Quote from Maverick74:
ES, you cannot be this naive can you? You cannot be long and short the same instrument outside of an attempted arbitrage situation.
Mav74, maybe I can clear this up.
If you think the IBM way, yes, you're X-shares long @ 80 and X-shares short @ 80 - you have no position.
But... not so with the concept of having sub-accts.
Example: You open a long 1000-units (micro-trading, I know) of EUR/USD at 1.2510. At the same time you click open a short for the same # of units.
Does this mean you have no position?
No. It means you have two trades open going the opposite direction.
Let's say EUR/USD drops 10-pts (not taking into consideration spread deductions for the example's sake). You can close the short at 1.2500 and pocket 10-pips (total $1.00 due to each pip being worth .10 cents).
You'll be 10-pts DD in your long trade.
Now the rate fluctuates UP 20-pips. You're now 10-pts in the green on your long, where you close it and pocket another buck.
You just made 20-pts. 10 short. 10 long.
Your short was open/closed in sub acct 1. Your long was open/closed in sub acct 2.
You had two browsers open accessing the same platform - only, one was logged into sub acct 1, the other logged into sub acct 2.
It's a very valid strategy - done this lots of times. True, you use up twice as much capital, but that doesn't negate the method.
Any questions?
DD
