Only crap with trading futures over stocks or ETF is the higher commission. When will the morons cut the commish for once? They should introduce a flat rate like the equity. Or, better yet, why not a flat monthly all-you-can eat (or shit) rate: 20,000 lots (monthly)! Sold! Commission: $1,000 flat! Other than that, futures don't carry the baggage of tax burdens like their equity counterpart.
Actually, I think a monthly cap on commision can be negotiated with some clearing firms. Something like 2000 cars @ $x.xx, rest free for the moth. I could be wrong, looking into it. If someone can confirm or deny, please do.
I don't buy the spread bit. One tick on the ES would earn you about 7.50 per contract after normal commissions. You only need to put about 2,500 dollars for that, so 1 tick earns = about a third of a percent. How many SPY shares would been need to earn 7.50 on a 2 cent move? Assuming 5 dollar round trip commission you would need 625 shares. That's more than 70,000 dollars. The percent gain is so small it's a joke. The ES is also the leader of the entire market. Have you ever seen the SandP index go up and SPY lag or go down? Believe me, it happens. When you trade the ES, you are trading the market, so you don't have to worry about lagging. If you're high volume with the ES, you can get your commissions very very low. You can trade it nearly 24 hours a day, so you don't have to worry about holding over night for swings. Even in the globex, it's still very liquid. Lower and easier taxes.
Not unless you're designated as a "professional". For the retail trader, even if you're a power hitter and are entitled to lower commish, you're still paying too much. I pay somewhere in the ballpark of $1.40 per side, which others tell me is far better than $2 that they're charged, but it's still too damn much considering how many lots I trade. I could easily trade over 400 lots per day. Of course, the problem lies not with the broker but with the friggin' exchanges themselves. These guys are the real thieves. Why? Because they let big institutions off the hook while raping small traders.
So what is stopping you from leasing an IOM seat? IOM seat leases currently cost $550 a month. Per side CME exchange fees for ES are $1.14 plus $.01 NFA for nonmembers and $0.46 for lease holders (savings of $0.69 a side). 400 sides a day times 21 days a month is 8400 sides a month. 8400 sides times $0.69 is $5796. Minus the cost of the lease you would save $5246 a month. Note that CME members do have to pay FICA tax on their futures profits.