Sorry, SteveD, but I don´t think you really know what you are talking about. Why would a daytrader trading futures be a gambler, and a daytrader trading stocks be a "real" trader? It makes absolutely no difference what product you trade, as long as you have a valid strategy with positive expectancy.
Steve You are correct about one thing: financial transactions with futures are normally not investing ... but this site is Elite Traders not Elite Investors. Gambling vs Trading. You don't seem to understand the difference in that you are basing it on vehicles not on psychology and behaviour. But whether you trade stocks, futures, options, houses, paintings or game cards it can be trading, gambling, professional, amateur (take your pick of adjectives). If you think the vehicle is the issue then you need to learn a bit more about trading. Then in the next paragraph you label futures traders smart and your friends dumb asses. OK .. now I'm confused.
sorry guys, I`ve never traded the index futures, but I would like to know this: eg ES 1 million is that volume of 1 million for all the sub-markets in the ES? all the different months on e-mini + the pit traded contracts = 1 million volume? Or is pit traded not ES?
thanks X I think wizard is paying for his internet connection by the letter but hey it was still clear