Emini futures, which are less formally known as eminis, are small contracts composed of "full-grown" contracts in normal futures. Unlike the latter that have been traded on physical exchanges, eminis have always been traded electronically, allowing retail traders with access to the Internet to compete against institutional traders from the comfort of their homes or home based offices.

You can defiantly make money in this way, I as an example, am one such person who has done so. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has been in the day trading trenches for over 5 years, I have some pretty good news for those just starting in emini trading. I tell you the truth everyone, if you want to make money it's now easier to do than ever, even more so than when I first started for sure. A lot of this has to do with the advances in technology, because the trading simulators are so advanced now that they can demonstrate the conditions of the markets in a fairly realistic way.

There are quite a few good simulators for emini trading currently available to emini traders, the best of them being probably ninjatrader. One of the main advantages of NinjaTrader stock programs is that it can be used with most emini futures brokers out there. The thing I really like about the simulator is that it gives you detailed stats about your performance, like number and value of losers, number and values of winners, average values of trades, and even more complicated statistics that can be very useful for people to learn where they need to improve. NinjaTrader also allows you to trade live, so once you have mastered trading eminis in a simulated environment, you can use the very same platform for trading them for real.

I think it's intuitive that simply using a simulator isn't going to give you perfect real world experience, but it will cost you a lot less. Possibly the most important element of trading is however missing, or at least diminished, in simulated trading. What I am talking about is emotions.