This past week, I was very fortunate. I bought the SPY [Dec 20] 202 call for 1 early in the week and sold it for 5.50 late Friday. My only risk was $100/contract plus nominal commission. It obviously was a fantastic trade. So, not to be greedy, but.... Couldn't I have made an even greater return had I bought the S&P500 Futures contract. Or, maybe a call on that contract? It's been a while since I traded or even followed futures. In fact, the last I remember, the OEX was the most liquid. That how long it's been. This should be a easy question for someone well versed in the current, most liquid, SP500 underlyings. Which instrument would have brought the greatest return on the huge upswing in the market this past week? And, how much downside risk would that instrument have encumbered the trader with? As we know, with long SPY options - there's is no risk besides the initial purchase price of the call.
Thanks to the "Similar Threads" feature on this forum, I discovered that my question is a continuation of an unanswered question posed here nearly five years ago! Here is what a poster wrote back in Feb 2010 "I was trying to figure out if there was a substantial premium advantage to using futures options on ES instead of options on SPY that would make it worth my while to switch from trading options on SPY to trading futures options on ES..."