QQQs vs Futures

Swish · Sep 4, 2003

I've never traded futures, but am starting to trade the QQQs and SPY fairly frequently. When trading ETFs is compared to trading futures, are there any other advantages to trading futures besides greater leverage??

Thanks,

Swish

bundlemaker · Sep 4, 2003

Futures have a HUGE tax advantage.

richk · Sep 4, 2003

Quote from Swish:

I've never traded futures, but am starting to trade the QQQs and SPY fairly frequently. When trading ETFs is compared to trading futures, are there any other advantages to trading futures besides greater leverage??

Thanks,

Swish

Do you trade QQQ and SPY as daytrades (like scalping) or more days trading (like swingtrading) ?

Swish · Sep 4, 2003

All intraday thus far

georgeweaver · Sep 4, 2003

Quote from Swish:

I've never traded futures, but am starting to trade the QQQs and SPY fairly frequently. When trading ETFs is compared to trading futures, are there any other advantages to trading futures besides greater leverage??

Thanks,

Swish

I have been trading the qs for 2 years and have done so successfully, but also I would be interested in pro/cons of trading qs vs. NQ because I follow the NQs daily as an indicator for trading the Qs. Has anyone made the transition and what were the rammifications?

Momento · Sep 4, 2003

I switched and I find that NQs are obviously thinner, but provides faster / higher profit targets when your trading strategy is right.

I would suggest you try a single contract and see it for yourself. It isn't hard to capture 2pts in the NQs per trade, and 20 times in a single trading day.

Better tax breaks... that's a plus too.
Cheaper to trade? 1000 shares of QQQs could cost ~$34000 already, but a single contract costs 1/10 of that !!!

Swish · Sep 4, 2003

Momento,

Profits "easier" because NQ is more volatile?

If so, I suppose that means it's easier to get whipped out of a trade on a stop?

freehouse · Sep 4, 2003

Depending on your tax status you may get the 60/40 treatment on the futures.

Momento · Sep 4, 2003

Quote from Swish:

Momento,

Profits "easier" because NQ is more volatile?

If so, I suppose that means it's easier to get whipped out of a trade on a stop?

Stop out? YES
Whip out? NO, I wouldn't go as far as saying that.

But as I was saying, it would be easier if your existing QQQs trading system is working well, you should have no problem implemented onto the NQs.

In my opinion, my old strategy for the QQQs generated around 5x the profits once I duplicated on the NQs, not to mention the speed/shorter time frame of those realized profits.