For those who traded actively--and I mean day trading--what do you think is a better vehicle (in general): ES (e-mini futures) or SPY (ETF)? Commissions at IB are comparable: 500 shares of SPY would run a bit more than 1 ES. But the penny spread of SPY would translate to a 1/10 spread on ES, and we all know that ES trades in quarters. Liquidity would not be an issue for me, as a retail trader whose account is in the 6 digits, and who would consider 4 ES a big position. I was just curious. Thank you.
Since there's quite a few futures traders on the board, I'm going to guess you will hear that the ES is better. And I agree. I basically view the future as a leveraged play on the SPY or S&P. If I want conservative, SPY is the way to go. With the ES you can control much more for much less. Of course, that can be dangerous in the wrong hands.