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Anyone trying Microsoft Office 2013? I have the Office Professional Plus 2013, but have been using 2003 since it is just easy to use everyday. I have the others but 2007 really did do much I needed and seemed slow, 2010 was OK but it had database issues with slow access reads for some things...

Just to clarify, there is no such thing as "claiming" trader status, it is a simple matter of choosing or not choosing to deduct your expenses. Mark to Market on the other hand is an official election with the IRS. Some firms claim sending a letter of some sort stating you are a full time...

Ugh, me try be more clear this time. If you knew the answer to my rhetorical question, the question was not meant for you. Exactly which retail broker is giving 1 for 1 margin relief on SPX options hedged with ES? I didn't just mention delta hedging, I was referring to any use of the...

My question was rhetorical. My point was that I constantly see new traders ask about SPX vs SPY or ES. If they are asking the question then they are not running their own vol surface analysis and therefore don't really know what a fair price is for an SPX options because the spread is wide...

Just finished building a rig, it was rather enjoyable. If you live near a Micro Center you can get the chip for cheap, when you are ready to go that route. It is not that hard to build one, there is a good forum for asking any questions, and there is a video online for pretty much any part of...

With SPY and ES you have an underlying to trade, scalp your gamma (positive or negative), and hedge your deltas. How exactly do you do that with the SPX as a retail trader? If you don't do any of those things I question whether you are a options trader or just gambling.

I have just spent a considerable amount of time overclocking my new machine. I can't believe how much time it took, but it was very interesting. Building the machine doesn't take much time at all, but finding a safe and stable long term overclock takes a lot longer than you would think. On...

If we ignore the reductions from PEP and Pease for a second, it looks like futures and index option traders have a 38% increase in the max tax rate from 2012 to 2013, if you are successful. In 2012 we had 40% long term and 60% short term treatment for Section 1256 contracts. That means we...

Just did the easy overclock that the Asus software does, ramped the chip up to 4.2 from 3.5, and Prime95 is stable and takes the temperatures up to a max 69c. From what I have read so far taking this chip to 4.5 to 4.7 seems to be the max. It apparently doesn't overclock as well as sandy...

As to the i7 vs. i5, I also read that for most average purposes most people won't see much of a difference, but in certain situations it will matter. It all depends on what you are using it for. Since I will be gaming and doing some real number crunching, the cost difference was irrelevant...

Thanks for the all the replies and info. I was surprised at how easy it was to do all this so far, and it was sort of fun too. I would recommend building your own to anyone who is thinking about it. dom993, I am running memtest right now, and so far no errors. I have heard that lots of...

First computer build ever. I was always the guy who said it was just so much easier to just buy from a company that builds it for you, so they do all the testing, setup, and give you a three year warranty on the whole thing. Since I have never done it, I will actually lose a lot of money...

If you don't get how being a couple hundred points farther away affects your portfolio margin haircut, as well as your overall daily trading, then I am not really sure what else to say.

She is taking advantage of the fact that portfolio margin does not properly measure risk for large numbers of short options that are far out of the money. With short dated options like weeklies you would have to sell options relatively close to the money to get any premium. She sells a ton...

On the topic of options on futures, where do any of you guys trade them besides TOS and IB? As to your question, the IV fall after commodity reports can be reasonably analogous to an earnings report on a stock. The IV definitely rises going into the report and falls after as one would...

Last time I checked decay is measured by theta expressed in $, and for 2 all of those are primary components to an option's price.

You taking a portfolio margin test? The answer is A because you are long the straddle so you decide what to do. If the stock expires exactly at the strike then your broker will not automatically exercise the options for you, so you will have no position unless you tell them to exercise one or...

Exactly, I really hope someone comes out with a 2560x1600 30" led that does not get hot. I would be tempted to replace my whole setup with several of those.

As has been said, personal preference is the key, but I have a 3 x 24" setup that I like a lot. I also have two expensive 30" monitors that are 2560x1600, and they are great but they get quite hot and you sometimes have to increase the font sizing on things to be able to read them easily. For...

Since the vix is a mathematical interpolation of implied volatility in SPX options 30 days out, it simply reflects the current supply/demand characteristics of those options, and that is based on the actual volatility of the underlying. Since the actual (also referred to as historical or...