Recent content by gearhead

Unexpectedly bad UK GDP

You and me both, brother. I've been trying to retool my models based on the behavior since March...few of my proven techniques have been working.

This is obviously bullish for Friday :)

:)

Well, there are certainly other reasons to create LLCs, and the things that you mention are certainly valid (assuming that you adopt mark-to-market accounting for your firm). If you do that (and make your trading income effectively earned income), you can in fact take those deductions...

well, sort of. If you've elected trader tax status (in general, if you're claiming to be a full-time trader), then you are not subject to the misc. deduction limitations. In point of fact, if you claim your investment operations constitute a business, then you don't claim investment expenses...

833.50 ... that's quite a fill, though I think I'd go long from there :)

I'm with you...for most solo traders there isn't too much advantage to an LLC structure per se. It becomes more important if you have more people involved and/or are doing things beyond trading. As opt789 indicates, though, you do want to take advantage of the expense deduction, which you can...

..there are some other, relatively obscure exceptions, but this is correct in most normal cases...

This is generally correct -- LLC's are designed as pass-through entities, and they don't pay (most income) taxes, they are paid by the owners of the LLC. In general, small but non-solo LLC's choose partnership tax treatment -- which can get pretty complex. Single-owner LLC's are often treated...

As always with taxation, the answer depends on the particular situation that the OP has, and also depends on a number of decisions that they choose to make. In general, most cap gains are not subject to SSI, since they are not earned income. There are a myriad of ways that that could be...

LLC is a pass-through entity. As such, you get taxed on the income from the LLC just as if it was personal income. If you're trading futures, the net capital gain is taxed as 40% short term capital gains, 60% long term capital gains (don't ask me why that's the rule, but that's how 1056...

...how about ZN instead of TN :D

ES might be 10%. In Jan, my volume was mostly in QM/TN/EUR/JPY.

I took some pretty severe (50%+) drawdowns in some of the early days. For my money, that's blowing out an account. At this point, my trading account is usually 100-200k...if it gets bigger, I pull cash out. I typically bank roughly 1/2 of my monthly profits at the end of the month...keeps me...