Lumen Futures

Blog

Market notes, program updates, and the occasional look behind the curtain at how a futures funding firm actually runs.

• Getting Started
• Markets & Contracts
• Trading Strategies
• Technical Analysis Patterns
• Risk & Psychology
• Platforms & Tools
• Rules & Regulation

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  Risk & PsychologyOctober 20, 2026

  What Is Average True Range (ATR) in Futures Trading?

  ATR averages the true range of recent bars, and multiplying that average by the value of one point turns it into dollars per contract — the form in which it can be set against a drawdown line.

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  Technical Analysis PatternsOctober 19, 2026

  What Is the RSI Indicator, and What Is It Actually Counting?

  The RSI divides the average size of a market's up closes by the average size of its down closes and rescales that ratio onto a line from 0 to 100.

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  Platforms & ToolsOctober 17, 2026

  What Is a Renko Chart? How a Brick Gets Built

  Sierra Chart specifies a renko brick as an open-to-close distance in ticks rather than a stretch of clock, and the platform documentation sets out how one is built, what the last brick is still allowed to do, and why two charts on the same setting disagree.

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  Markets & ContractsOctober 16, 2026

  What Is the Settlement Price in Futures Trading?

  The settlement price is the daily figure a clearing organisation uses to clear trades and settle accounts between its members, computed by the exchange from a designated closing period, which is why it can differ from the session's last trade.

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  Platforms & ToolsOctober 15, 2026

  Tick Chart vs Time Chart: What Each Bar Counts

  A tick chart cuts a new bar every time a set number of trades has printed, a time chart cuts one every time the clock runs out, and the platform documentation explains why two tick charts on the same setting, fed by different data services, probably will not match.

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  Rules & RegulationOctober 14, 2026

  What Is a Wash Trade in Futures Trading? The Two Things the CFTC Has to Prove

  A wash trade is a purchase matched against a sale in one futures contract and delivery month at one price or close to it, structured so that the trader's position and risk come out unchanged — prohibited by the Commodity Exchange Act, and proved in two steps.

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  Risk & PsychologyOctober 13, 2026

  What Win Rate Do You Need to Be Profitable?

  Breakeven win rate is one divided by one plus your average win over your average loss — 50% at 1:1, 33.3% at 2:1, 25% at 3:1 — and costs move every one of those numbers up.

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  Trading StrategiesOctober 12, 2026

  What Is Scalping in Futures Trading?

  Scalping means many short trades for a tick or two each. In the CFTC glossary a scalper typically quotes under the last traded price and over it to capture the difference, which is the opposite side of the trade from paying that spread on every entry and exit.

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  Getting StartedOctober 11, 2026

  How Does a Trailing Stop Work in Futures?

  A trailing stop keeps a set distance behind the market and is not repriced when price turns back; neither of the two CME pages listing the Globex order types includes it, so something between you and the exchange computes every move.

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  Technical Analysis PatternsOctober 10, 2026

  Do Candlestick Patterns Work? What Two Studies Found

  Two studies read for this post ran candlestick rules against a bootstrap significance test: on Dow component stocks nothing came back significant, and on three CME currency futures contracts only a handful of forms did.

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  Platforms & ToolsOctober 8, 2026

  What Is a Continuous Futures Contract? Rollover, Back-Adjustment and the Prices You See

  A continuous futures contract is a chart series stitched together from expiring contract months, and back-adjustment shifts the older prices by the accumulated settlement differences at each roll, so the history you are reading is not what the market printed.

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  Getting StartedOctober 7, 2026

  Open Interest vs Volume in Futures: What Each One Counts

  Volume counts the futures contracts traded in a period and open interest counts the ones still open, so here is how a single trade moves each, what 17 CFR 16.01 makes a reporting market record and publish, and why open interest only arrives a business day after the session.