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Approx 5-10% of futures trading volume is retail per the last CME stat's I looked at. Retail futures day traders are the minnows, not the whales. IBs futues margins are to high - twice that of any other top tier retail brokers.

Some of you are looking at old info for TS which applies only to clients that opened their accounts prior to 2017. In this era - as long as your Tradestation balance remains > $2,000 than there are no inactivity fees & the platform + market data is free. I have an equity & futures with TS &...

Beginning in late Feb - futures has had a liquidity crisis effecting even the the most liquid of instruments. The book depth has fallen off by a mile and the spreads have widened - even after the Feds QE infinity. Here is the CME statistics trading 1 gold contract, they don't keep stat's for...

FCMs that went bankrupt years ago did not have segregated accts, this is now regulated. The CME margin requirements are the golden standard. With IBs dynamic margin formulas - you never know how much it is fluctuating, at times it has been close to 3 fold of the CME. Making it easier to get...

The market is never to low to short. In 2000, the NDX100 was down 35% off its high, many took out a 2nd mortgage & racked up CC loans to buy the dip. To bad it plunges down another 49%. In the dot com bull, Nortel was a core tech holding like the FANG stocks are today.

Stocks like SGBX breaking out on a volume can offer several highly skewed risk-to reward north of 50:1. You really need to know what you are doing since the counter swings are very large & luck will only take you so far before you get unlucky. You trade enough of these small/micro/nano cap...

IB margin on the ES is today $36,126 - that 3 times the CME requirement. On IRAs the IB ES margin is $108,378. Hmmmm... I can use my other futures broker that has $3,300 ES day margin or go with IB and use a boat load more cash. This one is a no-brainer

The national debt could be payed off several times over if it was not for the private enterprise with it's closed books called the Federal Reserve which takes trillions out of the economy to fund foreign/domestic gambling & corporate welfare for which they have large stakes in. Private banks...

The market liquidity is still piss poor. The book depth is a small fraction of what is once was. A retail trader can move the market it's so thin. Jan ES book depth - Healthy March ES book depth - ghost town ZB-30 year Jan- Present. Shocking, looks like the music stopped!

Losing trades are not the problem provided losers are exited aggressively, traders need some very large winners many fold of the avg losers. Most retail traders have small winners & much larger losers. Retail traders do what is comfortable which is why they are so darn predictable & easy for...

For one thing most other developed countries stock market held up better than the U.S, many bottoming out first & putting in stronger rallies. Another major difference is China has a national health care system and coherent leadership wish we clearly don't. The U.S. is the largest debtor...

Japan has done a great job containing this as densely populated as their cities are it is amazing they have had only 49 deaths.

What many are neglecting to understand is the Fed & government does not create goods & services, it can not create prosperity by expanding the nearly $24T debt bubble. Tax payers pick up the tab - future generations are screwed. QE has proven to be a big failure. The Fed lost control, when they...

This is still a financial crisis - the liquidity is still rotten because collateral got stretched way beyond it's limits. The pandemic is the banksters looting again like they did in 2008. The Fed & government are taking advantage of the panicked herd by ramping up corporate welfare. Tax...

Speaking of IB - anyone here trade the DAX mini FDXM? They removed the symbol. On the DAX contract you can change the multiple from 25 to 5(mini) but the margin required shows as 239,412(eur). The IB margin page shows the DAX-mini margin is €9,447 & the full size is €47,235. If anyone can...

That's how the best traders do it - long on the disruptors and short the disrupted. In terms of history & thanks to leaps in technology, we are in a golden era of the disruptors & the disrupted.

Socialism gone wild - bailouts for everyone & the market is still tanking!

Some countries economies are in better shape. Foreign $ is leaving the U.S. after the rate cuts which was guaranteed to happen - you can thank Trump for the sell off after the rate cuts. We are the largest debtor nation in history. Last week the Fed committed to inflating the massive debt...

The first big leg down in a bear market gives way to a multi day rally which lures in the FOMO/bottom pickers while the large players are selling into the rally. This is what a text book bear flag looks like which is typical after big sell offs. Purple line is 100 day VWAP - this is a magnet...

Buying right at the limit downs as you suggest, has been very punishing to those trapped in these LD halts that have resulted in large gap downs. It would be about the dumbest thing you can do is to go long a tick away from a limit down, your likely to get trapped in halt that gaps down big.