There are many advantages to day trading including: (1) No overnight exposure, (2) Small risk per trade, (3) Money can be multiplied many times over.  With so many day trading options available, confusion often sets in regarding which direction to go.  Should the focus be on Stocks? Options? Futures?  How many markets should be followed? How often should one trade during the day?

If you plan to day trade, you need nothing more than the S&P E-Mini (ES) market to succeed.  Launched in 1997, the E-Mini has exploded in popularity, and for good reason.  Stock trading has been around forever, but it is not the most efficient vehicle when it comes to trading.  Considerable research is required to select the best stocks to trade, and it is hard to choose the right stocks to trade at the right time.  Volatility can be low for periods at a time, and a considerable dollar investment is required, even with day trading margins that are in place.  Also, rules such as the "up-tick rule" make it more difficult to execute short, as well as long positions.

Option trading has also been around a long time.  The lure of high leverage and big profits seem very appealing, but in practice the task is quite difficult.  The option buyer not only has to guess what price the underlying stock will reach, but also must be correct with respect to what time it will do so before time decay of option premiums begin to set in.  The option seller increases his/her odds of success, but with limited gains and potential unlimited losses.  Also, options often do not provide the liquidity of other trading instruments, and wide bid/ask spreads can adversely impact trade execution.

Future trading is a lot more pure than stock or option trading, and "Stock Index Futures" offer everything a trader can ask for- namely, volatility, liquidity, leverage, and ease of execution!  Markets like the ES E-Mini are 100% electronically traded, so there is no physical broker effecting trade execution.  Buys and sells take place within a fraction of a second!  Also, stock index trading is truly bi-directional.  You can just as easily go long or short, make money as price moves up or down, and reverse positions in an instant if you choose.

It is assumed that you possess basic knowledge of the E-Mini market, including the structure of the market, and especially the risks and rewards inherent to trading the market.  If not, there is plenty of material available for you to gather such information before you start to trade.

The E-Mini S&P is simply a "mini" version of the S&P futures contract, and trades virtually tick for tick with the S&P market, but 1/5 the size.  Therefore, trading 5-E-Mini contracts is equivalent to trading 1-S&P contract.

The E-Mini is traded electronically, whereas the S&P contract is traded through brokers on the floor of the exchange. This leads to quicker fills in the E-Mini market, with less slippage. The only disadvantage to trading the E-Mini is you must pay five commissions, as opposed to one commission in the S&P, if you plan to trade at higher volumes.

Here is the information on each market:

• S&P 500 (SP) Tick size=.10 ($25), Point size =1.00 ($250)
• E-MINI (ES) Tick size=.25 ($12.50), Point size=1.00 ($50)

Both futures have four-contract months- March (H), June (M), September (U), and December (Z). The charting symbol consists of the contract, month and year. Thus, if you are trading the December 2008 E-Mini, the symbol would be ESZ08.

You will rollover to the next contract month on the second Thursday of the current expiration month. Thus, you start trading the March contract on the second Thursday of December- the September contract on the second Thursday of June, etc.

Trading E=MC² offers an opportunity to leverage your trading results over time. When you reach a point where you trade E=MC² consistently day in and day out, the sky is the limit when it comes to your trading size. This will be based on your account size, and your specific risk/reward tolerances.

The E=MC² track record is based on a minimum contract set, which means you can start trading this method with a single contract.

At current market volatility, it is recommended you start with a $5000 account to trade a minimum contract set, although some firms will allow you to trade with less than this (ie- balance of $1000 to daytrade)  

Each trader must define his/her own comfort level based upon individual risk/reward preferences, as well as individual trading goals and expectations.

E-MINI TRADING BYPASSES THE FLOOR TRADERS, WHICH PROVIDES FASTER TRADE EXECUTION!