Roderick Casilli
The Futures Fanatic, a Merrill Lynch alumnus who moved to futures the year the E-mini launched, now spends every market close live teaching micro-futures traders to "trade like you mean it."
Compiled by MarketFramework editorial · Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026
▶ Featured video · Aug 11, 2026Editorial profile. Roderick Casilli is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by MarketFramework or MyFundedFutures, and this profile is not endorsed by Roderick. MarketFramework is operated by MyFundedFutures, a futures prop firm. Compiled from public sources; performance figures are as stated by the creator and are not independently verified. Corrections & removal requests.
Roderick "Rod" Casilli is a Las Vegas-based futures trader and educator who began at Merrill Lynch in 1994, moved to futures in 1997 with the launch of the S&P E-mini, and founded the education company tradersdevGROUP. Known as the Futures Fanatic, he streams a live market-close session every trading day, teaches micro-futures trading built around a Daily Risk Budget, and hosts the interview series "Adults in the Trade Room."
Trades
Micro futures
MYM · MNQ · MES · MCL
Style
Range & mean reversion
Daily Risk Budget
Trading since
1997
futures from the E-mini launch · Merrill Lynch 1994
Based
Las Vegas, NV
YouTube
52.5K
subscribers · Oct 2026
Streams
Daily 3 pm ET
market-close live room
Streams live
Mon–Fri · ~3:05 pm ET market-close stream
Next stream: Mon–Fri · ~3:05 pm ET market-close stream · open channel
LIVE FROM MYFUNDEDFUTURES
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BEST KNOWN FOR
The adult in the trade room
Casilli is the veteran voice of micro futures on YouTube. The offer is a daily market-close live stream, a free thirty-video foundation course, a members’ morning trading room, and a risk framework, the Daily Risk Budget, that turns a small account into a business rather than a bet. Interviews with prop-firm founders and Market Wizards, platform tutorials watched hundreds of thousands of times, and the new series "Adults in the Trade Room" have made him the creator serious retail futures traders turn to for the unglamorous fundamentals. Feedspot ranks the channel among the top ten futures YouTubers of 2026.
IN RODERICK'S WORDS
“My goal isn’t to impress you. It’s to give you what I call unwavering faith, the belief that consistent, sustainable income from futures trading is actually possible. Trading micros. Trading sane. No gambling.”
YouTube, May 2026
“The entries may be random but what happens after the entry is where trading skill takes over.”
YouTube, August 2026 (Camel Spitter Challenge)
“Focus on consistent risk control and disciplined execution; that’s where real confidence comes from.”
tradersdevgroup.com, Rod’s Take, November 2024
Roderick Casilli's featured video
“Can Random Futures Trades Make Money? The Camel Spitter Challenge” · published Aug 11, 2026 · 21.8K views
Who is Roderick Casilli?
Roderick Casilli, Rod to his audience, has been trading futures for close to thirty years. A UCLA English graduate, he began his career at Merrill Lynch in 1994 in the middle of the tech boom and traded equities in the fast-moving SOES era. In the autumn of 1997 he switched to futures as the S&P E-mini contract made its debut. He has traded them ever since, and he is fond of pointing out that he has been doing this "longer than most of the YouTubers offering ‘tradertainment’ have been alive."
Between the trading floors and the YouTube studio came a fintech career. Casilli served as head of product management at Collective2, the automated-trading marketplace, and describes himself as a "FinTech product guy" and start-up adviser; he also runs a private-equity portfolio of consumer brands. In 2012 he founded tradersdevGROUP, the education business that now houses everything he teaches. In November 2019 he opened the Futures Fanatic YouTube channel, which has since passed 23.8 million views and 770 uploads.
The teaching is built for the trader with a modest account. His signature is the Daily Risk Budget, a fixed daily loss limit that ends the session when it is hit, "no questions, no second guesses." Around it sit the Range Trader strategy, mean-reversion entries off VWAP and ATR bands, and Renko charts with swing levels. He is an advocate of micro contracts: the micro Dow, Nasdaq and S&P, micro crude and gold, and most recently the new micro single-stock futures. The free Futures Fanatic Foundation Course runs to thirty videos, and a free e-book covers prop-firm trading. The paid TDG community on Skool adds a morning live trading room and a refund-backed 90-day path to a first funded account.
Every trading day at about 3 pm Eastern he goes live for an hour on YouTube to trade and review the close, often giving away funded accounts to community members on air. His most-watched videos are the practical ones: platform comparisons, Tradovate and TradingView tutorials, and a risk-formula video that has passed 100,000 views. His interviews have brought Apex co-founder John Skelton, TradeDay chief executive James Thorp and MenthorQ’s founder to the channel. In July 2026 he launched "Adults in the Trade Room," opening with Market Wizard John Netto, and in September he challenged the industry’s educators to publish walk-forward track records rather than screenshots.
That last move is characteristic. In a corner of the internet that runs on hype, Casilli’s brand is restraint: real money on screen, small contracts, a risk rule before a setup, and a decades-long career behind the advice. As one profile of his community put it, "the restraint itself reads as credibility." Veterans respect him because he was there when the E-mini launched; newcomers stay because he tells them the truth about how slow the path is, and then walks it with them every afternoon.
How Roderick trades
The Daily Risk Budget comes first
Before any chart pattern, Casilli teaches a number: the Daily Risk Budget, the most a trader may lose in a session. Hit it and the day is over. The rule does two jobs. It makes a losing day survivable, and it removes the decision that blows up most accounts, the urge to trade back a loss. A companion idea, Rod’s Rule, gives new traders a simple risk framework for sizing, and "The Power of Quitting" extends the same logic to winning days: know when to walk away.
Sizing follows from the budget, which is why he is such an advocate of micro contracts. Trading a portfolio of micros (MYM, MNQ, MES, MCL and micro gold) lets a trader spread risk across markets and scale in units small enough that a fixed budget actually holds.
Ranges, mean reversion and the market close
His trading is intraday and range-oriented. The Range Trader approach looks for two-way trade inside overnight and session ranges, mean-reversion entries are framed with VWAP and ATR deviation bands, and Renko charts and swing levels filter the noise. He calls the skill "situational fluency": knowing which environment the market is in before choosing a tactic. In 2026 he ran a "Camel Spitter Challenge" that took random entries to demonstrate that management after the entry, not the entry itself, is where the edge lives.
The members’ room trades the New York morning, and the public stream at 3 pm covers the close. Tools are NinjaTrader, Tickblaze and TradingView, with trade copiers for running several funded accounts at once. As with every trader profiled here, the method is described from his own material and is not a recommendation; futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.
See how the wider prop-trading field is positioned in MES while you study a method like this: MarketFramework's Positioning Edge shows live long/short splits across ES, NQ, MES and MNQ from real evaluation and funded accounts, and Prop Backtest scores strategies against prop-firm rules.
Roderick Casilli's career timeline
Begins his career at Merrill Lynch during the tech boom, trading equities in the SOES era. source
Moves to futures in the autumn, alongside the launch of the S&P E-mini contract. source
Founds tradersdevGROUP, his futures education company; opens his TradingView account in March. source
Launches the Futures Fanatic YouTube channel in November. source
Trades futures live on stage at the Traders EXPO in Las Vegas; appears on the Speculators Podcast and Canadian Futures Trader. source
Publishes "Millions In Funded Accounts With This Risk Formula," now past 100,000 views. source
Interviews Apex co-founder John Skelton; appears on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast; becomes a Tickblaze supported partner. source
Launches the "Adults in the Trade Room" series with Market Wizard John Netto (July); runs the Camel Spitter Challenge (August); Feedspot ranks him #8 among futures YouTubers; hosts the founders of new prop firm IQ Capital for a launch interview and account giveaways (September). source
Roderick Casilli's videos
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Calling All Trading Gurus: Prove It
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The BEST Prop Firm You’ve Never Heard Of (Daily Payouts)
Tradovate Tutorial | Copy Your Trades Using Managed Groups
SHORTS
Prop firms Roderick works with
TradeDay appears in his 8–10 September 2026 streams with code TDG, and he gave away Apex accounts live on 25 and 26 August 2026. He is also a NinjaTrader partner and a Tickblaze supported partner.
We list a firm relationship only with dated public evidence from the last 30 days, re-checked each editorial pass.
RODERICK CASILLI: FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Roderick Casilli trade?
Micro futures, intraday: the micro Dow (MYM), micro Nasdaq (MNQ), micro S&P (MES), micro crude (MCL) and micro gold, plus the new micro single-stock futures. He trades a portfolio of micros with a fixed Daily Risk Budget, using range trading, mean reversion off VWAP and ATR bands, and Renko charts.
What is the Daily Risk Budget?
Casilli’s core rule: a fixed maximum loss for the session. When it is hit, trading stops for the day with no second-guessing. It protects the account and removes the temptation to trade back a loss, and it is the reason he favours micro contracts, which let a small budget hold across several markets.
What is Roderick Casilli’s net worth?
He has not disclosed his net worth, and MarketFramework does not estimate net worth for the traders it profiles.
Which prop firm does Roderick Casilli use?
He has traded and reviewed many. In September 2026 his streams feature TradeDay with code TDG and the launch of IQ Capital, whose founders he interviewed on 22 September while giving away accounts to community members. In August 2026 he gave away Apex Trader Funding accounts live. He has interviewed the founders of Apex and TradeDay on his channel and published a free e-book, "Prop Done Right."
When does Roderick Casilli stream?
Every trading day at about 3 pm Eastern on YouTube, for roughly an hour through the market close. Members of his TDG community also get a live trading room on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:00 am Eastern.
What is "Adults in the Trade Room"?
His long-form interview series, launched in July 2026 with Market Wizard John Netto, on prop firms, risk and trading psychology. It sits alongside his founder interviews with Apex’s John Skelton, TradeDay’s James Thorp and, in September 2026, the founders of IQ Capital.
SOURCES
- Roderick Casilli: Futures Fanatic YouTube channelaccessed Sep 14, 2026
- tradersdevGROUP, official siteaccessed Sep 14, 2026
- MoneyShow, expert profileaccessed Sep 14, 2026
- Speculators Podcast: EP. 7 (2022)accessed Sep 14, 2026
- Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, episode 945 (2024)accessed Sep 14, 2026
- The Skool Files: TDG community profile (2026)accessed Sep 14, 2026
- YouTube: Adults in the Trade Room, Ep. 1 (2026)accessed Sep 14, 2026
- Feedspot, futures trading YouTubers (2026)accessed Sep 14, 2026
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