Here we go - my 2c contribution for the month. A quick summary of the instruments available, and my personal thoughts on their use / suitability. 1) Index Futures Contracts. You have 2 to chose from. ALSI - the only way to day trade, IMO. Everything else is too expensive for the daily returns and the risk reward yield. ALMI - 1/ 10th the ALSI. Useful for index trading across multiple days - like Simons' lazy trading system. I personally am not a fan of index trading, but that is my own preference and system - others swear by it. My dislike stems from the fact that I don't like to risk too much on a single trade - and I don't trust the frequency of index setups vs the expected rewards to make my annual targets. 2) CFD's. My instruments of choice. No good as a day trading instrument (too costly vs risk / reward) but for those of us who do not like to be glued to a computer screen all day, they are perfect. They are transparent, don't have accelerated time decay (they do have time decay though, but unlike warrants, the interest is constant) and they are good for scaling in and out of positions (selling bits at a time) - oh - and massively important - you can set stoplosses. The downside, is that they are over the counter instruments - which means you have counter party risk. This is not really a problem if you are using OST or other big banks (I use Nedbank) - but you should be careful if you are using IG or GT247. The problem with counter party risk, is that your contract is with the counter party. Your capital, margin, trade profits and position is not guaranteed. Just ask those who traded with Dealstream. You see, what happens is, as these guys get more confident - they offer more and more illiquid instruments. The reason this is a problem(As was the case with Dealstream) is that it takes 1 guy to make a big bet on illiquid rubbish, like control instruments (I think that was the one, wasn't it?). So the guy is on the wrong side of the trade - the buyers all pull out - and he is faced with a margin call of something crazy - like several millions, which he can't do and the position has to be closed out. The guy disappears, and Dealstream, which has to cover the trade, are out of pocket. IG markets in Europe was nearly bankrupted like this several years ago - they had to get bailed out. Not a problem now, I hear you GT247 pundits say - but remember they are owned by Purple Capital - listed on the JSE, and they posted a profit ... when exactly? 3) SSF's. Good for those with deep pockets because they are guaranteed by the JSE - no counter party risk. What I don't like about them, is that they are 'bulky' instruments. They are difficult to scale in and out of, because of the contract batch sizes. Also, contract rollover is an issue (IMO), in that an SSF is really a short term instrument with expiry. Technically, you are not supposed to be out of pocket at rollover date, but practically, you incur trade costs. Worse though, is that SSF's no longer have stop losses and it is a bit of a mission to determine their value vs the underlying instrument 4) Warrants. For the old timers. I don't like them. They are complicated, illiquid and have time decay. They do have the advantage that your portfolio will survive the 'black swan' scenario. Just imagine if you were long ACL just before Kumba decided to cancel their iron ore supply - or, more recently, if you were long ABIL. Your exposure with a warrant is limited. The other problem with warrant is that they are illiquid, so, while they do support stoplosses, the stop is on the warrant, so if you shoot through your stop level on the underlying instrument, and nobody trades the warrant, (highly likely, given their illiquid nature), you will just shoot right through your stop. 5) Installments - honestly just a longer form of a warrant - with the same inherent risks and benefits. Hope this helps ...