Does anyone trade these and what have their experiences been? I am considering shorting the QQQQs march contract which has a spread of 12 cents. It seems like they have a time premium built in. I have a small account and am looking for something that offers enough leverage to make some money on without having to buy 1000 shares of something. It seems like you essentially get 4:1 buying power on these. Comments?
Spinn, Please consider emailing CME at: customerfeedback@cme.com and telling them your considering using the QQQQ futures contract but the spread is too wide. They need to know people are out there considering these things, but aren't using them because the spreads are too wide, etc. I've emailed them on it before for QQQQ, IWM, and SPY. The SPY spread is down to 6 cents. That also used to be 12 cents. IWM is 7 cents. On OneChicago, DIA has come down to 8-9 cents. We can all get changes done on these exchanges if we just let them know our concerns and needs.
I'm also assuming you get the 60/40 tax treatment on implied interest from holding the SSF versus paying ordinary taxes on broker interest.
Regarding the QQQ, why are you trying to do SSF on QQQ when you can just use futures contracts on the Nasdaq anyway? Those are pretty liquid. I can only think it's because you want a smaller notional value.
No 60/40 tax treatment. Taxed like a stock. For me, it's smaller contract value vs. e-mini futures contracts.