From Micros to Millions: 2% per day

[CALLumbus]

There are already FTT in several countries, for example France, 0.3% for buying and selling stocks of larger companies.

I would not worry to much about that crap. As long as there is no global FTT, with all major countries participating, there will always be ways around this. Some doors might get closed, new doors and opportunities will open.

 

[virtusa]

Belgium introduced in 2016 also a "speculation tax" which would be added to the existing taxes.
End of 2016 the tax was already abolished. Why?

• People started to trade other products and other markets to avoid the tax.
• Volume of transactions went down. For some brokers -45%.
• Total received taxes went down 54 million Euro whereas the aim was to get 30 million Euro extra taxes.

 

[DevBru]

Belgium introduced in 2016 also a "speculation tax" which would be added to the existing taxes.
End of 2016 the tax was already abolished. Why?

• People started to trade other products and other markets to avoid the tax.
• Volume of transactions went down. For some brokers -45%.
• Total received taxes went down 54 million Euro whereas the aim was to get 30 million Euro extra taxes.

There stil is a financial transactions tax on shares in Belgium, 0.35% when you buy the shares and 0.35% when you sell the shares.

 

[virtusa]

There stil is a financial transactions tax on shares in Belgium, 0.35% when you buy the shares and 0.35% when you sell the shares.

The speculation tax was a much higher taxation than the louzy 0.35% (could go 100 times higher than the tax you speak about) .
If you sold stocks within 6 months you had to pay 33% taxes on the profit. And losing trades were not deductable, which could raise your effective taxation over 50% (depending on your winning rate).

 

[DevBru]

The speculation tax was a much higher taxation than the louzy 0.35% (could go 100 times higher than the tax you speak about) .
If you sold stocks within 6 months you had to pay 33% taxes on the profit. And losing trades were not deductable, which could raise your effective taxation over 50% (depending on your winning rate).

This is still the case if you trade as an entity in Belgium, sold within 12 months then taxed at roughly 25% on profits, losses not deductible. It can even happen that the taxes are much higher than the net profits at the end of the year.

By the way, i wouldn't call the transaction tax a lousy tax, 0.35% each side is ridiculous and it makes profitable day trading stocks near impossible. For example you would pay around $0.8 in transaction tax on each share in a AAPL trade at its current price, basically each trade starts with at least 0.7% loss depending on commissions and other costs, FB would be close to $2 per share.

Day trading and scalping are impossible with such high taxes, 0.35% each side might sound small, but if you buy 100 FB shares you basically start with a $200 loss.

 

[CALLumbus]

The speculation tax was a much higher taxation than the louzy 0.35% (could go 100 times higher than the tax you speak about) .
If you sold stocks within 6 months you had to pay 33% taxes on the profit. And losing trades were not deductable, which could raise your effective taxation over 50% (depending on your winning rate).

Do you really understand how a FTT works ? FTT is not an income tax, or capital gains tax ...

 

[sstheo]

Interesting transaction tax discussion. If enacted, I would simply go back to FX or options, or swinging ETFs, all of which I have done. Until then, let's get the $$$$.

At $335 net, yesterday was indeed my best day so far on this challenge, but when added to the day before, I merely got back on track.

Crossing my first $1000 in profits is pretty exciting. Now to hang on to it and add a bit more . . . .

AMP report from last night:

My updated spreadsheet:

My 3% goal today is around $200.


Now the fun stuff--

What is My Market Bias?

Q: "Where are we going today?"

A: "I DON'T CARE!"

Despite what I said yesterday about "7 days of down" and consequently "being bullish" (and having a great day because of it), as a scalper, it is vital for me to NOT let the "big picture" overpower the smaller timeframe view. There are so many opportunities both directions on any given day.

Yes, I still like to TRY to get an overall underlying bullish or bearish bias for the day, but I quickly set it aside when conditions change. And as we all know, conditions can change rapidly. And this is why I became a scalper. I can shift my perspective quickly to match the market.

Scalping may be Safer

No, changing my mind is not always easy. Especially when I am in a trade. But this is one of the reasons I like scalping. The tight profit targets and much smaller stops allow me many more opportunities to (1) make a little $ and then (2) get out and BE FLAT so my mind can be free again to give me all it has (which ostensibly isn't much at times!) in my quest to find the next good trade.

Sometimes if a trade doesn't go my way within 30 seconds I scratch it, just so I can actually think again. Maybe it's just me, but having a trade on is like having a vise around my brain. How many days over the last decade of trading have I moved my stop and let one #$%@! position go against me all the way to my death. So for me, scalping is much safer because I know I will have MANY small trade opportunities that add up nicely, so it is easier to let go of the losers.

 

[Laissez Faire]

67 ES points on a single day is a fantastic catch, @sstheo . Very well done!

 

[virtusa]

Do you really understand how a FTT works ? FTT is not an income tax, or capital gains tax ...

Yes I know how it works. For futures 0.02% (probably) of the notional value of the trade. Once for entering the trade and again for closing the trade. So 0.04% per RT.

The Belgian system is different as it takes profits as basis. But the financial result is also detremental. Just wanted to show that any form of taxation has an impact on the behavior of traders as they get hurt financially.

 

[virtusa]

67 ES points on a single day is a fantastic catch, @sstheo . Very well done!

Don't want to be negative but I don't understand why it is so good?

$335 means 67 points. I agree on that. But he did 61 trades to achieve that. So 1.1 points profit per contract traded.
Or did I miss something?