When it comes to day trading, different instruments offer their own advantages and disadvantages, however the advantages of futures is overwhelming. While I can’t say it will be a good fit for you, due to where you live or how you trade, here is why I trade futures instead of stocks. I trade manually and, sometimes, algorithmically. This list is geared towards those endeavors.
Accurate historical data at reasonable cost
For stock trading, finding a data provider and downloading reams of historical stock prices can be pricey and tedious. Historical stock prices are also prone to data inaccuracies which require some fixing and must be accounted for in code (when automating trades or for backtesting).
With futures, most brokers provide a fair amount of historical data for free and this can be used by most trading platforms for free. I’ve used AMP Futures, as a broker, but their data is limited. NinjaTrader is better and the best I’ve found is Sierra Chart, which has futures prices back to their inception, as least for index futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. There may be others that offer similar amounts of historical data.
Ability to short
Futures can be shorted for no additional cost and no additional margin. It’s just as easy as going long.
Leveraged
Futures are highly leveraged. This can result in large returns. Of course, large returns can also mean large risk and possibly large losses. Futures require more discipline and good trade management, otherwise your account can be wiped out in a single trade. While futures can be traded without much money, I don’t recommend it. I do think aiming for a 1% to 2% of your account is a reasonable risk. Of course, some people trade with only a portion of their investment money in their futures account, so the 1-2% guidance, is just that, guidance. The overall point is, your losses shouldn’t be significant to you account size.
Fixed commissions, instead of a percentage of the stock price
Buying and selling a futures contract is always the same price (per instrument), regardless of how much money you make. This allows breakeven stops to be set easier, without have to do a calculation and can maximize profits on a big gain.
While I think the commissions are low, they can be more expensive than smaller stock trades. Also, the actual commissions a broker will charge can be difficult to determine as there are actually 4 components to the overall commission. An exchange fee, NFA assessment, clearing fee, broker commission and sometimes a transaction fee. Most brokers will provide their all-in fees and that’s what you’ll want to look at.
Some stock brokers offer free stock or forex trading, but generally speaking, you’ll get less desirable fills since they make profit off the spread.
Easy to scale up
You can easily buy more contracts to increase your earnings (or losses!).
Many index futures contracts also have a small contract, called a micro, and a big contract, called a mini. For example, the NQ contract is worth $20 per point gained. If you want to trade with less money you can trade it’s micro equivalent, MNQ. This is worth $2 per point and requires less money in your account to trade. You can start with the micro and then move up to the full size one once you are proficient, increasing profits 10 fold.
Liquidity
Many index futures markets offer high liquidity during typical US trading hours. There are more opportunities to trade than with most individual stocks. There is also less slippage, often none.
23.75/4 Trading
Most futures trade 5 days a week, 23.75 hours a day. While this does offer more opportunity to trade, often the volume drops substantially and trading during these times may require more patience. Sometimes, volume will increase during typical market hours in Europe and Asia, but not near as much during the US market hours.
Diversity
While there aren’t as many futures to trade as stocks, futures do offer a diverse set of offerings. You can trade commodities, such as oil or gold, or currencies, or numerous index futures based on the S&P 500, Russell 2000, etc. I prefer (M)ES, which is the S&P 500. You can also trade on foreign futures markets, although that adds complexity and cost.
No PDT rule
Futures are settled almost immediately. This means you can continue to trade regardless of how many trades you’ve already performed, unlike the US stock markets, which require at least $25k in your brokerage account and around a three day settlement period.
Highly regulated market
In the US, the brokers and exchanges are strictly regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Compared to less or unregulated exchanges, like those for crypto, CFDs or foreign forex brokers, there should be less fraud, less manipulation and less chance of a broker running away with your money.
Remember, futures brokers are not as safe as a brokerage account or bank for parking your money, in that your funds aren’t insured, but there are still rules futures brokers must follow, such as segregating customers money from working capital, etc. There have been some high profile cases of customers losing their funds, such as with MF Global and Peregrine, although MF Global’s customers eventually were paid back.
There was some effort to create an insurance system for commodities brokers, but the industry has fought against it, due to the additional costs.
You are not investing in a company
This can be both an advantage and disadvantage. Buying stock means you become a part owner in the underlying company. If that company releases bad news, you risk taking a big loss. This is not true of futures, and while they are subject to swings from financial news, there is no single underlying company. Index futures are based on stock indexes like the S&P 500 and are thus based on a diverse set of stocks. Commodity futures, for example, gold, less so, sometimes much less so.
Well established exchanges
Futures contracts were created to stabilize markets and prices for commodities, such as pork, eggs, etc. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange was formed over 125 years ago for this purpose. Futures are not new, however, index futures, based on the S&P 500 and other indexes, instead of commodities, were started in 1982. As far as I can tell they serve no stabilization purpose, however, they do allow owners of stock to hedge their holdings, a process I’m not terribly familiar with.
Disadvantages
There are also some disadvantages to trading futures.
Fewer instruments
There are fewer instruments, compared to the stock market. Some futures are offered by different exchanges and it can be tricky to trade on some of these. Some brokers may not support them or the fees may be higher. Some futures contracts don’t see very much volume which makes trading them difficult.
Some stock traders screen for certain stocks every day or so and then trade the stocks that match their criteria. This allows the trader to focus on a expected movement and specialize in that. I’ve heard of some people doing this with futures, but the pool to select from is much smaller. Futures traders tend to have to be able to handle different price movement, choppy, ranging, trending, etc, depending on the day or hour. Of course, if the movement isn’t suited to your style of trading, you don’t have to trade.
Protection of customer funds
As mentioned earlier, customer funds in a futures broker are not insured, but there are still strict rules on handling customer funds.
You’ll lose money
This isn’t unique to just futures traders, but most day traders. About 90-97% will lose money. It is extraordinarily hard to make money and harder to be beat the return of the S&P 500.