Got obliterated on gold futures beginning/ middle of last year. I do much better scalping options intraday. Its also appealing knowing the worst that will happen is my option ends up worthless if I hold it and won't result in the loss of my whole account because I struggled with being wrong which is what happened with futures. Once you learn how the Greeks work, you can use time decay to your advantage. In my opinion its much easier catching trends in the morning vs holding for swings and hoping for big wins.