Futures or Stocks

I would trade stocks with 10:1 or 20:1 margin over futures anytime


it's a lot easier to make money trading stocks with 20:1 margin intra-day than daytrading futures.

 

I am a position trader (interday) and like the diversity of futures.

Why are stocks easier to day trade?

 

Anything more than 2-1 margin is suicide unless you;re doing forex where the moves are much smaller.

 

I'm talking about intra-day.




Anything more than 2-1 margin is suicide unless you;re doing forex where the moves are much smaller.

 

I have traded stocks, options and futures. They all have their own merits, but personally, I prefer to trade index futures, specifically the Dow eminis and the S&P eminis. You get many good trading opportunities every day and the high margin is a great thing when you learn how to manage your money and your risk. The index futures are also electronic and on a FIFO basis so you don't have to worry about market makers like I did when trading a lot of shares of stocks. My recommendation is to try different instruments and see what you like the best.