Cheaper to trade,YM or DIA?

Im a Futures trader, trading YM and ER2, Can any stock trader tell me, what is the cost to trade ETFs such as SPY, QQQ and DIA. I believe most are exempt from the SEC’s up-tick rule for short selling. Anyway the question is. what would be cheaper to trade,YM or DIA?


Thanks

laptop1 said:

Im a Futures trader, trading YM and ER2, Can any stock trader tell me, what is the cost to trade ETFs such as SPY, QQQ and DIA. I believe most are exempt from the SEC’s up-tick rule for short selling. Anyway the question is. what would be cheaper to trade,YM or DIA?


Thanks

Click to expand...

IBs share commish is here

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=llc

The problem with shorting ETFs is that sometimes there are no shares available to borrow.

Based only on IB bundled commissions -

USD 0.005 per share
min USD 1.00
max 0.2% of trade value

e.g

100 Shares @ USD 50 Share Price = USD 1.00
1,000 Shares @ USD 50 Share Price = USD 5.00
1,000 Shares @ USD 2 Share Price = USD 4.00

So

1 x YM at 12000 = $60000 notional value = $2.13 per side falling with volume / exchange membership

500 shares of DIA at 120 = $60000 = $2.50 per side

Stick with the futures I guess.

I suspect it's all horses for courses Laptop, depends what markets your are trying to operate in and what you are tying to do in them, I've never really been into futs but I suspect they provide better leverage, and better liquidity in a lot of the commonly traded areas. As dcraig says, it is not always possible to short ETF's due to hard to borrow.
They are however imho a fascinating product group that seems to be growing in popularity and diversity with new offerings coming out regularly