I looked at ES options - spreads are substantially wider than SPY options, which wipes out any fee advantage and then some. That makes them a very ******ed choice (ignoring tax - I'm not a US citizen). Its pretty obvious why a lot of big seasoned traders prefer SPY despite the ES tax advantages.

Only reason I can see to use them during market hours is because you don't have much money and want to max out the margin/leverage. People like that go broke in a day as OP's friend discovered. No one who isn't maxing out their account needs the leverage of ES, and why on Earth would you pay a higher spread?

The only stupid thing here is the claim that ES are superior. That's provably false as many seasoned traders who know both choose SPY.

What a ******ed derail.

Wow, still arguing against the facts. What a complete clown who has no idea what he's talking about.

ES spread = $0.25 * 50 = $12.50. Equivalent SPY spread= 5 * $0.01 * 100 = $5. The $7.50 you're think you're saving on spreads gets even up by higher SPY commissions.

Again, lol at saying leverage is bad. Yeah, leverage is bad if you're a novice or have a discipline issues. Less constraints is not bad. Moreover, IB is paying you 50 under Fed Funds on that unmargined cash (assuming you have at least 100k usd).

Another lol at bringing up "seasoned traders" as convincing argument.

We're talking about the options.

You seem to strawman very often in some of the dumbest ways possible. It's not deliberate, you seem to have trouble understanding the flow of a conversation, worse than anyone on here.

My point is that no one who's not broke/trades properly needs the leverage of ES options, so that's not an advantage. If you want to put in 27.5K like OP and push it out to $100+K trades, yeah, then you trade ES options. Any serious trader who's not a toddler/gambler has no need for this kind of leverage however.

We literally have an example of a serious trader in this thread blowing up his account in a day. That's precisely what I'm talking about. But he trades ES options, not like those fish who buy SPY options! lol @ you.
Of course it's a convincing argument. You're the absolutely fact-free clown who's implying that ES options are far better than SPY options for anyone who isn't broke. That's just absurd and in direct contradiction to the facts about how people who know better use these options. Your mind is so rigid it's amazing.

I was too.

Because all you do is buy options. If you sell them, the story is a way different. And in b4 "OMG, you're going to blow up your account you gambling cuck!"

Yeah, because someone random guy didn't know how to manage leverage. Speaking of strawman. You know what. You shouldn't trade SPY options because CandyKreep lost money last week too.

Try harder.

Yeah, you're right. Let me just pay Uncle Sam an extra 10% of my profits, forego the option of netting my losses against previous year in case that happens, donate hundreds more to my broker, and forego a 23 hour market just so I can save $7 on the spread.


Sports - Sorry for the derail. I should know better that Tooth is just trying to save some face after making a fool out of himself. I'm done for now.