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Not to my knowledge. Long options create no buying power multiple and must be fully paid for. Bob

I started my trading business with a loan from my parents in January 1985. Sometimes you have to make hard choices. Paid them back within a year.

You will find that your clearing firm will not let you sell as much as you would have been able to sell back then. Does not mean it still not worth doing, but potential returns will be lower. I calculate these possible returns as potential profit/margin used.

50% is great. Not what I expected. Good for you.

OLD, I like the process you use to choose your trades. I read many of them and exam the markets at the time you post. Many of these options have wide spreads and when I look at the midpoint, which I realize is often not "fair value", I have to wonder, how often you get the spreads off at the...

No. I just don't like getting into any business under funded. You can't be right all the time.

Interested to know how you did with CL contracts. Must have been tough lately.

What percentage of traders can make money that way?

J, The margin for a most future's contracts are much greater than $500. ES is currently $4750. Many firms will allow you to trade greater margin when day-trading because the exchange does not calculate your requirement until EOD. IMO, trading ES contracts with $10K to 15K and higher day trading...

Some of my clients have used Gainskeeper in the past. http://www.gainskeeper.com/ Bob

The 1st week hit some risk levels that required closing positions on that down 500 Dow day. These strategies out perform when the VIX is 17 to 22, IMO. Over that, they can have issues. Below that, the risk of outside moves is too costly because short options are too close. Just my observation...

I monitor a number of hedge funds and CTAs that sell credit spreads and/or naked options in either RUT, SPX or ES. I have also raised money for a few of these. They lost between 9.3% and 1.4% in January. One made 0.70%. When you consider how bad January was, that's not too bad. It is a viable...

There are advantages to trading his strategy with SPX vs ES, but I agree with your statement.

Remember that SPX:SPY ratio is around 1:10. You can also try and hedge with other SPX options, but during times of stress, SPX options are very wide.

I'm not going to comment as to whether I believe this is a good strategy or not. I will say for most people that hedging SPX options with SPY stock might be a simpler solution even ES has a higher multiple than SPY. SPY will be used in a PM account to provide a margin and risk offset. A market...

Tough neighborhood. Hedge funds and managed money have their place for an allocation for someone that does not want to just be long SPY or pick stocks themselves. As to if they are worth 2/20, I don't care about fees. I care about risk adjusted, tax adjusted returns after fees. And, how much...

ES is a proper hedge vs SPX but you won't get a margin offset. You will have to fund the accounts separately and the loss from SPX will have to be funded if you get margin calls.

The world felt that way with BS, LEH etc. Big is not always safer. Not having a trading desk and avoiding leveraged accounts would make a broker safer. Either way,any brokerage account around the SIPC limit should not be your concern.

I field these questions all the time for the clearing firms we introduce to. Your account is protected by SIPC and Excess SIPC. Sounds like you are not much above the protection, so I don't think this is an issue for you. If someone had a large account (many millions) or they are a fiduciary for...

Try this: http://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&f=sh_price_u4 to screen or stocks.