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Do you know how to do this? Is there a form to file or is it just a matter of attaching a statement to the 2008 return saying this will be done starting in 2009?

IB allows any size in whole units (although you don't get as good a rate if the amount is less than $25k or so). For example, you can buy or sell 31,314 Euros if you want to.

A couple of things to keep in mind. 1) The market has been on a tear lately which may have helped you turn a paper profit. You really should back test your approach over a sustained period including periods when the market declined. Are you still in the black? 2) Don't underestimate...

You don't need to provide any transaction details for futures or forex. For stocks, you are suppose to report each individual trade. I have done this in the past by tracking trades on a spreadsheet throughout the year. On the Schedule D, I just list all short term trades on a single line and...

And as a beta tester (unpaid), you reported this problem to IB. Correct?

I can answer your futures question. IB has reported your gain/loss net of commissions. Just split it 60/40 long term/short term and report it on the correct form (form number escapes me at the moment). It will feed into two lines on your Schedule D. No detailed reporting needed for this...

If a stock closes on Monday at $50 and there's no dividend involved, you would expect it to open on Tuesday at $50. But it usually doesn't happen because of other factors that have affected the company and the market as a whole since the previous day's close. The same thing is true with a...

Say someone wants to sell their car. They are asking $10,000. I want the car but only offer (i.e. bid) $9,000. How on earth will the car sell? The answer is that at some point, someone is willing to buy at the ask or sell at the bid. It may be the person who had the previous high bid (or...

Let's say the bid is 9 and the ask is 11. You place an order to sell at 10 and the broker either holds it or places it at an ECN different than where the 11 is asked. Someone sees the 11 and hits it. The order is executed at 11, above your asking price. Your broker had no time to change the...

I've gotten use to TWS so like it. I haven't tried the forex specific functionality. I just place my orders like stock orders.

When selling, the broker can hold your order until the best available bid is at or above your asking price. This would be at any available ECN. Then they know the order can be executed. Better, of course, is that your order is placed with one ECN so that a prospective buyer sees it and has a...

GFS has contacted me several times and given me the full pitch. I finally broke down and agreed to use their demo package. It looked OK and had decent graphics. But I don't need all the bells and whistles. Just a tight spread. And when I compared them to my current broker (IB), they just...

I just got the proxy material for Interactive Brokers. First time I've seen a corporation hold their annual meeting at a restaurant (l'escale in Greenwich, CT). Coffee and croissant anyone?

Here's my upgraded trading station. A Dell Precision T3400 workstation and three 21 1/2 inch monitors. About $1700 in total. For those without dual monitors, it's well worth it. I added a second monitor to my old Dell computer when I noticed that the video card was able to handle dual...

Your broker wouldn't send your order to multiple market makers as they could be simultaneouly executed resulting in short selling. Some brokers also maintain the orders in their system until they can be executed. Probably saves them money. You can see this happen when your limit price is...

One possibility is that your order was displayed at ECN 1 but the higher price execution you saw was executed at ECN 2.

Who would buy GM here? Well, there are the people that shorted GM some time back who have decided to close out there position now.

I don't believe any capital gains, whether from stock, futures, forex, etc. are considered "earned" income. Therefore, no FICO or Medicare taxes should apply. What say others?

I don't use Turbo Tax but for futures contracts you only need to report as a single figure as reported on a 1099 form. This is split 60/40 long term/short term. Individual listing of contracts is not required.

I expect you're talking about the major crosses like EUR/USD. I can tell you that on some of the cross trades (e.g. AUD/NZD), the price improvement is probably 25%+ of the time. Often less than 1/2 pip but at times 2-3 pips. About a week ago when some announcement was unexpectantly made...