Safest way to get exposure to the S&P 500?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by short&naked, Dec 5, 2008.

  1. There are several instruments one can use to trade/invest in the S&P 500.

    1) ES/YM
    2) SPY
    3) Index Funds
    4) SSO (leveraged funds)

    In terms of default (blow up) risk, which one of these is least likely to blow up? I am looking for something (close to) as stable as the major currency pairs.

    Thank you.
     
  2. SPY..
     
  3. Just a comment in general: the only way to get safe exposure to any market is to trade small in relation to account size and get out of a trade when it is not going your way. 95% of trades can't do those two simple things. Otherwise your "exposure" to the market will be less than what you hoped for.
     
  4. That is obvious. I was talking about the default risk of the actual issue.
     
  5. there is a way to get around that. more value that one can afford to it in public.
     
  6. Specterx

    Specterx

    YM is the Dow future... and the only way for ES to "blow up" would be if the CME suddenly went out of business, and then whoever you'd bought the contract from was unable to settle in cash.

    SPY is also safe as it simply holds the underlying, I guess I could imagine a market event whereby SPY's value would diverge significantly from the index, but you might as well worry about getting hit by a meteor tomorrow.
     
  7. pmann

    pmann

    spy