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gg12, First of all you are only trading 2 contracts so at this point none of this really matters because is a pretty small amount of money. Your plan of constantly selling puts and compounding the profits has crossed the mind of every new option trader, but there are very good reasons that...

This is a good point. Percentage return is always a function of leverage or lack thereof. 10% a month using futures and minimum margin is far different than accomplishing that using stock paid in full. So the question is if you put up $3500 overnight margin to daytrade 1 ES contract, or only...

I honestly don't mean to offend but this post shows an unusually high degree of misinformation. There are plenty of people who make their living trading for themselves, although all the ones I know have sufficient capital and are serious professionals. It is not "easy" to make 10% a month, not...

Innovest_11, The numbers in your question are incorrect. If the stock is $22 and you buy the 17.5 Calls (per your post) then they will have to be at least $4.5 not $2.5. You are correct that a far in-the-money Call with fall or rise the same number of points as the stock, i.e. a 1.00 Delta...

To everyone except Derivman: How come there are so many smiley face icons but no picture showing you throw up your hands and shake your head? You guys have been incredibly nice to this guy, I am interested to see if you will succeed in getting him to understand or end up giving up in...

Derivman, The best advice I can give is that you should not trade options. If you feel you must then spend the next several months reading and learning all about them, Natenberg's book is a good start, then paper trade for awhile to see what happens in real life, and get a theoretical pricing...

Do you have access to actual time and sales, with bid/ask and time for each option? If so you can see if it was a reasonable fill, if not you may be looking at incomplete data. Options can print out of sequence and sometimes not print at all in the SPX because it is not electronic. If you...

Interesting thread. As one who has done both, I agree that it is pointless to compare % returns between independent day trading and institutional investing. As far as it being possible to make very high % returns day trading, I can tell you (from watching a few thousand try) that those who say...

This is completely incorrect. Do you have any basis in fact for this statement?

I believe your statement is a little misleading, please correct me if I am mistaken. Your margin may not change drastically during the day, but it can change drastically over the next few days. IB's requirements include a 5 standard deviation move in addition to the standard % move listed on...

Thank you very much optionpro007 (apparently a poor choice for screen name) for reminding me why true professional traders do not bother with this so called elite trading board. I apologize for forgetting the type of people who populate it. Keep up the good work of insulting those who are...

Several traders I worked with constantly wondered what type of person makes a good trader when they were looking to hire new people for the floor. They never found a definitive answer. Having watched hundreds of traders succeed and fail it becomes rather easy to tell who has "it" and who does...

So you are saying if someone had just long GOOG stock they would have a margin of 30% rather than the minimum of 15%? If so that make sense; more concentration = more risk and therefore a greater margin requirement. What about options? If someone has all their money in short Calls and/or...

"It seems like you can make a good amount of cash if you play options right." "Well actually i've been swing trading options, and i've been doing quite well, 80% success rate. I have goals to become wealthy." Wow, good luck with that; luck being the operative word. You can certainly make a...

Individual stocks can have unusual circumstances so I will comment on just indices such as the SPX and NDX. The shape of the implied vol curve is much more a smirk than a smile; out of the money puts have a much higher implied vol compared to out of the money calls. Over time the tails of the...

For any of you IB traders: On the "Portfolio Margin Highlights" page of IB's website it has a line I don't understand: "Classes with large single concentrations will have a margin requirement of 30% applied to the concentrated position." What constitutes a "large single concentration"...

If you want to trade a large option order in a liquid underlying then there is no problem doing 5000 or 50k contracts. Speaking as one who has been on both sides, it is rather simple to get these orders done. The trader calls his retail broker and the broker contacts the option pit and gets...

Correct, those of us who know what we are talking about will not provide answers, but I will provide some warnings. I would like to say you have a 1% chance of succeeding but it's not that good. If you are serious then put up your own money, at least 100k, and contact someone like...

Which firm? What software?

May I ask what JBO you are with? Speaking for options, not stock, no one can calculate their margins in seconds with regard to JBOs or Portfolio Margin. The calculations are the same for both via the OCC, and because of the multitude of stochastic variables that are not know until after...