-- re PDT, from the replies I've received from various securities orgs and regulatory agencies, it appears that the PDT issue is not the SEC but rather NASD.
And while NASD putatively doesn't have authority over futures per se, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that NASD might say to b/d's,
"We don't care what kinds of securities they are or who regulates them -- if you want to retain your NASD standing, you enforce this rule."
jm2c.
fwiw, OCC told me that PDT applies to options.
CBOE said that it applies IF the firm carrying the account is a NASD member and NASD is the firm's designated examining authority ("DEA"). If an SRO other than NASD is the DEA for a NASD member, then the member would be exempt from NASD margin rules. The margin rules of the DEA would apply.
-- re liquidity/volume, the busiest Qs options contract on Friday traded 66K, whereas the December SSF traded 45K.
oops, that's a bug in the charting pkg I'm using :eek: ; divide that by 100.