Recent content by jessie

Perhaps a simple explanation is that this works perfectly, and you can, in fact, never take a loss by doubling as you describe. The downside is that in theory, it requires an infinite amount of capital to be certain that you won't be forced out of a position. If you meet that requirement, then...

It is VERY difficult to make money consistently with a long-only option/warrant strategy. And if you are long both calls & puts, then you are essentially volatility trading, whether you want to be or not. If volatility increases, then your long options (on one or both sides) MAY increase enough...

I know I probably sound like a broken record around here, but I just have to say that nobody "needs" to be trading anything, and if you think you do, you are probably doomed from the start. Trading is like anything else, it takes (at least) a few years of hard work, a lot of studying, and a HUGE...

In futures, on occasion, a trade is carded outside the bid/ask if it is one leg of a spread. Jessie

My own experience is that a lot of people make money at first, and the percentages diminish over time, just as statistically you would expect. But, many thousands of people open trading accounts, so there are still quite a few people left who are consistently making money. I have read stats that...

poor discipline jessie

That was one of my biggest problems. I just expected too much too quickly, and began to scale too fast. My own trading mentor at the CBOT kept about a $3 million dollar trading account, and rarely traded 100 lots. That translates to a 3 lot for a $100,000 account. He was the 4th generation of...

Thanks, another nice post. If new traders would realize that (among MANY MANY other things): There is no "THEM" that screws you in any fashion; Not your broker, not big, secret cabals, not the floor picking your stops, not market manipulators. Nobody. If you lose money, it's because YOU were...

Nice thread, I too have probably seemed a bit harsh when I have suggested that it might take as long and require as much hard work to become a wealthy and consistent trader as it would take to become a carpenter or electrician... For me, I was profitable pretty quickly, after maybe 6 months...

That can certainly happen, and it's legit, spreads do not necessarily conform to the posted high & low. Using market orders in any thin market (and spreads are often a thin market, even if the underlying isn't), is risky, and you can always enter limit orders on a spread. That doesn't mean that...

Can't tell you much about securities, but in futures, The NFA has very strict guidelines about that, and you can see them at their website under information for CTA's. There are definite dos and don'ts about how you can portray your returns, risks, etc., as well as mandatory risk statements that...

For me it is a matter of personality and personal preference. When I was on the floor, and even upstairs at the CBOT, I was too distracted, and too prone to listening to other people's ideas, whether good or bad, that didn't fit well with my trading. I do much better alone for the trading day...

It just means that it got carded (assigned) to two different counterparties. It's not unusual to split an order like that, often it is the only way to get it all filled. Let's say that there was no one willing to take the other side of anything bigger than the 12-lot... would you rather not have...

You don't have to trade full time, BUT, you do have to be able to provide evidence that you are not primarily an "investor", and one of the principle tests used for that is whether you "attrmpt to profit from daily moves". You will have lots of people tell you that it is hard or impossible to...

Short Selling... "He who sells what isn't his'n must buy it back or go to prison." I think thats from the 30's, but I don't remember the attribution. Any help on that? Jessie