Day Trading Grain Futures: A Practical Guide to Trading for a Living

By David Bennett

Quick Summary

A focused, practical guide to day trading soybean, wheat, and corn futures on the CBOT electronic platform. David Bennett describes his complete methodology -- from identifying support and resistance levels at the market open to managing trades with specific stop-loss and target calculations -- illustrated with extensive real-time screenshots and a full month of trading charts with commentary.

Executive Summary

"Day Trading Grain Futures" is a concise, no-nonsense account of how David Bennett makes a living day trading grain futures from his home in Queensland, Australia. The book deliberately avoids covering multiple strategies or markets, instead documenting exactly what Bennett does and why he does it. The methodology centers on identifying support and resistance zones during the volatile market open, determining trend direction from limited initial price action, and executing trades with predetermined stop-loss and profit targets. Key features include a detailed case study chapter with numerous screen shots showing the trading process in real time, and a full month of trading charts with commentary on every trade taken. The approach relies on tried-and-true principles -- support and resistance, trend identification, and disciplined money management -- without sophisticated indicators or complex mathematics.

Core Methodology

1. Market Open Analysis -- Quickly identify support and resistance zones from the first few minutes of trading
2. Trend Direction Assessment -- Form a view on likely trend direction based on initial price movement
3. Entry Rules -- Specific criteria for entering trades based on support/resistance breaks
4. Trade Management -- Predetermined stop-loss and target levels calculated using a custom spreadsheet
5. Constant Repetition -- Success comes from the "constant repetition of a simple plan, concentrating on implementation excellence"

Critical Assessment

Strengths

• Extremely practical and specific about methodology
• Real-time case studies provide genuine insight into the trading process
• Honest about limitations and challenges
• Applicable concepts extend beyond grain futures to other markets

Limitations

• Very narrow focus on grain futures only
• Not a comprehensive trading textbook
• Brief coverage of charting fundamentals
• The approach requires discipline that many traders lack

Conclusion

Bennett's book is a model of clarity and specificity. By focusing exclusively on his own methodology rather than surveying alternatives, he provides genuine transparency about what day trading for a living actually looks like. The core message -- that success comes from disciplined repetition of a simple plan -- is universally applicable.