Options Are Better Than Futures. There, I Said It.

I already know the futures crowd is gonna flood the comments with “cope” and “skill issue” replies, but I don’t care. I’ve traded both. I respect both. But I’m going to say something most people won’t:

If you’re a retail trader with a job, less than six figures in your account, and limited screen time, options are just the better tool. sorry 🙂

Not because they’re easier. Not because they’re safer. But because they give you more control and more flexibility in the real world. Especially if you're trying to grow your account without blowing it up.

People love to say futures give you better risk control because it’s pure price action, and you can use tight stops. That’s the theory. But what really happens?

You enter, price gets close to your stop, and instead of taking the L, you widen it. Or worse you cancel it. You tell yourself it’s just a flush or itll bounce. You’re not managing risk. You’re gambling with more exposure. And when your stop does get hit? lol. in futures, you don’t always get filled cleanly, especially during high-volatility moves or low-liquidity sessions.

Futures don’t make you disciplined. They just punish your lack of discipline faster and harder. That’s not risk management that’s Russian roulette with margin.

With options? Your risk is defined. You know what you're willing to lose before you click the button. No partial fills. No freak candle spikes taking you out. If your thesis fails, you take the hit on your terms.

Now let’s talk about decay. “But options decay! You’re fighting theta…yada yada yada”

Yeah, and? That’s a feature if you know what you’re doing.

I trade SPY options intraday. I use delta to ride direction. I use gamma for timing turns. I sell into overpriced IV. I fade with premium. Theta isn’t something I fear. I don’t blindly swing YOLO calls. I structure trades around probability, not just price levels. And guess what? That’s something futures simply don’t offer. There’s no multidimensional edge. It’s linear. Direction or nothing. Options give me leverage on time, volatility, and priceall in one trade.

Most retail traders dont have the time or emotional stamina to babysit a DOM window for six hours. They’ve got jobs, families, responsibilities. options let you participate in the market on your terms. You want to build a slow grind position over a week? You can do that. You want to scalp a supply rejection at 10am and be done by lunch? You can do that too. You can define your risk, play with time, and choose the structure that works for your style.

Futures don’t offer that. You’re in or you’re out. Now or never. Full exposure the moment you click.

And let’s not ignore how brutal position sizing in futures can be. a 10 point move against you and you are in the red on your entire position size. If you’re sizing appropriately in options, you can risk $50 or $100 on a trade and still get meaningful exposure and have time to ride out the trade even in the face of time decay. Try doing that on ES. You either go tiny with no edge, or you go big and pray.

I’m not saying futures are useless i am obviously biased. They’re amazing tools for the right trader. The problem is the loudest voices saying “futures > options” are usually full-time traders with huge accounts, ten monitors, and zero context for what most retail traders actually deal with.

If you’re a full-time scalper, glued to the tape all day, and you’re good at what you do? More power to you. But if you’re trying to grow a $5K to $25K account while working a job on the side, options give you more edge, more flexibility, and more survivability. And that’s what most people need early on

So why don’t more people talk about this? Because options take more work. You have to learn Greeks. You have to think in probabilities. You have to manage contracts, not just candles. But that’s also why most people fail with them because they don’t want to do the work. And that’s fine. But if you do take the time to learn, there is no instrument more versatile or powerful imo.

end rant

-Blitz