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I think The Fly deserves credit for admitting his screw-up. And I suspect his subscribers may have gotten some value for their money by watching it unfold. One cannot be a successful trader for long without knowing and respecting what can go wrong. I find it a bit annoying when...

I have been struggling to get my brain around this topic of market microstructure. I recently read Flash Boys and believe the author has made a convincing case that IEX is beneficial to traders. I would like to provide at least moral support. I don't even know if HFT predation is...

I have a similar question. I prefer to continue using SMART routing, and I notice that IEX is one of the places that SMART routs to. I recall that we can tweak SMART routing somewhat, and it would be nice to be able to preference IEX when I am posting bids or offers. I am more interested in...

Brokers are not required to report options on futures on the Form 1099, and therefore IB doesn't report it. But your gain or loss still must be reported the the IRS on Form 6781 and Schedule D. You will have to calculate the numbers using your annual statement.

The Form 8949 is now required, and I would think you might be inviting trouble if you don't submit it. If your broker is IB, most of the work is done for you, as the worksheet they supply is suitable for filing. If the form is a lot of pages, I upload it to Kinko's for 2-sided printing. If...

The $25k minimum for day trading applied only to securities, not futures or forex. With futures, you can start as small as your broker allows. Money management in futures has a "friends & family" exemption that allows you to skip the expense and hassle of registration while you're small...

They have it now. It requires a Reuters subscription at extra cost.

I watched guys day-trade and kick butt in the late 90's. By 2002 they were all breaking even or losing. They didn't get old and stupid in that time; the market changed, as it always does. Ten thousand hours is a long time in this business.

You might start here: http://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/CTA_guide_1-3-08.pdf As for how to do backtesting, there is not much I can suggest. Everybody has their own preferences.

I didn't test it, but I am pretty sure there is no market depth data for the demo login. I have heard that market depth for the paper trader doesn't work either. Market depth works well for Globex and Project A, but I have not used it for stocks. You can get additional logins for something...

Ratios are a directional play. It seems to me that if you expect an expansion in IV in the near future with a price move either up or down, a long straddle will be your best strategy. You could also do a short butterfly.

Yes, with options you can make money VERY quickly ... and lose just as quickly. Everybody expects to be "above average" and make lots of money. Where do you suppose all that money is coming from? The markets are a giant poker game.

The market is the way it always was ... changing continuously.

I used to short options exclusively, and I most of the time I didn't worry about getting assigned. But you should be aware of when it can happen, and that people sometimes do things that don't make sense. You also need to be aware of pin risk whereby an option you're short trades near the...

That's a more complicated question. You need to know the details of expiration and assignment, not just "last trade". Some markets allow contrary instructions, which means that the long can exercise an option that expired OTM, or abandon an option that expired ITM. I seem to recall that...

I think IB works the same. THere should be a way to do a reset on your demo account.

This is something I discovered for myself some time ago. Less experienced traders often look to backtesting to tell them how an idea will turn out if they implement it. Testing doesn't do that very well, and especially not with HFT. Testing can sometimes tell us when an idea is really bad. I...

Some of my questions are slightly off-topic regarding HowTo for beginners. My point was that I like accessing the TWSAPI via the ActiveX mostly because it's supported by IB, but also because I find it easy to use and efficient. My interest is in trading, not in software engineering...

I'm currently using the ActiveX with Delphi 7. I previously used Ross Hemingway's IABSocket component, but I switched to the ActiveX mostly because it is supported by IB. It works well with no quality or performance issues, and I find it easy to use. It allows me to focus on trading strategy...

I trade via TWSAPI, and I'm thinking about switching to Python for my primary language. It's my understanding that IbPy is Python 2, and I prefer to use Python 3. Can IbPy be upgraded? Has anybody considered using Python with the ActiveX? I am also thinking of switching from Win7 to Linux...