Recent content by donahuedc

You could look at different brokers. You may get better commission rates as well as the ability to trade less restrictively. And I agree with Dracha. Small trades so that if everything goes to hell, maybe you only lose 10%. This implies no naked shorts. Keeps you and your broker happy...

Consider an approach where you use a percentage gain per time period. You pick the percentage and the time period. Such as, if I get a 1% gain per day I'll close the position. So 5 days, I want 5% gain to close. Is this the best way? Probably not. But it does tend to smooth out your equity...

You're right, spread betting isn't the same as options spreads. In this spread sense it means the spread between the bid and ask. I believe that that is where the site makes its money. Like a market maker. But they don't make money from commission. It is included in the spread. I'm not sure, but...

I don;t really know the details. Since they are forbidden for U.S. legal residents, I haven't done the research. I'd start by googling spread betting and searching elite trader for info. If that doesn't do it, start a thread.

Well, in my view, this is just foolish. Sorry to be so blunt, but you'll be very sorry if you lose your and your families money. And "over 100% if we had stayed lucky" is not what you want to stake your families future on. I haven't been reading your thread so I don't know exactly what you're...

Hey Rod, you're right. I read it quite some time ago and misremembered. He also recommended R as a free alternative. Don

Ernie Chan uses mathmatica. http://www.amazon.com/Quantitative-Trading-Build-Algorithmic-Business/dp/0470284889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286023248&sr=1-1

The Bahamas also have no income tax. You can get a residency permit there by buying property of $500K or more. As others have mentioned, it doesn't help much on taxes if you are American. There is an overseas exemption on some of your income however.

Well, being out of the market half the time isn't a good way to limit risk unless you can be sure that the times you are out are the times of the massive drops. Consider learning calenders too. All options spreads are just verticals or calenders or combinations of the two. Your iron condors...

Similar ideas for your consideration: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451204417?ie=UTF8&tag=mysimpletradi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451204417 And a commercial system: http://getfolio.com/ Lots of food for thought without buying. Also consider...

I would be interested in how you feel this has to do with options. If you don't want to post it, I'd enjoy a private message.

My copy of Natenberg (copyright 1994) has a whole chapter on pairs trading options. I don't believe it is the last word on the subject, but it is a good place to start thinking about the concepts involved.

I don't believe you can trade them if you are a legal US resident. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks Nitro. Number 8 is winging it's way to me as we speak. It's one I hadn't heard of yet. I can't really remember the beginner books so well and which ones helped me understand the most. But maybe Guy Cohen. Sometimes the light comes on because of prior understanding. The actual book I...

If you're interested in adding to positions look up scale trading. (google it)