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Unless you are already set with a 7-8 figure account, who cares about percentage. Can anyone here who quoted their gains in percentage terms actually claim to live soley off their trading gains? More likely a side investment account before they go "full time"? You do this on your own...

%'s mean close to nothing when you're talking about trading, paying rent, taxes, putting food on the table with your own money. Had my best year personally, but closed the last month on a disappointing note. Will not be satisfied with less than a 7-figure year for 2012.

Are monthly volume figures by firm published? Or accessible by firm members?

Can you bake a cake with flour alone? Or sugar? Why do these threads come up all the time? This isn't rocket science, don't be lazy or try to oversimplify, use everything relevant you can to tilt the odds. Besides, price action is one facet you eventually don't even think about, it just...

How does IB do with hard-to-borrow stocks intraday and overnight? Talking about stocks like LNKD, SHLD, FAZ etc.

Maybe its my PS3 I'm using that doesn't support 24fps? Dunno.

Am I the only one who hates blu-ray when watching films? I don't want them looking like videos. HD quality is fine I just can't take the overkill on frame rate which you can't seem to disable for bluray.

Daytrading doesn't lend itself to compounding to infinity. But yes I think traders who love to trade think about the money as a secondary goal. The first priority is to play the game. How many of you out there let your best trades fund the not-so-sure-thing n'th best trades? I don't...

The best thing I have to go on is the cover: it's a hand painted like an american flag, against a background of dirt. One song was called "Revolution" - which was just the letters "U.S." repeated over and over. Another song was a story about a man called Hezekiah. Another song...

I still don't see the distinction; by your standards, you seem to be putting 'trader' one notch above 'speculator'. To me you sound like a trader (generic) that had no edge in directional trading, so failing that, discovered the wonderful world of premium selling where it's that much easier...

Efficiency is providing your own answer within your own question. Kudos to ET forums. Learning about art teaches you how to see what's in front of you. It teaches you how to understand what came before, and anticipate what comes after. My art education is one reason I'm trading how I...

I'm thinking tropical island -- visually stunning, cerulean water, great seafood, visually stunning, friendly locals. And visually stunning. Somewhere to remind me that there's a reason we put up with all this bs with the flickering ticks in the first place. Any recommendations? Where's that...

In my defense, let me just say that I've never believed in statistics, backtesting etc in finding an edge in the markets, so I apply that to my own performance. Statistics are the equivalent of looking at a chart -- it tells you where something has been but gives little clue as to where...

All true. I've always been a "best defense is a good offense" type. The only way I know how to "protect capital" is to slow down and "non-rationally" (in respect to the markets) and arbitrarily cut position size. Note that this usually occurs naturally at the end of each month after my I get...

I don't put much credence on statistics in my own trading, beyond the most basic of tallies. I'm sure the win rate on ALL my trades regardless of holding time is well below 50%. But when things line up correctly I'm not afraid to go for the jugular, as they say. Most of my trades are...

August was a breakthrough month for me. The peak was a tenfold increase from my prior year's average p/l -- but I gave back most of it the last week of the month. For September, I repeated the same performance but managed to close the month at the highs instead. The first 2 days of...

Ironic how my clearing firm, who is ultimately in charge of my account and trading parameters, is also a major market maker aka my direct competition. Priceless . . .

Do I need to actually study for the Continuing ed? Or you just click through until you get the right answer?

You are saying if you can just reduce the number of unforced errors, you'll play better tennis overall. But what if by trying to avoid the mistakes, you would also drastically reduce the number of "winners" because you will be taking less chances. That is the more pertinent parallel in...

Those retail kiosks will generally try to bid around half the current spot price (and you know what? the general public will hit that bid).