hello everyone just a newbie with a few questions :)

Hello everyone i'm currently futures trading on paper money, and studying for about 4-6 hours a day.
I'm very excited about getting into live trading, and am in the process of developing a plan. I originally thought about putting in about 5-6 thousand dollars into an account and attempt /es on live market, but couldn't get over the huge amount of leverage. i am prepared to lose all of the 5 to 6 thousand dollars, but the idea of a huge debt from noob mistakes turns me away. I've been coming out positive 200-300$ at the end of my days trading 1 contract at a time (i usually trade in the mornings 3-4 days a week for the past couple months) but read about how different paper trading is from live, and again do not want to risk losing everything.

I rethought my plan into using a different instrument with a less risk to continue learning as i save more money/make small wins with my "education." My problem is i do not really no what other instruments i should begin practicing and looking more into. Is there anyone out there with some suggestions.

i also practice/study while i'm at work. (i work at an internet cafe for a decent wage, and find myself in a empty room full of high powered gaming computers for 4-5 hours so day trading and still keeping my full time job is very much an options.)

other than that thanks for the read and im glad i found this forum.

If you trained yourself with ES on paper for a long period, then i would not immediately abandon and jump on another instrument, that will be a setback of several months. Try to manage your risk and progress with the ES. The instrument is liquid and if your technique/edge/plan is solid, there is plenty room to make money.

What does your typical stop look like ?

Good money management would be 2% per trade, that's something like 10 ticks.. on one contract ..

Know Thy Market
As @rleplae said the concentration on one instrument only is the best.
That needs some time to "feel" the movements and eventually the extremes.

The instrument should be very liquid and best is to have the main trading time
when you can be regularly online.
Maybe follow the opposite instrument that works in the opposite direction of
the main one. Like Dax and EURUSD as example.

GFIs1

Hello thanks you for the replys!

I currently use macd, double bollingers and SMA on a daily chart and a 5day chart.

stop out at 3 ticks below entry (i like to enter at low swings below sma when the market is trending up) and try to close out 6 ticks above (unless i can see a break out coming on both the 1 day and 5 day chart or the bands are clearly expanding). i set my stop to avoid changing trend or a bearish break out i didn't see. my strategy seems super sloppy now that i read it haha. i apologize for my ignorance i am still learning and don't plan on trading live until i am confident with my practice. i've just read many stories of beginning traders getting massive amounts on debt trading on leverage and got spooked.