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    Trading spread on options?

    Hi, Any thoughts on how to trade the ask/bid spread on options? My platform is IB. If I understand IB correctly, there's an order cancellation fee every time I 'cancel' my option order (in order to move the price). That seems to make it impossible to sit and trade the spread. Is there...
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    When does "slippage" become a problem?

    You guys must be in a different world from me. I'm looking at a stat arb opportunity, which I believe will on average return ~2% every month (assuming perfect exits). But I have to make 4-5 trades to make that happen. If I slip 0.2% every trade, then that profit is just about gone. Big...
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    Time Based Exits - the ideal exit strategy?

    To me, this smells like curve-fitting.
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    Finance Master wanting to get into pro trading

    I don't know if the old rules are out the window, unless you really meant to say that it's the folks with great credentials + grades who're getting laid off *first*. I personally find that hard to believe. In this environment, in *any* environment really, academic success does mean...
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    Back-testing software, my progression to freedom

    Frankly, I personally was chomping at the bits to get my first strategy concept/idea implemented, backtested, and rolled out. Now that the strategy has been rolled out and being incrementally improved, I have more time to gradually pull out and replace the pieces I dislike. The NinjaTrader...
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    Back-testing software, my progression to freedom

    Farthest bar back in time (loaded in the current backtest/chart): Close[CurrentBar] How do you make sure it was the first 1 minute from 6 months ago? I don't know I understand the question, but you can always use Time[CurrentBar] to get the DateTime timestamp attached to that specific...
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    D.E. Shaw Interview Questions

    This was 2000... $120k base, and I think $30k guaranteed bonus first year. They were the only financial firm I interviewed with, so I have no idea how competitive that was. I just felt compared to "guaranteed" dot-com millions, that was chump change.
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    SSF .. why the free money?

    Can someone speak to the tax considerations here? I've heard one of the advantages of trading futures, in general, is the favorable division of long/short-term cap gains. Does that apply to SSFs?
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    D.E. Shaw Interview Questions

    I interviewed at D.E. Shaw out of grad school. The first question is ridiculous, and I certainly saw nothing like it. The second question (about a martingale) is more viable. The questions weren't especially difficult, and all in all was a fun day. They checked for basic finance knowledge...
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    Lenny Dykstra's Deep in the Money Calls

    His problem is being stuck in baseball-land... where hitting for a high average, even if all you do is scatter singles around, is a great accomplishment. Now, imagine if the batter is executed every time he fouls out to the catcher. All of a sudden, it's a different ball game.
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    Market scanners?

    Hi, Just curious if anyone has recommended market scanner tools. I'm especially interested in scanner tools that would also cover LIFFE-listed options. I've used PowerOpt.com. Anything else out there? I'd like to be able to sort on the basis if IV, IV/HV, covered call return if...
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    LSE option on RBS?

    Hi, I've never played with European listed options before. But I was looking at RBS, and would like some input from others. Here's what IB seems to be telling me. (I'm not logged into TWS, this is from the UK contract center which is showing me end-ofday prices from Friday)...
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    Converting ADRs?

    Not trying to arb ADRs... in fact hope the market is efficient so I'm not losing too many pennies on the exchange! Re: Brazilian companies... actually just read a paper about this. US market + Brazilian market = same time zone, and volatility is greatest in the first/last hour of trading...
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    Converting ADRs?

    Never mind, checked with IB and they said this isn't supported. But I think I've found something that looks like a work-around. Say that I wanted to work with RBS, as per the above example. I could just start by shorting 5000 shares of RBS in the US, and going long 5000 shares in the...
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    Converting ADRs?

    Hi, Does anyone know whether retail brokers, and specifically Interactive Brokers, supports the conversion of ADRs? That is, can I buy London-listed stock (say 1000 shares of RBS), and then hit a button and automatically convert it into RBS ADRs listed on the NYSE? (And vice versa?)
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    VPS Hosting.

    Hi there, Only thing I would really miss is back-testing, but it seems to me it shouldn't be too difficult (and probably superior in the long run) to implement my own solution there if necessary... or I can always backtest in NT, and run live outside of it. Is QuickFIX working very...
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    VPS Hosting.

    314, Could you give some pointers on navigating through QuickFIX? As mentioned, I'm currently with NT, and only using the brokers that they connect with. But the thought has occurred to me more than once that, eventually, I'd like to strike off and be a little more independent. I've...
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    VPS Hosting.

    Hi, I actually use NinjaTrader, no custom executables. The hosted server gives me access, and I use it just as if I'm sitting in front of it. I log in using Remote Desktop Connection usually, and over my DSL link it only feels slightly more sluggish than my local machine. (Only...
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    Ratigan Quits CNBC?

    Dylan Ratigan is my favorite ... whatever, on-air personality... at CNBC. I actually can't stand Fast Money, since I think it's barely a step up from Mad Money. But just listen to him on Closing Bell... the guy is incredibly talented. Smart, well-informed, and thinks quick on his feet...
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    Wireless Video link from PC to Monitors/TV

    I'd just get a thin client PC w/ 802.11 wireless link, and use some kind of screen capture software (Logmein? Citrix?) to see my "main" machine.
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