Stocks – In my opinion, using stock ticker symbols are the only way to go for this style of trading, and this is why:  these products are easily available through major online brokers. They are much easier to understand when calculating position size; they have greater liquidity with smaller spreads, and in many cases lower commission costs.

Options – Options are much more difficult to understand. While at first glance they may be attractive because they require less capital to enter a position, they are influenced by several factors other than the price movement of the underlying stock and have larger commission costs, larger spreads, and less liquidity; all of this costing you money. Due to the time decay factor alone of options, they are less attractive for this style of trading because the same position may be held over an extended period of time (as with stocks) as the trend persists in your favor.

Futures – Futures are simply not available to the small investor for all of these markets.  They are less liquid, have larger spreads, and require more capital.  I do not recommend this product for this style of trading.