Search results

Shorts are always short term. They measure the "holding period" from when you buy til when you delivery to cover, which is typically 1-3 days. If you want long term capital gains from a bearish view, consider LEAP puts. Long option positions, either puts or calls, held over a year qualify.

+1!

I wish they'd just kept Command Center up too, instead of forcing everyone onto TOS. I've been reporting bad quote/order book problems for a couple days now; hopefully they'll get around to fixing them. They're mostly right, most of the time, but I want it as accurate as possible so I report...

I always thought the only way to get approved for options (margin, etc) was to claim you'd already been trading them for years. Catch 22 until you realize no one checks what you put on those forms.

For Sec 1256 futures (most of them) you just report your net PNL marked as of EOY. For stocks its a mess with wash sales and such, but you can just take your brokers 1099 and report that. I'd spot check any big gains, losses, or high notional value trades, especially if the company did...

It probably depends on whether your broker allows simultaneous long and short positions in the same stock (ie +100 shares, and also -200 shares). Some do, some don't. If they do, you can (probably) use a single buy order order (rather than a buy-to-cover) to go from a short position to a net...

Yes. Small money is easy, bigger scalable money is harder often much harder. I care a lot more about risk than most people. Put in the hours, pay attention, you'll learn what works and what doesn't if you're honest with yourself. Never discount the chance that you were just lucky instead...

It depends when your sending bank gets around to sending the next wire batch. I've sent wires to IB in the early afternoon (1-2pm EST) and had them post to IB before the close. If you were sure you needed it there, I'd send it before 11am.

Preliminary press release finds... NYSE Arca to blame, not HFT.

Got it, thanks. I'll keep this in mind, especially if I hit 10mils next month :).

Don't be lazy - use limit orders. Sure market orders are safe for big liquid things like major stocks and ETFs, but for anything less, determine your max price and put that in as your limit. You are very unlikely to be willing to buy those shares at ANY price. I've seen market orders pay 150%...

ofthomas - can you say a little more about the differences between IB's retail and prop sides? What do you mean by getting "costs normalized" and are there other benefits you find valuable? Thank you.

Sticking with your original numbers of $30 round trip commissions per position x 40 positions daily (later you swapped the 30 & 40), at flat rate $15 each way is an average of 3000 shares per trade and 120k/day in share volume. If you switch to cost-plus, you'll be solidly in the second tier...

Can't tell if you're joking, but that fine is for misleading advertising over a retail ID theft credit product that was likely outsourced to some shady third party administrator. No trading involved.

RIP

Rock & roll. You got 30 minutes left.

So call your broker and ask they disable the auto liquidation. Today they probably won't give you a hard time. They won't liquidate you out of halted stocks, but they might sell the other stuff and the markets aren't as tight today as usual for obvious reasons.

Thanks. What a mess.

Depends on the US's agreement with the particular country. You can look up the treaty rules on the IRS website. 15-30% is typical.

Better lucky than good, I always say. Which God listens if you ask for luck?