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The $3k loss limitation applies to both investors and traders in securities. However, if you qualify for and claim trader status, you optionally may also elect mark-to-market accounting under Section 475 . But MTM accounting is not automatic and not the same thing as trader status. There seem...

I believe that is correct. You can pay more than the minimum, and you can pay it sooner than required. But if you pay less or pay late, you'll likely get hit with a penalty. If you're just a few days late, sometimes they don't notice.

ES closes at 4:15pm.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) did a study on why small businesses fail. What they found, contrary to much that had been written, was the most common reason was that the owner lack the necessary skill. Lack of adequate financing was rarely the real cause. The same applies to...

Nobody in the retail space has ever been able to match IB's use of technology. Now with all the flaky brokerages around, size/stability has become very important, especially for futures traders.

Here is another article that says it differently: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/08/ask-the-headhunter-why-americas-employment-system-is-so-broken.html The author says that American businesses don't know how to hire good people. I have been waiting for over 40 years to hear...

I don't know how often early exercise happens, but I have the impression it is fairly rare. Exercising options early entails giving up all time premium, and most people don't take affirmative action that costs them money. That said, I am told that there are occasionas when it is mathematically...

To ensure fairness in the distribution of equity and index option assignments, OCC utilizes a random procedure to assign exercise notices to the accounts maintained with OCC by each Clearing Member. The assigned firm must then use an exchange approved method (usually a random process or the...

I think this is an astute observation. Some people seem to better than others at spotting patterns, but often the problem becomes one of too many, rather than too few. Trading on patterns that are not predictive get very expensive. I don't spend much time watching the market. I find it...

Augen talks about ratio backspreads pretty extensively in Trading Options at Expiration. They're less market-neutral, but they work especially well when there is news, such as earnings. I think that was Augen's best book. I tried that trade and killed it on my first try. Unfortunately...

What I liked the most from the video was the comment that a lot of small gains can constitute a viable trading strategy. Putting on a short butterfly late on the last day may have a good reward/risk ratio, but likely a pretty low win rate. Day trading earlier in the final week sounds much...

I think the only reason pits still exist is that there are a lot of people who have equity tied up there. Electronic trading is just so much more efficient that pits have no economic justification. I never traded on the floor and often wished I had, but electronic trading fits my temperament...

I believe all the posts so far have been correct. I don't recall seeing an overlap in ES/EW, but they happen in the Euro futures, including next month. The 6EU3 options expire on 9/6 and are exercised into ECU3 futures that expire on 9/16. The 6E2U3 options expire on 9/13 and are...

I believe all systems are ultimately discretionary. We have to decide how much money to put at risk, though some of the newer, more complex systems may consider that. But whether to continue running the system is always discretionary. If conditions occur that are clearly outside the range...

I have Win7 Home Premium (64-bit), but I have only the 32-bit Java installed. I never got it working in 64-bit.

You might have a look at this post (though I wouldn't call myself a smart cookie): http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TWSAPI/message/24461 IB data is sampled at a rate of 3 updates per second, except for some of the popular index futures which are 10/sec. But be advised that some of the...

I have Win7 Home Premium (64-bit), bought in 1/2010. The c:\Windows directory is now 33.4GB. I have 1TB main drive (88% empty) and a 340GB backup. I am guessing most of the additional space you're using is registry bloat. I don't know much about what is used for paging. I'm not an OS...

I have been running Win7 Home Premium (64-bit) since 1/2010, and I have yet to find a 32-bit program that won't run. I think buying Win 7 Pro or Ultimate is a waste of money. If you need it, you can easily buy an upgrade. Every copy of Win7 has every capability. The upgrade just unlocks the...

If you're buying Windows, you might consider waiting until Win8.1 comes out (October, I think). Be sure you have a 64-bit processor before buying Win7 (64-bit), ortherwise it won't work. Plan on any 16-bit apps you still have not running on Win7 or later even under emulation (e.g. VMWare...

I think this is an interesting story for how consistent it is. It's the same story over and over: Take the money and spend lavishly. When I read what the scammer did, I scratch my head and wonder: How did he think he could get away with this? What was his thought process/reasoning...