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West coast, 59 years old -- BUT I look and act *much* younger. :D

It sounds like your problem is that you triggered the pattern day trader (PDT) rules, not that you forgot to file a margin agreement. PDT rules come from the SEC, and there is no way around them. If you want to trade actively with a small amount of capital, your only alternative is to trade...

There is no 'day trading account' per se. There are cash accounts and margin accounts. There is a pattern day trade (PDT) rule that requires day traders to maintain at least $25k balance at all times. A trader can trigger PDT rules in a cash account. If a trader triggers the PDT rule, and...

The best mutual fund data I know of is Investors' Fact Track (http://www.fasttrack.net/). Their subscription includes all the software you need to find what you are looking for, if it exists. They also have an active investor community where you can share ideas.

The problems you describe are pretty typical. If trading were as easy as it looks, everybody would be doing it. I don't mean to be flippant, but it really is that simple -- simple, but not so easy.

When you buy stocks, you can have them held "in street name", which in the computer age means virtual, or have share certificates issued. Share certificates at one time were very ornate and can now have collector value. There is usually no reason to have certificates issued, with the added...

I use Delphi, because it's what I know best. I have one system that can run unattended, but it was not built with that objective. I don't trust fully automated systems, because there are so many things that can go wrong, and because I don't test my programs as thoroughly as I should. I now...

I had Comcast cable in northern California (Silicon Valley), and I was getting very short (few seconds) disconnects. Most people wouldn't notice or mind the glitches, but they were interfering with my trading. I switched to DSL, and I will probably stay with that as long as I live at this...

I trade from home, and I do not have any licenses. I had a series 3 years ago, and I have heard that series 7 is a very difficult test. The big-name investment banking houses in the US, such as Salomon and Goldman, pay well but are *very* selective. It is hard to get hired there. But that...

Series 7, yes, and probably series 55 too. Legally, you are trading somebody else's (the firm's) money. There is also the possibility, however remote, that the firm could fail suddenly and unexpectedly, and your equity could be at risk.

It's my understanding that there are primarily three reasons people trade through a prop shop in the US: a) mentoring (learn how to trade), b) excess margin (more than 4x allowed individuals), and c) short on a downtick as a market maker. Can anybody think of other reasons?

You can vote with your feet -- that's what I did. I'll trade there again when the NYSE joins the 21st century.

The ratio of return to max drawdown is what I call 'efficiency' (there's probably a better term for it). I have heard from several well-known traders that 2x is typical for a high-performance trend-follower, meaning 100% return, 50% drawdown. This ignores length of drawdown, which can be a...

That happened to me this morning. I cancelled and re-submitted an order, and both were filled. I assumed that the problems was with the ECN, but it sounds like you are saying there is something wrong at IB.

Investorsources, what you are describing in your first post is the infamous well-chosen example (WCE). What beginning traders often fail to understand is that we can never trade in the middle of a WCE -- only at the 'hard right edge'. A good example chart, as opposed to a WCE, should not show...

I have been giving a lot of thought to this question lately. I don't have a definitive answer, but I suspect it will be 'no' in most cases. Only in the most liquid and automated markets (i.e. ES), when doing limited size (<100 contracts), can you have any reasonable expectation of being able...

I use TeleChart2005 (http://www.telechart.com/). It has about 7500 of the biggest stocks, some indices, and Media General industry groups. The service is competitively priced, and they have a large user base, meaning they should be around awhile. They have free developers' kit for...

There are profitable systems out there, but they are not easy to find. I have found that, when I am in a rut, what works best is to take a break (usually in months or years), plus do a lot of reading. My best ideas come from my subconscious, and it doesn't like being rushed.

I blame the regulators, not the broker. This is one of the "joys" of trying to manage tax-sheltered assets. Many financial advisors would have us believe that sheltering of assets from tax (which is only temporary anyway) is the be-all and end-all of human existance. I plan to cash in my...

I got this additional information from IB: "...it is not full margin trading for day trading of IRA accounts. It only allows you to re-invest the proceeds from a sale once. So you can sell IBM and buy DELL in the same day and not wait three days. But, if the new shares go against you, there is...