Howdy friends and thank you for looking at my question. I am on IB now and find they have the most Routes I have ever seen available in Das. I understand they are the different exchanges that trades are routed through, however I have heard better traders than myself mention that they prefer to send their trades to specific routes. Thoughts? Thanks friends. MRod I

Howdy, Every so often when I am not actively trading Das Trader produces a beep sound randomly, at least to me. Anyone know what this from? Thanks!

If you trade higher capitalization stocks, and are scalping, you can trade options in lieu of stocks fairly easily. Long stock => Long Calls, at the money, at the nearest expiration date. Short stock => Long Puts, at the money, at the nearest expiration date. You trade at the money so you can get the greatest level of liquidity. Since most of the stocks we trade on here have high RVOL, they will likely also have elevated implied volatility. If you are Long Calls or Puts, the implied volatility will often (but not always) drop after the open, making the amount of time you are in the trade a huge factor. Anyone who has day traded options knows what I am talking about. Try going Long OTM PUTs on GME as it tanks and try to get out breakeven even though it has dropped 15% in 30 minutes double limit down. Thought you would profit? Not with that IV crush sonny. For risk-management sake, stay away from Out of the Money options during day trading unless you know what you are doing. The mix of the elevated IV dropping with the near expiration date is a disaster for Out of the Money options. You pretty much have to choose a further expiration (sacrificing your risk management via poor liquidity) to predictably profit. If you aren't scalping, you can use further out expiration At the Money and even In the Money options for a more direct substitution to shares. The more concerned you are about IV being crushed, the more you should try to get an In the Money option order filled to eliminate its effects.