ULTIMATE Futures Trading Course (Step-by-Step)

Brett Go's "ULTIMATE Futures Trading Course (Step-by-Step)" provides a comprehensive guide for beginners aiming to navigate futures markets successfully and avoid common pitfalls that lead to significant losses. With nearly seven years of experience, including over $1 million in profits this year alone, and a track record of coaching hundreds of students to become six-figure funded traders, Go distills his expertise into a structured, actionable framework. The video covers fundamental concepts, practical trading mechanics, and crucial psychological insights essential for building a profitable and sustainable trading career.

Why Trade Futures? 🚀 Futures offer unique advantages for active traders:

• High Leverage & Regulation: Futures are traded on regulated centralized exchanges like the CME, ensuring transparency, tighter spreads, and robust capital protection, unlike unregulated offshore brokers in other markets.
• Near 24/5 Access: Markets are open almost 24 hours a day, Sunday evening to Friday evening, with a short daily one-hour reset. This flexibility accommodates diverse lifestyles and time zones.
• Deep Liquidity: Major contracts (S&P 500, NASDAQ, Gold) boast deep liquidity, allowing instant trade entry and exit with minimal slippage, making manipulation by large institutions difficult.
• Tax Advantages (US): Under the 60/40 rule, 60% of gains are taxed at long-term capital gains rates, even for day trading, incentivizing futures for active US traders.

What are Futures? 🧐 A futures contract is a standardized agreement to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price on a specified future date. Initially used by hedgers (e.g., farmers locking in grain prices, airlines hedging fuel costs), they are now extensively traded by speculators. The key advantage is controlling significant exposure with a small margin deposit, eliminating the need to own the underlying asset physically.

• Examples:
  • E-Mini S&P 500 (ES): Represents 50 times the S&P 500 index value. For instance, if S&P is at $5,000, one ES contract controls $250,000 in exposure.
  • Gold Futures (GC): Represents 100 ounces of gold. If gold is $2,000 per ounce, one GC contract controls $200,000 in exposure. This leverage enables substantial profit or loss depending on risk management.

Types of Futures: Futures contracts generally fall into three categories:

• Indices: Track major stock indices like the S&P 500 (ES), NASDAQ 100 (NQ), and Dow Jones (YM). Highly liquid, clean-moving, and offer frequent setups, making them ideal for beginners. Micro Index Futures (MES for S&P 500, MNQ for NASDAQ) are recommended for new traders as they are 1/10th the size, affordable, and beginner-friendly, reducing the financial impact of mistakes.
• Commodities: Include Crude Oil (CL), Natural Gas (NG), and Gold (GC). These markets are highly volatile, reacting swiftly to economic news, supply shocks, and geopolitical events. While potentially profitable, their rapid fluctuations make them unsuitable for beginners.
• FX Futures: Currency contracts such as the Euro (6E), Yen (6J), and British Pound (6B). They operate similarly to spot forex but trade on centralized exchanges. FX futures suit micro-lot trading and longer-term swing strategies. Beginners are strongly advised to start with micro index futures due to their balanced risk-reward profile.

Trading Platforms: 💻 A trading platform is the software used for charting and executing trades. Key features include clean charting, stable data feeds, and efficient order entry with automated stop-loss and take-profit management.

• NinjaTrader: Highly popular for futures, offering advanced order flow tools, custom indicators, and a robust community. Recommended for dedicated futures trading.
• TraderVates: Not personally used by Go, but noted as beginner-friendly, simple, and fast with straightforward pricing.
• TradingView: Excellent for chart analysis due to its clean interface. While it can connect to some brokers for direct trading, it's often used primarily for charting in conjunction with a separate execution platform.
• ThinkorSwim: A powerful all-in-one platform for charting and analysis, but resource-intensive and less specialized for futures compared to NinjaTrader. The advice is to select one platform, commit to it, and master its functionalities to avoid slowing progress.

Funding Your Account: 💰 There are two primary methods to fund a futures trading journey:

• Self-funded: Depositing personal capital. This grants complete freedom and control over the account, allowing traders to set their own rules without external oversight. With futures' high leverage, even $1,000 can be used to trade one micro contract, providing an environment to practice discipline, execution, and build consistency without the pressure of evaluations. This is recommended for initial learning, treating the capital as "market tuition" to familiarize with live trading emotions and mechanics.
• Prop Firms: These firms allow traders to use their capital upon passing an evaluation. While popular (e.g., FTMO, The Five Percenters), they come with the benefit of accessing large accounts (up to $400k) without significant personal risk. However, traders must adhere strictly to the firm's rules, including daily drawdown limits, profit targets, and consistency requirements, with account termination as a consequence for rule breaches. Go advises beginners to start self-funded with a small capital for 6 months to build a profitable track record before considering prop firms for scaling.

Understanding Contracts: Before trading, understanding contract specifics is vital:

• Tick Size: The smallest possible price movement a contract can make.
• Tick Value: The monetary value won or lost for each tick movement.
• Point: Usually comprises several ticks. For instance, in the NASDAQ E-Mini (NQ), one tick is $5, with a tick size of 0.25. Therefore, one full point (4 ticks) is worth $20 (4 x $5).
• Margin: The capital required in a trading account to control a contract. E-mini contracts (e.g., NQ E-Mini) have higher tick values and require larger margins (e.g., $17,600), while micro contracts (e.g., MNQ) are 1/10th the size, with a lower tick value (e.g., $0.50 per tick for MNQ) and significantly lower margin (e.g., $1,760), making them ideal for beginners.

Position Sizing: 📏 This is the most crucial aspect of risk management, determining trading longevity.

• Formula: Contracts = Risk Dollars / (Stop Loss in Points * Point Value) (or simplified as Risk per trade / Dollars per contract as per the calculator example).
• Application: For a $2,000 account risking 1% ($20) on a Micro S&P 500 contract with a stop loss of 2 points (8 ticks) and a point value of $10, the calculation is $20 / $10 = 2 contracts. A position size calculator is highly recommended to automate this, ensuring that lot sizes are appropriate for the account balance and preventing over-risking, even when highly confident in a trade. This discipline is central to professional trading.

Trading Sessions & Expiry: ⏰ Futures markets are almost 24/5. Key sessions include Asia, London, and New York, allowing traders to choose times that align with their schedules. The New York morning session is often the most active.

• Expiry (Rollover): Futures contracts have expiry dates.
  • Index Futures: Roll quarterly (March, June, September, December).
  • Commodity Futures: Roll monthly. "Rolling over" means switching from an expiring contract to the next contract month to maintain trading in liquid markets. Traders must monitor their broker's rollover calendar to avoid being stuck in illiquid, expiring contracts. Expiry makes futures particularly suitable for intraday and short-term trades, rather than long-term swing trading.

Mechanical Trading Strategy: ⚙️ Go outlines a simplified mechanical strategy for scalping/intraday trading, typically using a 5-minute chart as the higher timeframe (HTF) and a 1-minute chart as the lower timeframe (LTF).

1. Higher Time Frame (5m): Identify Break of Structure (BOS):
   • Purpose: Determine the prevailing trend (bullish ⬆️: higher highs, higher lows; bearish ⬇️: lower highs, lower lows) and define the current swing range.
   • Action: Once a BOS is identified (e.g., price taking out a previous swing high in a bullish trend), anticipate a pullback.
2. Identify High-Probability Supply/Demand Zones:
   • Criteria for a high-probability zone:
     • It must have directly led to a Break of Structure.
     • It must have created Imbalance (a noticeable gap left by a strong, impulsive move, indicating significant buy/sell orders).
     • It must have Swept Liquidity (triggered stop losses below/above previous swing lows/highs, acting as fuel for the next move).
   • Discipline: Only deploy capital on trades within these high-probability zones, avoiding counter-trend moves.
3. Wait for Zone Mitigation & Entry Model (1m):
   • Patience: Do not act until price actively "mitigates" (touches) the identified supply/demand zone.
   • Crucial Insight: Do not enter on the first reaction to the zone. This is typically an "inducement"—a bait laid by professional traders to trap retail traders early, generating liquidity for the real move. If you can't spot liquidity, you are the liquidity.
   • Entry Models (after inducement/liquidation):
     • Aggressive Entry: After price mitigates the POI, wait for a subsequent liquidity sweep (e.g., price dips below the inducement low for a long trade, or surges above the inducement high for a short trade). Enter immediately after the sweep on the second leg in the direction of the HTF trend. This offers tighter stop losses but higher frequency of early stop-outs.
     • Conservative Entry: After mitigation, wait for a clear market shift on the 1-minute timeframe (a BOS in alignment with the HTF trend). Then, wait for price to pull back to the newly formed 1-minute demand/supply zone that caused this market shift. This provides more confirmation but may lead to missing some moves.
   • Risk Management:
     • Stop Loss: Placed strategically just beyond the liquidation candle (aggressive) or the 1-minute demand/supply zone (conservative).
     • Take Profit: A standardized 2R (two times the risk distance) is recommended for mechanical consistency.
     • Position Sizing: Always use the position size calculator to ensure appropriate contract numbers based on account balance and risk tolerance (e.g., 1% per trade). The core lesson here is that professionals obsess over exits and risk minimization. Losses are an inevitable part of trading; the goal is to consistently risk only a small percentage (e.g., 1%) per trade, allowing even a 45% win rate with a 1:2 risk-to-reward ratio to yield significant long-term profitability by letting the "law of large numbers" play out.

3 Beginner Tips💡

1. Don't get distracted by the "women in the red dress": Inspired by The Matrix, this tip emphasizes that the real obstacle to trading success isn't the market, but internal distractions. Novice traders often fall prey to "shiny object syndrome," constantly seeking new "holy grail" strategies, gurus, or asset classes, thereby resetting their competence levels. Success comes from mastering one strategy, one style, and one asset class through consistent, often mundane, repetitive tasks like backtesting, journaling, and trade review. Ignoring external distractions and focusing on one's own disciplined path is paramount.
2. Understand the Competence Curve: Trading progress follows four stages:
   • Unconscious Incompetence: Beginners enter with high confidence and often initial "beginner's luck," unaware of the complexity and true effort required.
   • Conscious Incompetence (The Danger Zone): Reality sets in with inevitable losing streaks. Confidence plummets as traders realize the difficulty. This is where most (95%) quit. Go urges reframing losses as learning opportunities—"diamonds covered in dirt"—that build identity and resilience. Forecasting future self can provide perspective to push through.
   • Conscious Competence: Traders begin to succeed, understanding that mastery of skill and process, not just money, drives results. The "holy grail" is found through self-review, refining trade plans, and mastering risk and emotions.
   • Unconscious Competence: Trading becomes second nature, like riding a bicycle effortlessly. Execution is fluent, without hesitation, reservation, or fear. This stage, achieved after years of dedicated practice, represents true market mastery and is where significant wealth is generated.
3. Trading is not a linear journey; it's exponential: Retail traders often expect linear growth in equity. In reality, the journey is characterized by a long period of stagnation, losses, self-doubt, and skepticism from others. The "inflection point"—where results transition from flatline to exponential growth—is the critical juncture. Many quit just before reaching this point. Success requires an "unstoppable" mindset, breaking down grand goals into small, daily, actionable steps, and consistently executing them. Go's own inflection point came in his third year, highlighting that perseverance through extended periods of seemingly fruitless effort is key.

Final Takeaway: Trading is an infinite game, with ever-changing rules and no finish line. The only way to "win" is to keep playing. This necessitates preserving capital, rigorously managing risk, minimizing losses, and maximizing profits by focusing on high-probability setups. Quitting guarantees failure, while an unwavering commitment to the process, even through prolonged adversity, ultimately leads to mastery and financial freedom.