Every trading platform I've used over the years offers an ATR indicator.  And, several web based charting systems offer this important indicator too.  For example, www.StockCharts.com is a free resource to check any future or stock to learn how much it moves in a day.  Why? Because, when preparing to trade a new [to you] instrument, the first order of analysis is to find out how much it moves so you may estimate the amount of gain or loss from within one day and/or one week.

You must know how much pain you can stand.  Do you know how much risk is appropriate for the instrument? For example, we trade CL light sweet crude oil most every day.  The daily ATR for crude oil is 1.30 in this time period, late December 2013.  What does that mean?  Well, crude trades at $10 a tick and $1,000 a point.  There are a hundred ticks to a point in crude.  If crude trades at a range of 130 ticks a day at $10, that means that crude rises and falls a price range of $1,300 per contract.

With that number in mind you identify the volatility in the instrument. Volatility, very simply put, is the number of oscillations per day from top to bottom over an average 24 hour period. We know from experience that the "typical" run in one direction or the other in crude oil is about 60 ticks; however, it seldom moves 60 ticks in a straight line.  Crude usually is interrupted in rise of descent by at least one retrace in its course from high to low or vice versa.  That being the case, one could roughly estimate that an average of 50 ticks could be obtained in a single trade [if you wait out the retrace with appropriate stop loss protection].  I usually count on ten ticks but shoot for twenty and take gains at 20 to 40, depending on momentum and my own patience.  So, if my trade gains 30 ticks, I've made $300 per contract!

With focus, energy, deliberation and stamina; I call it, "FEDS," you will be able to identify a well founded trading plan for each of the 25 instruments; however, only consider 2 or 3 when you first start looking at available options.  My favorites are, eMini. Euro, Gold, Oil, and T-Bond.  That is not to say that they are more important than Cocoa, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar.  It is just to say:  Pick a few to first acquaint yourself with some instruments.  Get acquainted, get intimate, get engaged!  Yes, bigamy is authorized.  You may be married to more than one instrument.