SPY has a penny spread. ES has 2.5 penny spread (relatively speaking) Could be a big deal depending on strategy.
The above are the wrong questions. Are you making money trading SPY's.... if yes, proceed to ES if no, stick with SPY's. It's simple.
too early to say I'm profitable with SPY.....in 10 days of trading SPY, 8 winning days and 2 losing days. winning days avg about $250(500 share lots) and losing days avg about $300. I intend to keep the shares low at least for december. but the question is this: is there an incentive for moving to ES if I only want to trade only NY mkt hours(no overnites)? also, as I mentioned before, I add liquidity most of the times, so 1 rt of 500 share lot costs me about $2 where as 1 car rt of ES costs me $4 or so. so I ask myself, what is the advantage of moving to ES? If 1 car of ES is equiv to 500 shares of SPY, then ES has about 3 times the liquidity......but SPY's volume is massive in itself, and with so many people here on ET trading ES, I'm thinking ES must be easier to trade(which is probably not true)....so then what's the verdict?
That's the furthest thing from the truth. How long have you been actively daytrading? Is it the 8 + 2 = 10 days that you mentioned?
I've been daytrading for 4 years now. I do strictly listed stocks. in the past 3 weeks, I traded stocks for opening 30 minutes and closing 30 minutes. from 10am(eastern) to 3:30pm, I dedicated my time to SPY. the best day was $750 and worst was $600(played against the trend)
I started out trading the big contract, slippage was a killer, especially with market orders. Emini usually a 1/4 point collar.
Well the point I was trying to making was worry about being profitable first, then you can worry about commis., trading hours, etc.. it's not like the es is easier or harder to trade. If you can make money with the SPY's, then you can make money trading the ES.
removing or adding liquidity on the ES doesn't mean a thing like it does with SPY. i think you've already answered your question. since you aren't gonna get any tax benefits from trading es, and it would be more expensive to do so anyways, it would make sense for you to continue trading spy (at least for the near future).
look my friend. if you make what you are making , do exactly what you have been doing including getting your a$$ out of here, and if you try to chabge anything, you risk turning what you have been doing to minus numbers.