SSFs: why no love?

I can't figure out why SSFs never took off. Looks like an ideal trading vehicle. Flexible leverage, no day-trading restrictions, can be traded in an IRA account, you can short all you want. The volumes are miniscule however. Why?

PS I am considering trading SPY futures in my smallish account. Is that a bad idea?

 

1) People from New York don't want to trade them because they are "futures".
2) People from Chicago don't want to trade them because they are "stocks".
3) Ignore them.

 

They're still relatively new for one thing. It will take awhile for them to catch on.

 

They've been trading for ~8 years (is that 'new'?)

 

wrong.. same PPT restrictions apply

the big negative is that spreads are wider, volume in single stock futures is < equity. SPY is an index future, no?

 

lol, you're hip