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My definition is consistent with anyone who has worked in the financial industry, as opposed to sources peddling bullshit online to naive general public. Those very same online sources want you to believe that making money is as easy as signing up for a seminar at the cost of $399.95 :) That...

A couple manufacturers are offering these giant monitors now (all the way up to 62", I think). Has anyone tried working with one that big? Is it better that say 2-3 smaller ones?

I have seen two extreme opinions on back tests. I have had a co-worker that thought that it's worthless and even harmful. I have had a junior that thought that Sharpe of X in historical simulation will be equal to same in live trading. In reality, the value of back tests and simulation are...

Out of curiosity, how many hours an average modern pilot spends on a flight simulator?

Well, think about why these things have such a high yield? It's because they are somewhat distressed and some of that negative expectation is built into the price of the basket. So while you can lock in the yield, it's possible that some of the components of the basket will go bankrupt and you...

Even if your investment process can not benefit, these letters helps to improve as a human being.

On the topic which I assume is corporate bonds for a retail sized guy. Fixed income is more diverse and more technical then equity. I think it's actually possible to extract alpha as a small trader, depending on your skill set, but be prepared to learn a lot of stuff.

I was giving a relative size example. A concrete advice would be to build a diversified book of micro cap preferred/bonds and some common stocks. Maybe throw some business loans with real collateral into the mix. Something where you understand the risk of each business, your position in capital...

As wintergasp said, it's a pretty tall order. I would only compliment his words with "depends on the size" - if you need to make 16k on a 200k portfolio (sounds like your case) it's easier to achieve then 160k on 2mm portfolio. Why dividend portfolio as opposed to doing some value added activity...

No, this retail trader has alpha, but no edge. I am not saying that a retail-sized trader can't have an edge. For example, if you have a way to collect information that's not available to other players, it's an edge. Knowledge and skill can be obtained by any market player and is an edge...

Yeah, alpha is more appropriate. Or a mix of alpha and beta, if you are more of an investment type.

Derivatives ex-transaction costs are a zero sum game. It's nothing more then a tool to transfer risk to players with a different utility curve or exposure profile. On the other hand, equity is a leveraged bet on the growth, at micro and maco scale. When you buy common stock, you place your...

For example, if he's sleeping with a bunch of company secretaries and has a flow of MNPI, he's got an edge. If he's just good at reading the mosaic or he stumbled on an unusual source of mis-priced instruments, he's good and he's got alpha, but no edge. Edge is something structural that...

Sorry, you trade discretionary or algorithmic strategies?

No, edge is something that changes your personal profitability potential, giving you an advantage. For example, deal flow is an edge. Cheap funding is an edge. Better access to short borrow inventory is an edge. Extreme low latency is an edge. In general, most buy-side traders/PM or retail...

Trading on material non-public information is not always illegal. If you overhear about a possible merger while in a restaurant, it's material and non-public, but it's in no way illegal to trade on this information. Also, given how gray (and publicity-focused) the whole insider trading law is, a...

CME is just trying to compete with S&P 500 options (most IBD people are less keen on futures options). The mid-week expiries are useful to the OTC world (for example, to manage a cliquet book) so there will be a fair bit of flow in these coming from IBDs if CME can get some share of that market...

Oh, Chuck Rhoades is fired: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-11/bharara-wall-street-s-enforcer-among-prosecutors-asked-to-quit

Did you short XBT ahead of the news? I am not suprised by the ruling, btw

I think a lot of people have decided not to go because of the presidential involvement. The main protagonist of Axelrod is not going, at the very least :) So the Suits vs Billions question. I don't like cheesy winner-tough-good-guy stories, which is what Suits is. In real life, there are no...