I'm new to the game so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I would not try to scalp futures as I dont believe you can compete here, but on a little longer time frame, say 10 minutes to an hour or so I believe anyone has a shot who has a feel for the market. I have been trading QQQ for awhile before switching to NQ and I don't see any difference.
easyrider.. i just switched to the nq as well because of the significant difference in commissions and the more favorable tax treatment.. the nq has a slightly different feel to me.. and requires a little better timing.. but its not really different that trading the qqq on island.. -qwik
Qwik; Agreed. In fact to confuse you. I trade QQQ options since there are no NQ opts, so I watch QQQ as intimately as NQ. I get my NQ feel from QQQ. Yet I chart 100 cash instead of QQQ or NQ because it's less noisy. Only Yogi Berra could understand this post.
One difference of NQ trading versus QQQ is that if you had joined the bid or offer and get hit/taken out, it is very likely the the market will go against you in the next few secs. On QQQ you have more chances being hit by a retail guy on island (e.g.) than by a pit trader who may know the next move better than you.
Pabst - the CME website shows ND options traded on Globex. Each would be equivalent to 5 NQ options (if they were trading NQ options right now). Another alternative are potentially MNX (mini-NDX) options instead of QQQ options.
The QQQ cash options are more fair and more liquid than any futures option accessible for retail traders.