Depends on what the individual wants. If he's determined his goals and objectives and he's characterized each market, choosing the best one is a relatively simply matter.
CL used to be the automatic answer... prior to late 2012 when average daily ranges were $1,500 to $3,000+ per contract. Since the fundamental change in 2012, average daily ranges are now $600 to $1,000 and that is spiky-choppy thru it all. A look at yesterday's $600 chop range shows the new CL norm. Past ten - fifteen pit sessions have been <100 cents overall with a few token exceptions sprinkled amidst. ES spent four of five sessions last week inside of a 10-point / $500 total range. See description above via spiky-choppy from Monday morning straight thru Friday 11am est when it made the lone single price move for that entire week. YM I have no personal experience with. NQ can be extremely sideways or extremely directional, depending on the mere handful of major stocks that drive its overall movement. TF is hands down, head and shoulders above all others without exception when it comes to consistent price movement. $1,500 to $3,000+ daily ranges are the norm, not exception. Targeting $500 per contract trades from such ranges is consistently possible, whereas similar trades from CL or ES are consistently impossible. That is not personal opinion... it is irrefutable fact as proven on your charts. ES has by far the most liquidity, NQ in the middle, TF by far the least. So how much does that matter to you? If trading 1 to 5 contracts, no difference at all. If you need to trade size right now... not someday maybe but right now for sure, ES is your only real choice due to liquidity alone. Otherwise and overall, TF offers the greatest profit-to-initial risk potential for any of the index futures and CL futures lumped in this conversation for good measure.
FDAX if you want the best bang for a buck and volatility. ES if you know how to deal with small ranges and need liquidity.
Since each has it's own personality, comes down to which one will make profits with the experience and methods you want to trade. Experienced day traders knows how many contracts can be traded based on speed of price action and time of day, but say you have developed a chop method, ES is best known for chop, whereas in TF less so. So to me it is the personality of the trader and his methods and experience should guide him to the which Index.
I wanted to try trading FTSE futures but level 1 subscription is not available . Level 2 costs about 80-90 USD which is too much for me. Any body trading FTSE futures?