The Emini 500 is arguably the best futures contract in the world to trade in the following terms:

• Number 1 - Volume is huge so liquidity is awesome.
• The Emini 500 trades more than other stock index futures.
• Trades electronically -- prices are totally fair.
• Can be used to hedge stock market portfolios.
• Focusing on just a single futures contract makes learning more focused, and therefore easier to learn. 
• What is learned here can be applied to other futures contracts, stocks, options, Forex, Crypto, etc.

Each broker sets their own requirements and some are more strict that others. Try to get approved with a larger more reputable futures broker. We have accounts at TD Ameritrade to use their number 1 trading platform, ThinkOrSwim. We also have accounts at Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers.

You will need to ask each broker what their requirements are. You can open a paper trading account at most brokers to judge the ease of using their trading platform. 

We will start out teaching the TradeStation and ThinkOrSwim trading platform, and later we may teach how to use other popular brokerage platforms.

If you are a beginner with zero futures experience it is paramount to begin paper trading followed by trading the Micro Emini. This keeps the risk and stress level low enough to focus on trading rules, plans, methods, strategies and system development.

How much can you make? If you have a good system, including a superior money management strategy, the top 5% of traders can make 100%+ every year; the top 10% might compound 50%+. This includes down years when the vast majority of investors are losing money.

NOTE: How much can you lose? 100%. Some say 90% of ALL traders lose! Don't be part of the 90%... Be in the top 10%...

Do the annualized return-of-return on Richard Dennis' $1,600 to $200 million in 10 years (see last Q&A). It's off the charts! Who can achieve that ROI? Maybe one trader out of a million could.

But, don't let that stop you from trying. 

How much should you risk? With the Emini $10,000. With the Micro Emini maybe $1,000. If you lose those amounts, but don't want to quit go back to paper trading till you figure out success.

That said, you better know exactly what you're doing or you'll just burn through your capital needlessly. It takes time to practice, practice, practice. You must train your brain to recognize chart pattern and trade setup probabilities, along with learning how to overcome your destructive emotions.

Start with paper money, then with the Micro, then with the Emini using only money you can afford to lose!

BE PATIENT and DON'T RUSH. Remember we can teach you systems and strategy, but your mental and emotional states will certainly effect your success. 

An analogy I like to use is to imagine two snipers in a war, one is the best marksman ever, and the other one is just good. Once they're in the heat of the battle with the enemy shooting back the best marksman who is a nervous wreak gets very few kills, but the good sniper who controls his emotions is much more deadly.

That's the emotional element that you must development. Have ice in your veins when trading... that takes time. 

Also, trading Emini 500 futures are not like buying a growth stock that is about to trend 100, 200, 300% or more over the next several years. Remember the stock market has suffered 50% declines several time since this bull began in 1982. 

Option trading can produce huge profits also, but options are a wasting asset with very higher costs to trade. You MUST know what your doing to BUY options.

In my opinion, it's far easier to master trading the Emini 500 futures. Once you master this then consider mastering option trading. I've done both.

Options are for when you're absolutely convinced of an imminent major move.  

Theoretically, you don't even need cash to trade the Emini. If you have marginable securities in your account they can be used to meet the futures trading margin requirements at most full service brokers. That said, you will need sufficient cash to cover normal trading losses that occur with even the best traders.

In our "Mastering Portfolio Risk Hedging" we will begin with a $100,000 S&P 500 Index MUTUAL FUND instead of using individual stocks and other marginable securities. We do this to maintain the focus on our Emini 500 futures and options hedging and trading.

NOTE: futures positions settle at the end of day as if you had closed out your position, even if your position is still open. This is called mark-to-market. 

The S&P 500 Index funds outperform the vast majority of professionals so this strategy makes perfect sense for most equity investors.

The best question saved for last.

1. Teaching is a great way to increase one's own knowledge, insight, and hone one's skills, i.e., Greater SUCCESS!
2. A content website is a great business that can be grown over time. AlphaTradersAcademy.com, our next site, will focus on stock market investing and may have a far greater audience. It will also be a far larger and more complicated website.
3. Emini500Academy.com could help a small population due to the risk involved and the time/focus required to be successful, whereas the stock academy will be helpful to EVERYONE.
4. Our most important reason for teaching is helping those who are, or will be, trading futures and other derivatives.
5. Lastly, and most importantly, giving is better than receiving...

Google Richard Dennis. He is one of the greatest commodity futures traders of all time. He turned $1,600 into $200,000,000 in ten years. That is an average annual return of roughly 223%

Mr. Dennis made a bet with his associate at the time that he could teach others to do as well as him in terms of profitability. He hired 23 students with zero experience in trading. Some of those students are now billionaires.

While I was a broker with Drexel Burnham Lambert in the mid 1980s we raised $50 million in client capital over several months for Mr. Dennis to manage. He was up roughly 50% in just six months. 

We then raised an additional $200 million overnight. I called my clients and pulled their money out until we saw how he handled that massive amount of money. 

That turned out to be a wise move on my part because he then lost 50% over the following several months. In my opinion, too much trading capital, and those associated pressures, can affect anyone, even the best of the best. 

Again, psychology and emotions are so important. It takes great patience, time and experience to succeed in something like futures trading.