Recent content by bumblebuzzard

Well, I've been trading futures at IB for some years now, and I don't think I've ever paid a data fee. It does, however, depend on what you're trading and how often. IB's data charges have gotten somewhat complicated as they try to deal with recent exchange changes, but if you trade Globex...

Yes, you are quite right. It is monopoly pricing. Perhaps it should be regulated as such. I was thinking of another argument. Traders could say, "Look, those are not the exchanges prices. They are our prices. I have a price when I make a trade. The party on the other side has a price...

It's probably a little more clear if you realize that in the view of the exchanges, data is what they are selling; or at least it is one of their most valuable products. It is not something like a price tag at WalMart in their view. When people got together to buy and sell stocks in New York...

Well, your question is a little unclear. Usually you would have either a cash or a margin account at your broker. You set this up at the time you open the account or you can go back later and change to a margin account if you meet the broker's requirements. If you have a cash account, you...

Well, I didn't mean to say that the taxpayer is the one and only provider of the data to the IRS. The broker will also provide the data to the IRS on form 1099, and the IRS will (perhaps) check to make sure that what you and the broker say is the same. There are two things that are (very)...

Last year everything changed. You MUST report individual trades, and it really doesn't matter whether it is or is not more trustworthy. It's a complete and total headache, and that doesn't matter either. Tradelog is by far the best solution I know of if you have more than a few trades...

A couple of years ago, a huge number of bad quality electrolytic capacitors got into the market (it's a story all by itself), and they still cause beaucoup problems. I had a Samsung monitor fail, and that was the problem. Replaced two electrolytics for a couple of dollars and saved a...

Absolutely none. It's all quite simple (after Pascal and Fermat got involved); and you don't need to build intuition, though I've found it useful occasionally. I don't know if it's new math or not. I was in school so long ago, that no one had heard of such a thing. Is new math a bad thing...

I also studied philosophy, and I don't know nothing about nothing else, except a little about trading. I did, though, spend a lot of time shooting craps, and that built up a really good intuition about probability. (I'm serious.)

The main reason you can't get an IRA margin account with IB or anyone else is that the IRS says so. According to IRS regulations, if any part of an IRA is used as collateral, then the IRA is considered to be distributed. In a margin account, the entire account is collateral. Objections...

How on earth can you get from my statement that it is narrow minded to value education solely by calculating economic return to the conclusion that I assume that universities provide education? I do in fact believe that most universities provide an education. I also believe that most...

Strictly speaking, there is no logical inference involved in my post. I make a statement of fact ("I've never seen any sign...."), and that's all. So I'm not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that it is illogical to infer from my experience of certain people to the conclusion...

Well, I have to respectfully disagree. I've spent a lot of time around people who work for colleges and universities, and I've never seen any sign that all they are interested in is keeping up the enrollment and so on. I'm not quite sure what you could be basing your comment on. But...

It's interesting that so many people think that the criterion by which to judge the value of a college education is whether it will get you a job. That is a very narrow view of education.

Well, that's true. :) But the thing is, I didn't say Hitler was irrelevant. I said Hitler was, in my opinion, not as influential as other candidates.