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What do you mean by $35? The OCC shock on VXX is higher than the shock for SPX. House rules for PM margin vary from firm to firm, but in general most have a higher requirement for trading VXX per $ traded.

In general, there might be advantages to being long the stock/short the call. The one exception I can think of is a decrease in the dividend. Long stock would benefit you with an increase in the dividend and corporate actions.

Are you looking for a retail relationship or an institutional one? For a retail relationship, I hear IB is very good. If you are looking for a institutional clearing firm I can make other suggestions privately based on other criteria.

We all have backups for emergencies. As to if those backups work, it would depend on the point of failure.

Options and FX both have an economic component for hedgers and can be used to speculate. The point is that there are investors and there are traders. If you are an investor, I would agree that sticking with a portfolio of equities might be a good decision for many. However, trading is materially...

Since trading requires capital, you can't do it on your own. With an education that will interest tradition prop firms or large banks that trade, you can get your training there.

When you sign up to make markets in a symbol, you do have a quoting requirement, but there is no requirement to make good markets. I left the Amex in early 2010. Back then I was required to be at least 10 up and $5.00 wide.

"I later found out it's because IB is trying to sync the spot forex with the trading of the kiwi futures and somehow the kiwi futures has a trading halt from 3:00 to 3:15 pm something like that. WHY?" That question I can answer. They must have their risk and margin tied to the future. If the...

I can't advise you on the tax issue. I would avoid being regulated as much as possible, if this will be a trading group backed by investors. If your focus is on profits, I don't see the advantage of being regulated. If you are building a prop firm to focus on commissions, you need to be. From...

Funny thing is I know someone that traded flowers and made millions. Went on a trip to Hawaii and came up with a plan to buy flowers from the locals and sell them in the NYC area. I agree, whatever works (That is legal).

I would stay away from options that are that illiquid. The cost to enter and exit the trade will be too expensive.

I don't trade FX. Never have. My point is you have to keep an open mind. If 9/10 lose, and I don't know what the number is, that is because they are trading without any real edge, just some hope. You have to find that edge first.

Fundlord, I disagree with your friend. I've been in the business since 1981, about 34 years. I believe it is important to recognize that their are strategies that work well and have edge in every asset class. I like to keep my mind open to younger traders with new ideas. And, if I were entering...

Are you looking to trade in a "customer" account or as a regulated entity? You can choose the country of your choice for tax purposes, but if you choose a country with loose AML laws, you might find it difficult to open an account at the broker of your choice.

As every knows that reads my posts, I'm not a lover of IB or TWS. But to be fair, you can't build a platform that is great at everything. If you have high expectations for a platform that trades futures or options, I believe there are better ones available. It would be more fair to compare TWS...

As much as I would like to bash my competition, these type of technical problems can happen to anybody.

Any thing you do will have a cost. It will either limit your upside or have the cost of paying the premium for a long options with the reverse delta. I really do feel in my experience, that the two you don't want to do, work the best to reduce risk but say in the game. Nothing wrong with taking...

Unfortunately, you took away the two best ways to lighten up. Why would you not want to use those two strategies? They are the only ones that don't limit your upside.

As a general rule, I would consider short term trading less dangerous. However I'm not sure if you are using the word dangerous when you mean less profitable. I can tell you that managing risk is easier with no overnight positions and shorter time spans. However, day trading is a difficult skill...

I'm not sure if that is a factor.