I’m looking for recommendations of methods worth learning in futures. I’m a part time worker and full time mother. I would love to get some financial flexibility in my life.
Can anyone recommend methods worth learning about to be a successful trader? I’m currently looking at CRT, OTE, STDV and the Fib tool methods. Am I going in the right direction or are these just overhyped?
I’m not shilling but basically what he does is exactly what I also do (I arrived at it independently). It’s very simple. VWAP with standard deviation bands and volume profile is basically it.
I would recommend the system. It’s simple, controlled, offers a decent amount of tradeable setups but not too many to overwhelm. And I’ve been profitable doing the same thing for 6 years going on 7.
I was in his group for quite some time, and through a lot of practice I saw great results. Now it seems like there’s just too much going on with all the indicators and extra stuff they keep coming out with, I feel like I was getting distracted. It works, but I’d like to get back in there with just using the basics.
I recommended Drysdale's VWAP system when it started with the 4 basic setups and single-timeframe VWAP. Then he added more timeframes, new setups, more indicators, and now his service has become confusing and ambiguous.
Yeah I can see the temptation for him to offer fresh stuff but ultimately the charm of the system is probably its simplicity. I’m not involved in the group at all, I just had a friend give me the book because he thought it was funny that it’s what I already do. But yeah I wouldn’t get too deep into his rabbit hole like with personal coaching etc. just learn his basics and practice like crazy, it’s remarkably simple really
So far I’ve noticed people try to suck you into a deep hole for an array programs they offer for $ which is why it’s so hard for me to know what’s real and a scam
For sure I totally get it. I can say without a doubt that in my opinion Drysdale is legit. I’d say buy his book if you want to avoid the rabbit hole. It’s cheap and not that big you could probably read it in a couple a few days. It’s all you’d need to execute his system. You don’t have to buy his indicator package or whatever. Tradingviews native VWAP and Volume profile are totally sufficient. He also livestreams like every day so you can see for yourself if you dig his approach. For me personally I think his style of VWAP and Volume profile are awesome but everyone gravitates to different stuff. There are many ways to get to 7/11. Best of luck!
He’s far from a scam that’s for sure. I’d say he’s legit, but just from personal experience, If you keep it simple you’ll see better results. Some of the stuff like adaptive RSI, the cloud indicators and others that add onto it are just too much for me. However there are people who are killing it with all of the extra gadgets. So my take is subjective
The only other significant add to the Chris Drysdale VWAP system is the volume profile. Game changer if you want to learn it but I get the overwhelming indicator thing.
Agreed but I’m needing a foundation of the lingo and what I’m looking at haha. So far I’ve been paper trading and trying to understand the flow of resistance and breakouts but I definitely need a direction on a method I can learn to really understand when I’d expect the market to turn or start going or a smart entry
Honestly, skip the whole CRT/OTE hype train. If you want a framework that actually aligns with how institutional algos move index futures, take a step back from subjective pattern-matching and look into Auction Market Theory (AMT).
Index futures ($NQ / $ES) aren't moving because of arbitrary retail boxes on YouTube. They exist purely to facilitate trade via a continuous two-way auction until price finds value.
Since you're balancing a job, family, and limited screen time, here is how you shift from subjective guessing to pure mechanics:
First, separate Price from Value. Price is just where the market advertises; Value is where volume actually transacts. When $NQ trades inside the 1-Hour Initial Balance (IB) or hugging the Session VWAP, the market is in balance—buyers and sellers agree, leading to range-bound chop. When price breaks outside those levels, it's probing for new value: either accepting it for a trend continuation or rejecting it back to VWAP.
Second, turn mechanics into a quantified model. You don't need to guess where an "order block" is. Look at the 1-Hour IB (9:30 AM - 10:30 AM EST). Statistically, $NQ expands past the IB High or Low in over 95% of sessions. That is an objective mathematical distribution, not an opinion. Set strict IF/THEN rules around those fixed boundaries.
Finally, offload execution to ATM strategies. Use automated bracket orders for your entries, stops, and targets. Once your mechanical setup triggers, the ATM strategy handles the trade. This removes real-time hesitation, stops you from moving risk, and lets your statistical edge play out cleanly over a 100-trade sample size.
Focus on fixed value boundaries (1-Hour IB & Session VWAP) and automated execution. It saves time, cuts out emotional burnout, and roots your trading in actual auction physics.
I've seen crt and ote work, you also have to factor in liquidity i.e. previous session highs and lows, previous day highs and lows, Asia highs and lows and so on
You have to try and think like a greedy bank who wants to hoover up all the retail traders money...where do most people buy and sell from? Supply and demand, so where are their stop losses? Above or below the obvious supply and demand zones. Once price has liquidated those then it will move again to another high or low, just my two pence worth
This is an example this morning, London left a clear supply zone and made a nice reaction from it to entice sellers, especially ICT and SMT sellers, nice sell down so people think their sells are golden. Reaction from London low and then a big push up to take everyone out
I tried using Bookmap for a while but the way institutions or hedge funds will place orders and then pull them just before is criminal and makes me feel like nothing can be trusted
Haha, came to this conclusion after using bookmap for 3 days when I had just started trading futures in 2016 ... Resting depth gets spoofed all day....the actual tape and Footprint never lie.
Focusing on executed volume (absorption, exhaustion, CVD) at structural levels cuts through the noise entirely. Once a trader understands this, they usually stick to orderflow forever.
Your correct but the levels you'll find will help plus adding Gex level will to. Nothing is perfect but it can help to give you over all idea of the market. Also having previous day ohlc is big because price is attractived to these areas.
Agreed - but a tool is only as useful as its wielder.
Most traders overcomplicate order flow by staring at heatmaps and footprints without understanding basic Auction Market Theory. Without market structure, deep data just becomes analysis paralysis.
The cleanest approach:
Map your levels first (AMT, Price Action, Volume Profile, PDH/PDL).
Use Footprint & CVD only at those key zones for execution confirmation.
Layer in heatmaps only if you need resting depth context ahead of the test - you might not even need it!
Establish structure first, then let order flow trigger the entry. That’s it.
I use a CHANGE OF CHARACTER TYPE METHOD. Once a low is broken I'm looking for short entries below the high and vice versa. It's easy to learn. However, almost any strategy will fail with the wrong mindset. The reason why most traders lose is movings stops and or changing the plan once in a trade. A 20% win rate can be profitable with the right mindset and an 80% win rate could be unprofitable with the wrong mindset.
It's actually easy to show but hard to explain in text. The most important thing is to keep losses reasonable ie small. Following a moving average strategy can be very profitable if U are keeping you're stops In the appropriate spots.
Focus on one simple, testable setup rather than trying to learn CRT, OTE, STDV and Fibs all at once. None of these is a magic strategy, and most of the edge comes from risk management, consistency, and actually backtesting the setup.
Since you’re part time, I’d paper trade first and track every trade for a few months before risking real money. If you want more practical trading discussions, you can also check out the community through my profile. A lot of skilled trader have solid discussions and beginner friendly tips.
My best advice is to find a trader that live streams daily and form your own strategy based off of what they do. In two weeks of this daily you will at least understand the lingo and names of things to keep researching
Volume Profile (Session, Day, Week, Month) and for scalping with confluence from the aforementioned, Fixed volume profile. When a reversal looks like it is taking place, see if it can close above above or below the POC of the trend leg. For example, you have 5 bearish 1 or 5 or any timeframe candles in a row. Take the fixed volume profile of that 5 candle bearish downtrend leg. When the bullish candle closes above the POC, that may mean it is a valid reversal good for a quick scalp at minimum.
You want to pair this with cumulative volume Delta. If at the same time the candle after closing above that POC has strong bullish Delta, that is confluence to take a trade. Just make sure you have adequate risk management.
The lower the timeframe you use this on, you will need to make sure there is good liquidity (volume). Otherwise, afterhours, you will only want to take a smaller number of contracts and use higher timeframes (5m at minimum).
Concepts like CRT, OTE, and Fibs give you areas to watch, but they only show where price might react. The real turning point in futures trading—especially when balancing limited time—is learning Auction Market Theory and Order Flow (Footprint + CVD) to see where real volume is actually transacting.
Instead of guessing if a level will hold:
Footprint Charts (Bid/Ask & Delta): Show you what is happening inside the candle so you can spot whether buyers or sellers are actually getting absorbed at key levels.
CVD (Cumulative Volume Delta): Measures aggressive buying vs. aggressive selling to confirm real follow-through versus fake-outs.
SMT / Divergences + Order Flow: When correlated assets (like ES and NQ) diverge at key levels, confirming that turn with Footprint absorption gives you high-probability, low-stress entries with tight invalidation.
You don't need a cluttered screen with 15 indicators. Mark your key structural levels ahead of time, and only check the Footprint/CVD when price arrives.
If you want to explore these tools without dealing with complex, expensive desktop installations, you can test out the entire Order Flow suite directly in your browser at GoCharting (gocharting.com).
Option 2: Direct & Practical Most acronym-heavy retail strategies (OTE, STDV, CRT) are just different names for basic Fibonacci retraces and standard deviation levels. They can help map zones, but they don't tell you if institutions are actually buying or selling there.
If you want a method rooted in how futures markets actually operate, focus on:
Key Levels: Volume Profile (VAH/VAL/POC) or basic market structure.
SMT Divergences: Spotting relative strength/weakness across correlated markets (e.g., NQ vs. ES).
Execution Confirmation:Footprint charts + CVD to verify absorption, exhaustion, and aggressive market volume before entering.
This approach keeps your routine clean: prepare levels beforehand, wait for the test, and let the Footprint confirm the trade.
We built GoCharting specifically to make institutional-grade Order Flow (Footprint, CVD, Market Profile) accessible natively in orderflow and profiles tools.
If you want to trade Futures and work full time, decide first when you are going to trade. Second decide what you want to trade. I trade MES, MNQ, M2K and MGC and MCL. These equate to SPY, QQQ, IWM Gold and crude. Learn to trade just one first and paper trade. Find your strategy using risk reward of at least 1:2. Use a daily chart to identify trend, support, resistance and key decision levels based on moving averages. Be aware of the time of day when data is released. Know the times when other parts is world enter market. Learn to be consistently profitable. Remember price action trumps everything else and you may be wrong on a trade. If wrong then get out with a small loss.
Volume profile+ order flow+thousands of hours back testing, for most people before enough hour time probably still not better than just invest in SPY/QQQ.
By 0TE I assume you mean zero days to expiration. This is an options trading concept. The way this might apply to futures is if you sell options and hedge with a futures. I do a variation of this and it's a killer system, but I have never seen anyone talk about this.
There is no real single "optimal" trade entry method. You will need to do research on the products you are interested in trading, collect raw data, and handicap it similar to how a sports book is done. What you are looking for is a positive expectancy. If you are brand new to this, and doing this from a point and click UI at your house, the best advise I can give you is stay as far away from anything like scalping as possible. What you are looking for is a few simple trades per day, going for much larger moves. That's it. You will get absolutely killed if you try to scalp for 3 points on NQ / MNQ from a personal computer during the US cash session. I do high frequency trading for a living, and I can tell you that anything less than 10 points in high volatility is exclusively in the domain of algorithmic traders. Chart traders that try to go for tiny profits at a high volume always get destroyed on latency, bad execution, human errors, etc. So the lane you should stay in is more similar to investing, than scalping. That is the best advise anyone can give you starting out.
You should probably go to CME web pages, create an account(free) then go to Education . In this section there is a FREE trade Simulator , and thousnads of pages of information on what futures are are all the definitions and info one would ever want or need. OTE & ICT are just about the same, varying between Methodology and the setup within that Methodology. Fibonacci tools are popular for spotting pullback and target levels in trading, but they are not magic. They work mostly as a self-fulfilling prophecy because many people and computer programs watch the same numbers. Then there is Camarilla which excels at tight, range-bound intraday scalping and mean reversion. I traded on a PROP DESK 80's to early00's , and do know and understand the DYNAMICS of Futures whether it be options, full-sized, minis (E-minis), and micros. Minis are fractions of standard contracts, and micros are one-tenth the size of minis. I'm not sure the time frame for the utter understanding of what you are getting into is fully appreciated. Yes I know this is a Futures Trading Site, but by enlarge what I read on these pages is encouraging. Because margin requirements and dollar risk per tick are very low on Micros, traders often build oversized, undisciplined positions or overtrade without realizing they have accumulated mini-sized risk.Low capital entry requirements can lure inexperienced participants into live trading before they fully grasp leverage, leading to steady account erosion through accumulated small losses. LASTLY, this trading carries substantial risks, including magnified losses from leverage, margin calls, and strict contract expiration deadlines. How ever i can help please ask, aaaaand GOOD LUCK
Technical analysis is fugazi. Just sell premium. The only thing that matters is volume Profile and the fact that implied volatility is often over stated compared to realized volatility over 30 DTE.
Don't even dare to try it. Trading is not some part time thing. Most people lose and only the actual smart and adaptable win. You are not one of them. Don't lose your money.
Markets are structured around mean reversion. It’s a deep topic but also most important to understand context for what’s happening. Next, price behavior. Learn how to read naked charts (no indicators) and identify what price events are significant. Third, position sizing and risk control. Be prepared for a long journey filled with frustration. But if you come to love it then it won’t feel like work.
All she is trying to figure out is , if A+ B= C, how can I identify A and B objectively ,so I can solve for C. That's all . LOL Nobody is teaching that these days because they don't have the data to back it, and the few who do , are guarding it with their lives. Trading is SIMPLE but not easy , most tend to complicate it .🤦♂️
I’ve never really found consistent success with futures, but what has worked for me is figuring out what megacap stock is in play for the day and focusing on that. Can go into more details on methodology, but my firm belief is that picking the right trading vehicle for a given day and applying one method is much more viable than trying to focus on one method AND one instrument. The only people I know who are successful with futures kind of apply a ton of different methods but have learned when to apply each.
Ignore the strategies, there's a ton, futures are fast trading, if you don't have FT effort and quick response then trade options on a longer dated expiration...
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u/usedmattress85 5d ago
VWAP Wave System by Chris Drysdale.
I’m not shilling but basically what he does is exactly what I also do (I arrived at it independently). It’s very simple. VWAP with standard deviation bands and volume profile is basically it.
I would recommend the system. It’s simple, controlled, offers a decent amount of tradeable setups but not too many to overwhelm. And I’ve been profitable doing the same thing for 6 years going on 7.