[jperl]

Well, I think of my own background. I started out trading stocks back in the days when there were no electronic trading platforms, and you had to call a broker to do anything. Futures? what were those? something farmers and cattle ranchers used for hedging. Most brokers couldn't or wouldn't handle them. I eventually did start trading futures manually (calling a futures broker to make trades) but found that unlike stocks you had to be on top of what was happening on a daily basis or you could get nailed quickly. I stopped trading them because I wasn't ready to give up my day job. Today of course, with the ease of electronic trading, futures trading is in my humble opinion the best way to get the most bang for your buck. I'm a dedicated futures trader, and haven't looked back