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Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I place regular stop orders on ISLD using IB all the time. It appears to fill as if I put in a limit above/below market to ensure a fill (sometimes called a sweep). With QQQ's (which is what I mostly trade on ISLD) I get filled at best bid/ask as far as I can tell...

neo_hr, Yes unfortunately leverage works both ways. But if you're up against the 25k limit I just don't know any other solutions. a historical note on levarage: I started day trading in 1998 with the full S&P contract (when the multiplier was 500). I still consider it a miracle that I...

the only effective work-around is to switch to emini futures right now. Later when single stock futures get going that might be an option as well, provided there is enough volume. So I recommend that you study ES and NQ. No SEC involvments, terrific margin and better tax treatment than stocks.

It's really a pitty they chose DDE for order entry. Not only does it make it Windows specific, but DDE is also a broadcast protocol without acknowledgement: DDE is designed to broadcast streams of data (such as quotes) without having to worry about if every bit of data arrives. While it's...

AAA, the only reason to trade QQQ's over NQ, is that you can trade smaller size. SPY, for instance, is not nearly as liquid as QQQ and I would rather trade ES than SPY.

I use ISLD always

I generally buy everything at once and scale out. It's imperative that you get a broker that only charges per share (no tickets). I made many expensive mistakes when I was thinking about ticket charges in the past. Since switching to a per/share commission schedule those issues have all disappered.

topguntrader, maybe it's time to figure out if she is "the one''. If she is, she will work and support you while you learn. If she isn't - she won't. My wife fully understands that switching to a trading career is a longer term proposisiton and that the rewards won't be visible for a few...

I've been a member of trading markets for the last two years and generally found the content interesting. I am not a member of the very expensive live service called "TraderWire" The real value of Trading Markets is their lessons and courses. Several courses are available and are written by...

I've probably bought my fair share of "snake-oil" books over the years. The biggest scam I fell for was the Larry Williams "Money Tree" course. Not only was there virtually nothing beyond the basics covered but many of his "trading systems" simply didn't work or were "statistically...

I generally don't like buying going down into support. In the example given I'd wait for it to touch the 60 area and then go back to e.g. 60.05 at which point I'd start buying. I would begin reducing at 59.95/90/80 depending on chart, expected timeframe etc.

I have found it useful to simply assume that the markets are largely random. Using words like "manipulated" implicitly places blame on others when things don't go as expected. There are multiple forces in the markets much stronger than any individual (fed, large program trades, cnbc...

eSignal also works great. Their support site has an Excel spreadsheet you can download so you can see how it works

topguntrader, the problem with being an employee is that you're always a line in the budget somewhere. Whenever time comes to cut costs, you get a new boss that doesn't like you or a similar event, most companies will let you go. You only really have a chance to fight those "eliminations" if...

Navigator, thank you for the update. This is great news. I'm a bit mystified why they picked DDE since it clearly locks them into the windows platform, and also makes integration with TWS (which is in Java) platform specific. But as long as it works ...

I fully support IB's "payment for inactive accounts" initiative. I value IBs low commissions and fast execution and if other customers by their inactivity is putting that at risk I strongly support that they have to pay their own way.

After "e-chatting" with support it appears that there is no way to control how NYSE orders are routed: the specialist, SuperDOT and some third avenue I don't remember. Apparently the decision on how to route NYSE orders is made at the IB servers by some no-public algorithm. The support...

Don, thank you for the detailed follow-up. I will definitely try LIMITs next time. I've always wondered why it takes the respective specialist 20 seconds to fill a market order in HD or AXP even for small lots (~500 shares), while JPM fills much faster. Maybe one "bunches" more than the...

I short on the NYSE with market orders all the time. I rarely get a fill that's outside the bid-ask spread. I've never had success shorting on a limit at the NYSE. The biggest issue is the slow processing of market orders - in particular when the market in moving

I use Elite from two different computers. It appears that I can participate in polls from both computers, essentially letting me vote twice. Not a big issue, but though you'd like to know.