Focus

Trading futures has become a global event. When I first started trading we only had daily data which we downloaded every day, from CSI in Boca Raton in my case. We then did our analysis and traded off that day's charts using a telephone to ring our broker. I had about 6 Apple II computers chugging all night printing charts so I could be ready to trade the next day. The U.S. markets were the only real futures exchanges.

We now have exchanges all over the world offering futures on all types of financial and commodity instruments. This allows trading in a relatively active market 24 hours a day. Traders just beginning can trade before and after their day jobs, getting to CP before giving up the relative security of their regulated lives while they look forward to the freedom this life gives you.

Traders in every region can find a market to trade in the timezone they want.

But how many hours a day should you really trade?  It depends on what your trading philosophy is. You can grind it out hour after hour during a 6, 8 or 10 hour day, making lots of small profits. You can look to take just one good trade a day with enough size to meet your financial objectives. You can do what a lot of locals on the floor did which was to trade the open and the close only.

This is a fundamental decision that needs to be made. Not necessarily at the beginning but somewhere along the way the trading plan needs to be completed.

How do you make this decision? By trial and error and knowing yourself. Discover what works best for you. How do you focus best? Following the whole thread of the day or do you work best in shorter stints? Do you like to make a quick target amount and have the rest of the day to play your violin? Go to the beach?

A market has different phases during the day. My method of teaching a single market on a single time frame chart is designed to give as much information to make this decision as well as many more. Once you have achieved your basic CP, you have a basis to build your business on. It is very important to focus heavily on only this narrow perspective. Putting all your eggs in this small basket for a while will pay more dividends than you can see as a newbie but which can be appreciated looking down from the heights of CP.