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Of course this website is about speculation. But there is a difference, and it is that exchanges hold you responsible. So for example if I buy a stock and loose money it is my money that is lost. Imagine for a moment that there was no exchange. We would have major issues with a functioning...

I am no ant-flipping. I am anti-speculation. Way way way back when real investor flippers did exist. They bought under valued homes, fixed them up over a number of months and then sold them on the market. When these homes were fixed up they were REALLY fixed up, meaning the house was usually...

I do spreads and have to say that the ES and SPX are pains... I think the issue has to do with the exchange and market maker. For example, on the NDX very often if I enter the market it will all of the sudden change. So if I match the bid or ask, all of the sudden the dynamics change and...

Sorry to respond so late. Quick answer your orders are being submitted. But they might not show up on the book. The best I can guess out of this is that they are being held for potential match up. Its only on the CBOE that I have this problem.

Anything ever come out of this?

Sorry, I trade the globex as well, and meant CME/CBOT. I keep confusing the two. Just today I wanted to exit some spreads could not, tweaked the single legs and all worked fine. Why do you need to show up on the book? Does it really matter for you? All you need is confirmation from IB.

Oh this is oh so true... Selling credit spreads, or naked is in my opinion much more difficult than buying options. With buying you win some you loose some. You don't break the bank. BUT with short gamma you have a much more complicated ball game and hence like you say you need to treat this...

Welcome to the fluke of CBOE.... I think if you are between the bid and ask your order is held to see if it can be matched. This is a game I tend to play, "figure out where the orders REALLY are..." Often with IB and CBOE I will get better prices than I submitted. You need to adjust and...

I sell credit spreads as well, and let me tell you. NOBODY made money. Everybody lost money. Thus to say you could have saved this one is impossible. The only way to have saved this one is to have enough margin to ensure that you can stay out of the markets way long enough. Oddly enough this...

There are two ways to margin this; RegT, and Portfolio. With RegT it is conservative and there is not much you can do. With Portfolio you are margined based on a brokers tweaked VAR calculation. The advantage of Portfolio is that if you structure the portfolio properly you will always have...

I would like to add a question to this. Looking over this strategy I have found people to be in two camps. 1) They tweak twiddle and fidget 2) They sit still and if things get hard take action (eg rolling or just getting out of the trade) I tend to be in the second camp. I have tried...

Bingo, give the man a cigar... The German populace went through many reforms, and cuts. There is NO support among the German populace for money to be sent to the Greek so that they can retire at 61... Though if you dig deeper the reason Sarkozy is so interested in helping Greece is because...

I completely agree with you on the French and their demon called AngloSaxon. Sarkozy is using this as a machinery to further those ambitions. Why the hurrah on the fraudulent numbers? Because it is really bad now. I looked over the budget of Greece for 2010 and it is downright scary. If...

That is already happening in Europe. Greece always receives more than they donate to the EU common policy. That is not the issue. The problem here is that Greece cheated, plain and simple. Sarkozy is supporting this because he is having problems in his own country. He wants to appear the...

The real question here is how much money do you have in the account? Because when I tried this out on my account I was charged about 40 USD margin on a single contract. Why so low? 1) Portfolio margin 2) Diversified account 3) Enough money in the account If you have none of the above...

Ok... So let me see if I can give you a hand here, here are my thoughts. If you hit with a limit order you may or may not be left holding the bag. I have written algorithms where I adjust limit orders so that you are not left holding the bag. These adjustments happen in split seconds...

What you are mistaking is the purpose of statistics. The purpose of statistics is to allow you to interpret data in an intelligent manner. Statistics does not foretell the future. For example. Let's say tomorrow a 1 in a 100 year event happens. When can the next 1 in a 100 year event happen...

I looked at some of your previous posts.... It appears you and I have similar backgrounds. I am guessing you come from a software background. So let me share my story with you. 5 years ago my wife and I had about 25K sitting around. She said, "hey could you invest this?" I said why not...

Wow this is lunacy... Ok let's look at this from a rational perspective. 1) You are making money today and hence you don't need to get fired and quit. 2) You are making money today and you are undercapitalized. 3) You are not making money today and you are blaming your current job...

I implemented the VIX and have to say the same thing as you. yikes... I think the biggest issue with the VIX or the VIX calculation is that it does mask the skew. When the VIX goes up or down, you don't exactly know why since the calls and puts are mushed together. Another interesting...