Futures or Stocks?! The truth

There was a thread here awhile go about the advantages of trading futures. That thread has since vanished. Maybe the powers that be do not want you to know the truth. haha
Eh! It was probably just a database error, anyway ...

Here are some some of the various reasons why a lot of consistant traders prefer to trade futures (YM, ES) over stocks.

+ You can day trade without needing $25,000+ in the account! Setup two accounts with about 10K in them and gain access to hedging techniques

+ commissions are decent $4/round turn trip on the e-mini futures

+ Tax Reasons + You don't have to list every sale on your return! (for people in the USA)

+ It's liquid enough. Market orders are instant. No weird fills

+ The spreads are never going to be huge like they can get on stocks

+ Focusing on one instrument day in and day out is less complicated and more productive

+ You can sleep in! Don't bother with waking up at 6am to scan for stocks to trade

+ Share size allocation is easier. You can trade from 3-8 contracts instead of thousands of shares that get filled at different prices

+ We've all held a stock that plunged due to random company event. While econ reports move the futures. It's never been -that- bad and you know when these reports will be released in advance.

+ There are always shorts available!

+ No uptick rule (not that its going to be lasting too much longer)

+ The $5/tick range of the YM makes for lower slippage(ES, ER too volatile=bad slippage)

+ Bang for the buck. You make 1+ 3 trades a day and can make as much as the multiple stock juggling stock traders do.

+ Don't have to follow the indices and sectors, eminis ARE the indices. stock traders constantly have to follow the cues from the indices to track their positions. That means more eyes to follow all these charts.

+ Less investment in hardware and software cost. I used to have 3 PCs with 3 monitors, now only 1. Used for have 4 charting services, now 1, another as backup and it's free.

+ NO gaps to deal with, market always open. Terrorists attacked London underground early hours of the morning, if you wanted to, could be out in minutes and not wait until open and dump the stocks along with panicking crowd.

+ NO market makers, no games.

+ NO routing decisions to make: "ECN? ARCA? REDBOOK????? Oh man, could have gotten a better fill with ARCA!" Geez, Louise.

P.S. This list was complied from our thoughts as well as a few of the other members.

Hi! good thread I trade YM, ER, ES, NQ and support the idea.

The only question that I have is how one could trade futures with 10k in the account and get $4 per contract round trip.

I always thought that 25k minimu account is allowed or daytrading in the us/canada. Are there other options for americans?

The minimum that I've seen for opening an account is $5,000 and I think that the minimum to maintain the account open is $1,000 or $2,000 so it's not very high. I know that the commissions charged for Interactive Brokers was $4.40 a while back but not sure what it is now. Send a few emails to some brokers with those 2 questions and see what you come up with. I think that you'll be surprised at how small an amount you need to open an account - although that's obviously not recommended or prudent because you'll be way over-leveraged.

Just called my broker. Indeed, for futures Pattern Day Traders Criteria and Restrictions do not apply. duh

Ah yes... the Pattern Day Trading restrictions - I believe that they only apply to stocks. That's where you got the minimum $25,000 from.

Here is some more info on Pattern Day Trading.