[Robert]

I find that most traders start of day trading stocks. What is the main attraction people turn towards stocks? Futures and forex offers more leverage and bang for the buck. Also commission is alot lower when trading futures.

Any thoughts on this?

[carter]

People are more familiar with stocks to begin with. Also alot of traders use futures as a leading indicator.

I also think there is a smaller percentage of successful futures traders compared to stocks.

[Soultrader]

Like Carter mentioned, I think people are not familiar with futures. Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living, I prefer to say I am a stock trader. When I mention futures, most people turn clueless so its saves me the time from explaining.

Although the leverage is good in futures, the risk is there also. Either way, I think if a trader can make money in the stock market he should be able to make money trading futures.... and vice versa.

[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

[carter]

Originally Posted by 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

Very interesting jperl. Not excatly sure when electronic trading came into play... but you must be trading for quite some time now. Do you find the futures market an easier market to trade? What would you say the biggest difference is in terms of market concept. Thank you

[jperl]

Yes, I've been trading for more than 30 years. Electronic trading for the average trader didn't come into its own until the arrival of the internet.
As far as differences between stocks and futures, if I were to put up two live charts, one of an equity and another of a futures contracts, I doubt you could tell the difference. The real difference lies in the leverage you have. A $70000 futures contract for instance requires you to put up only $2000 to $3000 of capital compared to 50% for equities. That's a real difference.

[Follow The Trend]

I have dabbled in Futures and Traded options, but do not feel 100% comfortable with them.

I would not have the confidence to trade in decent size on the Futures and Options markets. With my current knowledge of Futures and Options I feel the risk / reward ration is not in my favour.

I do however feel a lot more confident buying stocks and would think nothing of opening a large position in a stock I was confident about.

Maybe I should take a closer look at Futures and Options............

[Maverick]

I have traded both futures and stocks for several years and my track record is much better in stocks. Maybe the difference is I swing trade stocks but trade futures on a one minute chart. Swing trading must agree with me.