Rank your Futures vs Stocks trading priority

February 28th, 2021, 10:50 AM

Regarding stocks, I am an investor. I hold stocks of medium-sized companies, mainly from the US and Europe, and intend to hold them for years.

Regarding futures and options on futures, I trade with a time frame of weeks or months. Maim base of my decisions is fundamentals.

As well in stocks as in futures, I had to find out, that long term trading fits my abilities much better than day- or swing-trading.

Best regards, Myrrdin

February 28th, 2021, 11:24 AM

I now trade only futures. I have tried it all, stocks and forex but nothing compared to futures. No need to borrow to short.

February 28th, 2021, 11:47 AM

Probably around 50% on stocks, 40% on options (indices, stocks and futures) and 10% on futures

February 28th, 2021, 12:58 PM

SBtrader82

I have been trading only futures since 2018, and I am starting to question whether it was the good choice.
Don't misinterpret me, I love futures and I enjoy its complexity but I start to believe that trading stocks is a lot easier.

I have watched videos of some stock traders (Ross Cameron of trading warriors and some others) and stock trading looks a lot easier. I might be wrong but the traders I have followed all have the same "strategy", they basically look for stocks with some strong upside momentum and they follow the momentum.

They don't have many setups and many complicated thought process, the stock either rallies or it doesn't.... the setup is always the same, but they work on selecting the stock with the highest probability of rallying.

I have never tried to to actually trade stocks, but from outside it looks much easier. I have decided not to trade stock however, because when something looks easy, it normally means that I am so naive that I cannot even see where the difficulty is hidden.
I guess slippage, and lack of liquidity might be the big issue.

Oh man trading is never easy. You know that. If I can say anything here its born of experience. I followed and was in quite a few penny stock trading rooms. (Ross Cameron is an utter scam... even in the penny stock world!) He goes very far down that route too coding colors of the background to make it look like it live trading when really theres evidence it's not. Ect.)

Anyway if you think futures has its challenges. Add extreme volatility due to lack of liquidity and wait to get stuck in a position and believe me you'll be begging to get back to futures. Heres the catch. In penny stock your leverage comes from holding a large number of shares. Penny stocks generally have low floats which can send them easily swinging with supply and demand imbalances.

So what happens is these rooms are looking for the stocks that are moving and jump on all at the same time. Then everybody jumps in and its musical chair time. If you get stuck with the stock and no one to sell it to you have to get out at a loss or sit for days or weeks or never to get out. And I'm NOT being dramatic here.

To add to that the other camp tries to short parabolic and unsustainable rises in penny stocks. Although this is an even more dangerous game I actually think its the way to trade these. But then you have to find shorts to borrow and that can be expensive even if you can locate them and you still have all the liquidity problems.

So if your thinking they might be easier I would caution they are harder because you have to deal with so much more AND learn to trade. Bad combo in my books.

Lastly the TAXES ARE A NIGHTMARE! DON'T FORGET THAT.

Take care.

February 28th, 2021, 01:42 PM

MickRogers2000

3 years on a demo account ? Don't you think you should dabble with a live small account with proper risk management ? 10 years on a demo account won't improve your chances of success. Give yourself a deadline on your demo account. if you still don't feel confident after that date then maybe futures are not for you.

Lol. Agree with you 100%. And I tried to leave it. Except that when I leave for 3 weeks or so, suddenly something happens that clears up my cognition of some issue and that opens up a higher level of understanding of what is really going on. And I am right back in. In fact this has happened about 3 times that I am beginning to think I need to rest my mind as it tries to put things together for me. Just trust the process as it were. I am fine tuning different parts of the equation and trying to get consistently profitable in a demo account. That hasn't happened yet for me.

I can get a really good win rate but that does not mean I am profitable. Once i am profitable for at least 2 months on a demo account I plan to go live.

February 28th, 2021, 02:25 PM

Sandpaddict

So if your thinking they might be easier I would caution they are harder because you have to deal with so much more AND learn to trade. Bad combo in my books.

Lastly the TAXES ARE A NIGHTMARE! DON'T FORGET THAT.

So much truth in here but unfortunately few want to hear or believe it. I�ll admit it�s much easier to blissfully believe - I�ve been there myself.

February 28th, 2021, 10:21 PM

I trade stocks 100% because in my country the futures market is not well developed and illiquid, so the only option to trade securities is in Stock Market or if Forex (FX) as alternative but due to different timezone and lack of knowledge on forex trading I skip trading Forex

March 1st, 2021, 01:58 AM

Jktsiex

I trade stocks 100% because in my country the futures market is not well developed and illiquid, so the only option to trade securities is in Stock Market or if Forex (FX) as alternative but due to different timezone and lack of knowledge on forex trading I skip trading Forex

There is no futures market in my country, but I trade US futures for many years.

Best regards, Myrrdin

March 1st, 2021, 03:47 AM

I voted 75% stocks but in reality it is 95% stocks and 5% futures.
However half of my stock is based directly on commodities that one can trade with futures (precious metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum) or indirectly on metals (Gold miners, Copper, Iron ore miners etc.)

SBtrader82 · March 1st, 2021, 07:20 AM

redbarntrades

SBtrader82,

It's disheartening about the tourist industry around the world and other businesses that have been bludgeoned. It's not only sickening but makes me angry how politicians have ruined so many lives by their overreacting decisions!

I checked out your town. Looks like a beautiful place. I have a soft spot for Italy. We love the pastoral way of life that still carries on there. We especially loved watching "Two Greedy Italians" with Antonio and Genarro. We hope to get there before too many years pass. I would like to visit Castelfidardo. Home to all those great accordion factories. I have been playing a Morbidoni brothers accordion for decades and would love to visit some of the top instrument factories there. After, we would take the ferry over from Ancona to Croatia then to Slovenia and Austria.

Yes, the 60/40 rule is great. First 60% of gain is taxed at the lowest capital gains rate and the 40% at the regular rate. Plus the reporting of trades is ultra simple vs. reporting stock trades.

As far as volatility, we wait for the first 2-5 minutes of the New York session to pass then look for opportunities. Yes it is volatile. For me, I just go to a smaller time frame like 2 minutes or less and look for price to be out of bounds. I eventually found that volatility can be your friend if you don't fear it. But, it's taken a few years to be able to understand that movement. That's why we stay with just the one indices.

Wishing you much success!

Ps. here is my favorite contemporary Italian accordionist. Pasquale Coviello. He is a master.

It's funny because I am also a musician, I am often surprised to meet so many traders that are also musician. I used to play classic guitar, now I only play from time to time. Yes in most of Italy there is still a "pastoral life style" (I couldn't define it any better), in the past I didn't like it and I wanted the diversity and glamour of the big cities, but after living a couple of years in Paris and London I realized that's not for me.

Volatility is still not my game but mostly because I am trading with TopStep so I have very specific rules to follow and volatility can make me lose my account.
So I prefer to trade calm markets.

Thanks a lot for the wishes and also for the video. I love accordion!

Rank your Futures vs Stocks trading priority

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Rank your Futures vs Stocks trading priority