Successful futures traders stick to their business plan

“Make a business case.” It’s a phrase that many of us have heard in our professional lives. Create a plan that roadmaps your steps to success or a blueprint on how you want to achieve the goal(s) you want to achieve, whether those be financial, personal, professional or all of the above. For futures traders, while you may be your own boss, you still need to create a business plan—and stick to it—to be successful.

 

Steps to help create a successful futures trading plan

 

In a recent webinar from Dimension Trader, Inc., titled “The Lone Ranger,” Michael Green, CEO, outlined the steps he took to be a successful trader. In addition to creating a business plan, he also included knowing:

• Powerful, proven futures trading methods
• Fibonacci power zones
• One to one Fibonacci extensions
• Trading areas and when to trade
• When to stand aside due to potential choppy conditions
• When to pull the trigger at exactly the right time
• How to stick to your plan

 

Create your business plan as a futures trader

 

It should come as no surprise that most traders enter futures trading to make money and to be successful. A wrong assumption many make is that trading all day every day, or maximizing their trading daily, is the path to success. In this case however, more is not always better.

Green stated that these traders will often make a little money to start the day, then give it back by the end and eventually blow out their account and blame the software. However, the software is not the problem, it’s their business plan.

A winning business plan in futures trading can be as simple as making 10 ticks per contract every day.

“Everyone knows the best time to trade is the first couple hours in the morning,” Green said. “That’s when traders are taking positions.”

Green concluded that if your goal is 10 ticks per contract per day, then when you reach that goal you quit trading for the day.

“You’d be surprised how quickly your account may grow [if you do this],” Green said.

To learn more about Green’s trading philosophies, as well as an in-depth look at creating a business plan, view the full webinar here.

Interested in more futures trading tips? Explore NinjaTrader’s on-demand video education library, with new events added weekly. Check out our schedule of upcoming webinars and register to attend live events.