit order, or 5 pts if on a stop order.
I use direct market access trading using the Open ECry platform. You get filled at the bid or the ask, and there is no spread to pay. Most people in the UK seem to use spreadbetting to trade the FTSE cash. They pay a minimum of 0.5 points per side in spread, which costs them £10 per trade, which makes it much harder to make a profit when you are scalping. My fees are £1.81 per trade.
As for strategy, I trade reversals, continuations, pullbacks and breakouts.
With the FTSE, a 2 point move above or below the previous 5 minute candle is significant enough to signal a change of trend most of the time.
I use support and resistance from the 60 minute and daily charts, and watch the 5 min, 1 min and 50 volume charts all the time.
As soon as a reversal is in, I look for retracements to the 38%, 50% and 61.8% levels.
I don't use pivots, but I make a rough note of where they are. They work better for swing trades, and are less accurate for scalping.
A 2 point move away from a S/R or fib level is enough for me to consider a change of trend.
I use the 5 min chart to monitor trends and the 1 minute chart to time my entries.
I watch how price action moves between upper, middle and lower boly bands on the 5 min chart, to decide my bias. This mid line is critical. Below mid bb, take short entries only. Above mid bb, take longs only, unless it bounces off a strong level. Importantly, I use an 8 period setting for bolys on the 5 min chart.
Pullbacks to the 5 EMA on the 5 min chart are good entries for a steady trending market.
Pullbacks to the 5 EMA on the 1 min chart are good entries in rapidly falling/rising markets.
I trade from 8am to 11am usually, and 2:30pm to 4:15pm, UK time. In the morning, I watch the ES and FESX for confirmation of moves by the FTSE. In the afternoon, I watch the ES for trend but trade the FTSE depending on what happens with the ES.
I am trying to reduce the number of trades I take, and cherry pick which trades to take. I also and trying to run my trades longer, but when I get 10 points up I usually close and bank the profit.
I am interested to see how many others scalp the FTSE futures like me, and if they are comfortable taking so many trades in a day. Also what set ups do they use that are successful.
