SP500 (INDEXSP) BBUS

Here's what I'm seeing.

The 50% fib at 2780 has acted as support on 4/5 and again last night on 14/5. If we can get through that next support would be 2720 and then 2640 the 38.2% fib.

At the moment it looks like we were in an ascending wedge, bounded by the blue lines, and last night was a fake-out and we closed back inside it. We either head back up to the top of the wedge at 2920 or the wedge break is confirmed tonight.

On the SPY daily, we can see volume has picked up above the 20 MA for the first time since the bottom, so things are starting to get interesting. We have been range trading between the 50 and 61.8 fibs over the past couple of weeks, clearer here than in the futures chart above. If this continues then we're heading back up to 293 which is ~2920 in the futures above.

I personally sold out of BBUS in the last week and have started buying short-warrants, which are another way to short S&P500 futures. You can read about them here.

Advantages over BBUS:
Clearer index tracking - this is due to leverage-% allowed to vary over time, unlike BBUS which can only vary between 2-2.75x. That means you can calculate what your gain/loss will be over time given various targets without worrying about wild swings with BBUS. E.g. for SPFMOP I bought in at 2850, if we retest lows at 2168 I will make a 91% gain, no matter how the index moves between now and then (assuming stoploss not hit) and ignoring effect of currency and interest rates (which you can perfectly account for too). I also know if we hit 3,000 I will make a 20% loss, if I sell-out there.
Movements are enhanced by FX. Typically when markets take a risk-off stance, the S&P500 falls and the USD rises. This means you can get a combined positive effect with warrants vs BBUS which hedges on currency. It's not a big effect, but it's nice. E.g. say we go to the bottom again and AUD heads back to 0.58, the 91% gain would become 102% with the currency change.
You can short with higher and various levels of leverage. There are 16 levels available for the S&P500, although only 3 of them were available to buy today: SPFKOP, SPFMOP, SPFKOX. They represent leverage of ~85%, 78% and 73%. It's hard to compare with the way BBUS calculates leverage but 73% would be roughly equivalent to BBUS if a straight line down to the bottom of 2163 occured on Monday.
There are also warrants available for the indices such as the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, ASX200 as well as stocks, and even gold. So they're a worthwhile tool in the arsenal if you don't want to go straight to CFDs. Unlike CFDs, losses are limited by the amount you put in.
Not an advantage, but just like BBUS you can buy and sell them on the exchange like you would with shares.

Disadvantages over BBUS:
In-built stoplosses exist, meaning you are forced out of your position at these points. E.g. for SPFMOP this is ~3450. This is sort of like having a margin loan and its why leverage is allowed to rise and fall.
There is a cost to holding these warrants over time, the current annual interest rate on index-minis is 4.75%. This means each day the value of the warrant drops by ~ 0.5 index points (calculated with a 3600 strike: 0.0475*3600/365 days = 0.47 points) . So if you sit and hold for a year hoping for a drop, you'd lose about 170 points. BBUS has its own decay and it is less predictable, so in my mind this is an advantage of warrants. For the 91% gain you'd get with a drop to 2168, that'd become 86% if it took 90 days, 80% if it took 180 days, 68% if it took 365 days, etc. Pre-fx benefits.
Not all brokers allow warrant trading, and you need to apply to have your account set up with warrants. I did this with commsec and it was very straightforward. Brokerage applies in the same way as shares (e.g. buy $10k worth of warrants with commsec = $19.95 brokerage).
You won't see many trades happening each day, but citi needs to make a market for you to at least sell your position so you'll nearly always see a bidder. Alternatively you can call citi and have the warrant closed and get the cash value directly.

I've had a years' experience trading/holding warrants mostly with Afterpay and have made good returns both on the long and short side.

TLDR: once you get your head around warrants you might find they are a better way of shorting the S&P than BBUS.