| EASY TO TRADE |
| Day traders can experience many different benefits from trading
futures as opposed to trading equities. Futures are for the daytrader
who likes to focus on one symbol rather than a long list of stocks.
Executions on the futures markets are lightening fast. There are
no ECN’s, no market makers, and no specialists. |
| 24 HOUR ACCESSIBILITY |
| With electronically traded futures contracts you can access the
market anytime you want whether it be during normal market hours
or during the night as well. This makes trading news much easier
as many events take place after or before market hours. |
| NO DOWNTICK RULE |
| With Futures there is no downtick rule and or short sales rules
as found in daytrading the equity markets. There are no bullets needed
to short, you can short anytime at any price with ease, no problems |
| MORE LEVERAGE |
| Margin requirements for futures contracts tend to be much lower
than for equities. With futures you can control more exposure to
the markets using the same capital than in equities. Due to the new
equity daytrading margin requirements, futures are becoming the vehicle
of choice for many daytraders. |
| LOWER COMMISSIONS |
| Typically it costs an average of $4 - $12 per ticket to daytrade
equities. Commissions on futures tend to be less than half the price. |
| LESS TAXES |
| Commodities are taxed on a different scale than equities. The
net gain or loss from trading commodities is reported on a schedule
D (capital gains & losses). 60% of the net gain is taxed as
a long term capital gain and 40% is taxed as a short term capital
gain. Equity traders have all their gains taxed as short term vs.
commodities traders who have the 60/40 tax blend. Example: Trader “A” makes
$20,000 in frofits over a month trading MSFT. Trader “B” makes
$20,000 in profits over a month trading e-minis. Which trader pays
less taxes? (assuming 39.6% bracket) |