Top 10 Tips For Futures Traders

ES/MES Futures Trader Tips:

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1. Adopt the “No Level, No Trade” Mantra

This is the most fundamental rule of the system: reject prediction trading entirely. Adopt the discipline of “No Level, No Trade. Period. Make price come to you.” Don’t chase candles. Don’t guess where the market is going. Wait for price to hit a specific, pre-mapped area… a “Battle Plan” zone, and untested “Strong Level” or Core Strategy “bounce level”. If the setup isn’t “clean, clear, and crisp”? You simply don’t click the button. Hands off the mouse. Sometimes the best trade is realizing there is nothing there to trade.

The is the ENTIRE purpose of the Battle Plan

2. Treat Stops as the “Cost of Doing Business”

Reframe losses. They’re not personal failures! Stop viewing them as such. They’re the necessary operating expenses of running a trading business. Just as a convenience store pays for insurance and experiences theft, a trader pays for stops. They’re your protection against catastrophe. The goal is always to “stay alive to trade another day” because there is no single trade worth blowing your account for. In high-volatility environments? Use a “paper cut stop”…a very tight stop that gets you out immediately if the trade doesn’t work. Minimize the damage to a tiny amount.

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3. Master the “Lotto Runner” System

Here’s how you solve the psychological problem of exiting winners too early: use the “Three Contract System.” Enter with multiple contracts, quickly lock in profit on the first two (say, at 10 points) to “finance the trade,” and move your stop to break-even on the final contract. This last contract becomes your “Lotto Runner.” Since the trade is now risk-free and you’ve already banked cash, you can hold this runner without emotional stress and capture massive, 100-point moves that would be impossible to hold otherwise.

Read About Andrews 200-Point Runner!

4. Practice “Green Over Greed”

Knowing when to stop is the skill that separates professionals from gamblers. Once you’ve hit your daily goal or secured a “Green Day,” the instruction is simple: “Green over Greed, you don’t need more.” The market will always be open tomorrow, but your capital won’t be if you keep pushing your luck. Even a small green day is a victory because it keeps you in the game. Overtrading? That’s how you give back all your profits plus your principal.

We reinforce these principles every day within our Battle Plan, Zoom, and Discord community.

5. Create Space Between Impulse and Action (“Close the DOM”)

Want to prevent “revenge trading” after a loss or “euphoria trading” after a win? Create physical friction in your process. The most effective tip: “Close the DOM” (your trading platform) immediately after a significant trade. This action stops the accumulation of negative emotions and forces a hard reset. It creates “space between impulse and action,” allowing you to walk away, refresh your beverage, and come back to the chart later with fresh eyes rather than reacting emotionally.

6. Accept the “Gift of Break-Even”

If a trade moves in your favor but then stalls or threatens to reverse, move your stop to your entry price immediately. If the market comes back and stops you out? Don’t be frustrated…accept it as the “Gift of Break-Even.” Never hold onto a trade when it’s laddering against you beyond your entry. Getting out flat is a victory because it protects your capital. Cut losers without remorse. Hoping for a turnaround is not a strategy.

I’ve seen many a trader hold onto a dying try, thinking it might get back up. It won’t. Put it out of its misery and move on.

7. “Stand Down” During “Vomit Mode”

There are specific market conditions…often caused by news events like CPI, NFP, or geopolitical headlines…where price action becomes irrational. You’ll see “blood on the chart” (massive 15-point candles). In these moments? Stand down. Do not try to catch a falling knife. The volatility is often algorithmic and can wipe out a retail account in seconds. Wait for the dust to settle and for structure (laddering) to rebuild before engaging.

8. Respect the “Bull/Bear Line”

Always identify who’s in control of the market session. Use your “Bull/Bear Line” or the “Yearly Open” to determine the bias. If the market is below this line? Bears control. In this environment, any long trade you take is considered “counter, small if at all.” This means if you’re trading against the dominant control, you must reduce your leverage (trade micros instead of minis) and tighten your profit targets. Never add to the position if it goes against you.

9. Don’t Short “Short Covering”

“Short covering” rallies are violent, explosive moves to the upside caused by shorts exiting their positions. (Our Battle Plan trade ideas are great at understanding where these rallies will “most likely” occur… we are very good at it!).

These rallies will absolutely wreck immature traders. These moves are ruthless and will run you over without hesitation. They’re meaner than a rattlesnake and twice as quick. Never ever short a short-covering rally… EVER… unless you like being punched in the face. If tempted to short a rally like this, save yourself the financial pain and opt for physical pain instead: just punch yourself in the face three times. With each punch, repeat, “I will not short a short-covering rally.” This should help the hard-headed “mature.”

10. Avoid the “First Six Minutes”

The market open is often a trap filled with algorithmic noise, fake-outs, and “whipsaw” price action. A simple rule to preserve capital: avoid trading the first six minutes of the session. 99% of the days you’ll never trade the first six minutes. Let the initial volatility shake out and establish the opening range. Once the true direction is revealed and the chart calms down, you can look for your “clean, clear, crisp” levels to engage.

11. Never Add to a Loser

Adding to a losing position (averaging down) might be a “great long-term investing strategy,” but it’s a terrible scalping strategy. When you’re trading leveraged instruments like ES or MES futures, you’re operating with a small bankroll relative to the market size. If a trade is “laddering against you”? Exit immediately. Remember the “silver traders” who kept buying during a liquidation break? They kept adding to a loser until they were wiped out. In day trading, if you’re wrong, you get out. You never throw good money after bad.

12. “Never Make Things Worse”

This rule pairs with the concept of counter-trend trading (“Counter, Small if at All”). If you find yourself in a trade that’s fighting the dominant market control…like longing when Bears are in control…your primary job is damage control. “Never Make Things Worse” means you absolutely cannot widen your stop loss, you cannot increase your leverage to “make it back” quickly, and you cannot hold past your invalidation point. Take the L like a professional rather than turning a small, manageable loss into a career-ending disaster.

13. Wait for the “Second Ladder”

In high-volatility conditions (often called “Vomit Mode”), the “First Ladder”…the first attempt by price to reverse direction…is statistically the most dangerous trade to take. It’s often a trap. The wiser, higher-probability trade? Wait for the “Second Ladder.” This occurs when price attempts to reverse, pulls back to test that reversal (creating a higher low), and then goes. If you miss the absolute bottom because you waited for the second ladder? That’s fine. You traded safety and structure over gambling.

14. Master “Trade Location” (Range Rules)

A perfect candle setup is worthless if it appears in the wrong “Trade Location.” You must understand where you are in the context of the day’s range. It’s statistically dangerous to go short at the “Value Area Low” (the bottom of the range) or go long at the “Value Area High” (the top of the range). Even if you see a setup, if you’re at the bottom of the range, you generally shouldn’t short because you’d need to be 100% correct immediately to survive. If the location is bad? Stand down.

15. Use a “Trade Card” (Limit Your Punches)

Discipline is a finite resource. To prevent overtrading and the “lowering of standards” that happens when you stare at a chart for too long, use the concept of a “Trade Card.” Limit yourself to a specific number of trades per day…three punches, for example. Once you’ve punched your card three times…whether they were wins, losses, or scratch trades…you’re done for the session. This artificial constraint forces you to be extremely picky with your entries, ensuring you only swing at the “fat pitches” rather than chasing mediocre price action.

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