Advantages When Trading Futures; the Stock market requires $25,000 minimum account balance to day trade stocks known as “Pattern Day Trader” or a stock trader who executes four or more day trades in five business days in a margin account. The Futures traders can place as many trades as they wish within their margin requirements in a single day trading session. Also, there are brokers who will open an account for you to trade Futures for as little as $400.
Futures Trading Advantages When Trading Futures
Futures trading is buying a contract on some asset believing the market will go up or selling a Futures Contract on some asset believing the market will go down. The most widely trade Future Contracts are the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Oil, Gas, Gold and Silver. You can open a NinjaTrader account with their brokerages with $400 and day trade but there is one restriction. Each broker has an amount you must have in your account to hold a trade until the next day. In the S&P Futures Market the day closes at 4:15 PM EST and your trade needs to be closed before that time if you don’t have enough money to carry the trade over to the next day. When the market opens again you can place your trade again usually 6:00 PM EST.
Best Futures Market to Trade
The E-mini S&P 500 Futures, composed of stocks of 500 large companies, is considered to be the best market to trade. The S&P 500 futures are one of the most liquid and most traded futures products in the U.S. and not as volatile as the Nasdaq which is mostly comprised of Tech Stocks.