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Mathematically, what you are saying makes sense. But I don't see how it would work in practice. I think it is more than a "technical" problem. So you want to buy a Feb. 12 put on 35 shares of SPY with a strike price of 303.46? Who is going to take the other side of that contract? A market...

There is a series of options that is tied to one tenth of the value of SPX, and I am not referring to SPY. XSP is the symbol for the S&P 500 Mini-SPX options. Not sure how much volume there is, or whether they are really tradable... BMK

@Math_Wiz You may be wondering why option prices are displayed this way. Part of it just tradition, i.e., this is how it has always been done. Of course, things can and do change. When I started trading, stock and option prices were expressed in fractions. Stocks traded in eighths of a dollar...

$87.00. The price of the option is based on a multiplier of 100 shares. What you paid for the option in your example was $87.00. BMK

@BKR88 posted an image of the spread trade screen for you. You do NOT need to "select" your open position. It will NOT create a new position. You need to select "sell to close" and "buy to close," and that will close your existing position. If you make a mistake and select "buy to open" or "sell...

That is an awesome song. But the original version by Leonard Cohen is waaaaaaaay better... BMK

Why is there a relatively large difference between the price of SPY and the price of IVV? BMK

I thought any difference between the price of an ETF and the index that it tracks could be considered tracking error. The prospectus for SPY uses the term tracking risk, which to me means the risk that the ETF will fail to accurately track the index. Here's what it says: Index Tracking Risk...

That's interesting, but I doubt it is the guys who hacked the Robinhood brokerage accounts. They are probably using the name "Robin Hood Hackers" as a historical and literary reference. BMK

by using Linux instead of Windows

@Overnight What I outlined was totally hypothetical. As I said at the end of my post, it could not happen under the current legal structure of corporations and limited partnerships that we have here in the USA. BMK

Account has a positive cash balance, but also has margin loan balance. Hmmmm? Might have something to do with the fact that we have a short stock position... BMK

The spot price of crude oil dropped below zero. Some say that was due to market manipulation. And there is indeed evidence of market manipulation that day. But I'm not convinced that the manipulation directly caused the price to go below zero. The official explanation was that demand for oil...

It's called tracking error. There are discussions of it at Investopedia and Wikipedia. BMK

The correct spelling is outage. Outtage is pronounced ooh-TAJ, and it refers to a French delicacy made from turkey stomachs.

It is illegal if they don't adequately disclose it to the customer. RobinHood is under investigation over this. Many people think HFT is bad for the market. And I don't think HFTs dislikes paying for order flow if it gives them an edge...

Insurance carriers re-insure themselves against major losses. I can't possibly explain how it actually works. But insurance companies literally insure each other to spread the risk around. Google the term reinsurance. And most of the major insurance carriers are too big to fail. BMK

Dude, why doesn't the name on your bank account match the name on your brokerage account?? You movin' money around for Al Qaida? Or that bunch in Michigan that was planning to kidnap Gov. Whitmer? Or is it the Antifa folks? Just kidding. If your middle initial is missing they should let that...

If he sells it, that will trigger tax on the capital gain. And that's what he's trying to avoid. Having two separate accounts--one for active trading and the other for long term investment--is a good idea, and it can help avoid problems. But some guys may need to keep everything in one...

You have the right idea. But it's not about "the days where I have kept shares." You need to identify which shares you are holding long term for investment. Because you made the mark-to-market election, in general, anything you are holding at the end of the year will be treated as if it were...