I think for daytrading the best vehicle is the micro mini futures (MNQ) for liquidity, however I personally like to use the in the money weekly calls on QQQ. The leverage is 30-100X depending on the end-of-life of the option. With Interactive Brokers the leverage on the MNQ is currently fixed at 14X so you get a lot more leverage using options.
%% NO issues on inverse; except profits run up + run down/away faster......................................................Good question.
%% Good. Those inverse ETFs move up like longs/but profiting off a short trend; its like a shark or killer whale getting airborn.LOL/true...………………………………………………………………..
Rock and Roll How long you been at it? What timeframe charts do you like? What's your entry method? What chart platform do you use?
1. I've been a mid-term investor for about 10 years, daily charts and various stocks. But I moved to day trading the QQQ specifically, only. I wanted to learn one vehicle and learn it's behavior well. 2. I use the 5m for my S/R levels, have the 5m, 3m, and 1m up, and watch for certain patterns. I get in on the 1m, and depending on where the S/R levels are...get out or stay in. 3. Usually I just use a market order, both in and out. But I have caught myself "hoping" a bit when it goes against me. This is dangerous on the 1m because you can hope yourself all the way to the 5m support/resistance.....which could be very bad. So I recently started using an automated stop. If I get stopped out and it turns back around, I can always get back in. But that hope has gotten me into trouble that was painful 3 times. 3 x's too many. 4. Tradestation. I really like it. Charts are a bit different than TOS, but I have everything that I need. I loved TOS, but it screwed me with some lagging confirmations (like 10-minute lags!) that kept me stuck in trades that went in the other direction. I complained, and they said because I finally was able to get out, that they couldn't help me. If I had stayed in, all the while watching my money disappear, then they could have cancelled the order. They admitted that the MM didn't get my confirmation back to them for a very long time but did not care. That was it for me. I left. Oh, and lastly....I am almost always out of the market by 9:30 a.m. PST. I have another job to get to.
%% Killer whales/sharks tend to be to be good @ ''fin-tech'' LOL/true. QQQ may not move as good as % as top tech stocks; but if someone tends to lose less= usually means , may make more.N OT a prediction. SQQQ is ultra hi correlated with qqq/QLD. SPY + QQQ are liquidity leaders. I like market orders for exits, weekly/monthly...…... charts but have used plenty of limit orders...………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The leverage on options is far higher than on Futures so I use the weekly options which usually works best with a VIX < 30 but it still depends on the individual index. Right now the leverage on the QQQ options is very low since it sold off heavily on Friday. The 280 weekly calls have a leverage of ~ 15-20 right now & the MNQ is about 11:1 at least on IB (1.9K/22.8K). On the IWM the 156 weekly calls the leverage is about 40:1 while the RTY is ~ 11:1. Seems like the best leverage is on the SPY calls. The weekly SPY 341 calls currently have a leverage of 50:1. I remember when the VIX <13 and the leverage on these near the money SPY calls was >100:1. That was right before the VIX skyrocketed in February 2018. I think even before the Covid-19 outbreak it was around 70+.