What Market is Most Difficult?

P

patbateman

What market is most difficult to trade?

Buddies of mine claim the equities mkt (S & P Futures, Nazz, russell) is the most difficult because it is most efficient and has low volatility. Commodities trading seems to be the easiest market, but also the one that takes the most balls because of high volatility. Thoughts?
 
I personally feel like its what you're used to. I trade equities for a living primarily but am starting to do a lot more work with options/futures/bonds/fx . Every one has their own little quirks and everybody is out to screw you in a different way :D
 
Your buddies are wrong. Higher-volume markets are easier to trade because the high-volume of trade sets in motion trends that are more persistent. Low volume commoditites, such as pork bellies or platinum, should be avoided because they can be "pushed around" more easily.
 
Well I've experienced options, equities, futures, and spot forex.

Forex was definately the hardest for me. That could be because I like to scalp. Forex doesn't work for me in that way.

Second hardest was Futures. The moves are just so quick, any time to think is almost eliminated and even a second or two could almost eliminate the possibility of a great entry and turn it into a bad one. Again, I like to scalp. I was doing this on the YM though, ES might have been different, who knows.

Third hardest was Options. I actually tried a demo account at think or swim and did very well just buying calls or puts. Although more complex things like greeks and stuff I don't yet understand. Also not good market for scalping. Like I said though, only on demo, so my response should not be taken with complete seriousness with regards to options.

Equities, this was the last market I tried, and quite honestly should have been my first I think. It offers everything. You always have action, different stocks to pick from. For example, I like following AAPL. The only issue is the high cost to trade. If you go to a prop firm, this is not that much of an issue anymore.




Again, this is from PERSONAL experience, not saying your experience would be the same. I just wish I had tried equities first, might have saved me from the pain of a Forex mini account.


So that is my personal experience as a scalper/day-trader.
 
For retail traders, it would be the market that you have spent the least amount of time and effort to prepare for.

Steve
 
I agree with previous post. I personally find equity futures the easiest, but I have spent the most time trading them. I currently trade ES, ER2, bonds, notes, fx, gold, and crude.

In the past I have done prop quities as well.
No options experience.

Jay
 
I started w/ stocks and hated the "slow" moves that liquid stocks make, so I tried options and hated the spreads, then forex and hated that it moved slow until I stepped away from the computer and then that's when all of the moves seemed to happen. :D So now I'm more or less back into equities. I've learned to understand what I like and dislike about each market and adapt my systems to account for this. I think all of the vehicles have their own pros and cons and whichever works for you is the one you should trade. But like a previous poster mentioned, the one you're not prepared for is the worst one. A lot of wisdom in that statement.
 
i think the easiest market right now is gold. It just goes up. After its done going up, it goes up some more. I have not done any preparation other than looking at 5 min, 60 min and daily charts. I find that as long as you are buying dips, its impossible to lose money. However, you must ride the shit out of your winners. The most difficult to scalp would be the ES. Its just so voluminous and trends very little. Its a constant chop fest.
 
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