Underlying asset ownership:
Futures: agreements to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price in the future.
Equities: represent ownership in a company

Leverage:
Futures: typically involve higher leverage, allowing traders to control a larger position with a smaller amount of capital.
Equities: Generally, margin requirements for equities are higher, and leverage is often limited.

Availability of shorting:
Futures: Shorting futures contracts is seamless, as every future can be shorted for any number of contracts at any time.
Equities: Shorting equities can be challenging due to a shortage of available long positions.

Expiration:
Futures: have expiration dates, requiring traders to close their positions before expiry.
Equities: have no expiration date.

Market hours:
Futures: Many of the instruments are traded typically around 23 hours a day, with breaks only on weekends and occasional holidays.
Equities: are traded during exchange hours, usually on weekdays.