Bailey Nevener

@RealEstateDayTrader I use the Total Loss parameter because it is what actually what "stops you out" with the auto-stop feature. I set the Max Loss parameter about a 1/2R below my true "Max Loss". I do this because in the event that I lose 4.5R's due to commission, it would be unwise to take another 1R trade even though I haven't hit my true "Max Loss" yet. So it makes it where I have certain days that I basically hit max loss, but it is just underneath my actual Max Loss. Due to the slight delay in the auto-stop feature (using only the Total Loss) and slippage, sometimes my "Max Loss days" would be a full 1R beyond my true Max Loss. Generally that would occur when I took a final trade that was a 1/2R or less away from my Max Loss. Also Max Loss is not supported on an individual ticker basis, it is based on the whole account.

Notice how GreekTrade didn't stick around, despite the "confused" reaction to my post. Hmmmm.......

Also trading long At the money Put or Call options with the nearest expiration date in a cash account allows the cash to settle overnight. Therefore you can trade everyday. Just make sure you pay attention to elevated levels of Implied Volatility if you ever Buy to Open anything out of the money. That can really cause problems for some of these stocks in play as the day drags on. Not to mention you will be fighting theta which is a real problem with the closest day expiration. It works well (in terms of controlling risk) in scalping. On top of that, make sure that the underlying stock has elevated volume because the spreads can get crazy on options. On any given day you should be able to trade a high volume tech stock or a sector ETF with no issue. If you trade a sector ETF, be extra careful, the leverage even at the money is insane. However the spread is extremely small!

I'm having a substantially easier time working with the current margin requirements. So much so, that I actually have updated this table to reflect more accurate numbers. Year $ Gain Risk Bump +10% Intervals Risk Per Trade 0.05% Goal Amount 5R Weekly Amount Monthly Amount $ 46,328 $ 25,000 $ 25 $ 125 $ 625 $ 2,500 $ 27,500 $ 28 $ 138 $ 688 $ 2,750 $ 30,250 $ 30 $ 151 $ 756 $ 3,025 $ 33,275 $ 33 $ 166 $ 832 $ 3,328 $ 36,603 $ 37 $ 183 $ 915 $ 3,660 $ 40,263 $ 40 $ 201 $ 1,007 $ 4,026 $ 44,289 $ 44 $ 221 $ 1,107 $ 4,429 $ 48,718 $ 49 $ 244 $ 1,218 $ 4,872 $ 53,590 $ 54 $ 268 $ 1,340 $ 5,359 $ 58,949 $ 59 $ 295 $ 1,474 $ 5,895 $ 64,844 $ 65 $ 324 $ 1,621 $ 6,484 $ 71,328 $ 71 $ 357 $ 1,783 $ 7,133 $ 145,397 $ 78,461 $ 78 $ 392 $ 1,962 $ 7,846 $ 86,307 $ 86 $ 432 $ 2,158 $ 8,631 $ 94,937 $ 95 $ 475 $ 2,373 $ 9,494 $ 104,431 $ 104 $ 522 $ 2,611 $ 10,443 $ 114,874 $ 115 $ 574 $ 2,872 $ 11,487 $ 126,362 $ 126 $ 632 $ 3,159 $ 12,636 $ 138,998 $ 139 $ 695 $ 3,475 $ 13,900 $ 152,898 $ 153 $ 764 $ 3,822 $ 15,290 $ 168,187 $ 168 $ 841 $ 4,205 $ 16,819 $ 185,006 $ 185 $ 925 $ 4,625 $ 18,501 $ 203,507 $ 204 $ 1,018 $ 5,088 $ 20,351 $ 223,858 $ 224 $ 1,119 $ 5,596 $ 22,386 $ 456,318 $ 246,243 $ 246 $ 1,231 $ 6,156 $ 24,624 $ 270,868 $ 271 $ 1,354 $ 6,772 $ 27,087 $ 297,954 $ 298 $ 1,490 $ 7,449 $ 29,795 $ 327,750 $ 328 $ 1,639 $ 8,194 $ 32,775 $ 360,525 $ 361 $ 1,803 $ 9,013 $ 36,052 $ 396,577 $ 397 $ 1,983 $ 9,914 $ 39,658 $ 436,235 $ 436 $ 2,181 $ 10,906 $ 43,624 $ 479,859 $ 480 $ 2,399 $ 11,996 $ 47,986 $ 527,844 $ 528 $ 2,639 $ 13,196 $ 52,784 $ 580,629 $ 581 $ 2,903 $ 14,516 $ 58,063 $ 638,692 $ 639 $ 3,193 $ 15,967 $ 63,869 $ 702,561 $ 703 $ 3,513 $ 17,564 $ 70,256 $ 1,432,120 $ 772,817 $ 773 $ 3,864 $ 19,320 $ 77,282 $ 850,099 $ 850 $ 4,250 $ 21,252 $ 85,010 $ 935,109 $ 935 $ 4,676 $ 23,378 $ 93,511 $ 1,028,619 $ 1,029 $ 5,143 $ 25,715 $ 102,862 $ 1,131,481 $ 1,131 $ 5,657 $ 28,287 $ 113,148 $ 1,244,630 $ 1,245 $ 6,223 $ 31,116 $ 124,463 $ 1,369,092 $ 1,369 $ 6,845 $ 34,227 $ 136,909 $ 1,506,002 $ 1,506 $ 7,530 $ 37,650 $ 150,600 $ 1,656,602 $ 1,657 $ 8,283 $ 41,415 $ 165,660 $ 1,822,262 $ 1,822 $ 9,111 $ 45,557 $ 182,226 $ 2,004,488 $ 2,004 $ 10,022 $ 50,112 $ 200,449 $ 2,204,937 $ 2,205 $ 11,025 $ 55,123 $ 220,494 $ 4,494,606 $ 2,425,431 $ 2,425 $ 12,127 $ 60,636 $ 242,543 $ 2,667,974 $ 2,668 $ 13,340 $ 66,699 $ 266,797 $ 2,934,771 $ 2,935 $ 14,674 $ 73,369 $ 293,477 $ 3,228,248 $ 3,228 $ 16,141 $ 80,706 $ 322,825 $ 3,551,073 $ 3,551 $ 17,755 $ 88,777 $ 355,107 $ 3,906,181 $ 3,906 $ 19,531 $ 97,655 $ 390,618 $ 4,296,799 $ 4,297 $ 21,484 $ 107,420 $ 429,680 $ 4,726,479 $ 4,726 $ 23,632 $ 118,162 $ 472,648 $ 5,199,126 $ 5,199 $ 25,996 $ 129,978 $ 519,913 $ 5,719,039 $ 5,719 $ 28,595 $ 142,976 $ 571,904 $ 6,290,943 $ 6,291 $ 31,455 $ 157,274 $ 629,094 $ 6,920,037 $ 6,920 $ 34,600 $ 173,001 $ 692,004

Anytime I am shorting options, I am doing an OTM credit spread about 45 days out behind a support or resistance on the daily. This maximizes the theta decay from one day to the next increasing your rate of receiving max profit. You should cut it around 21 days if you are close to max profit or roll it forward to keep the decay rate high if it is still a good trade. Since this is so many days out, I would only do daily chart entries or higher. The profit from these takes a little time, but that is a huge edge from the theta decay. Enter for mid-term trade ideas. Was there an earnings overreaction? If the price drops into a support level, initiate a spread with the strikes well below the bottom of that support, and as the Implied Volatility dries up you will immediately be in the money.

It is possible for certain, but if that is your mindset rather than “How can I become a good trader?” you probably won’t last. Smart people that are dedicated make a living from this. If you are asking a forum on whether or not you can do it, you probably aren’t either. You can always change that though.

Yes. By putting your money into an S-Corp and paying yourself as an employee and cashing out only what you need to live. Also if you can successfully have Trader Tax Status you can count your losses as regular losses rather than being capped at 3,000 that rolls over every year. I’m sure there’s more, but I’m not sure of what else off of the top of my head.

@GreekTrade If the chat room isn’t mainly a distraction, you probably don’t have a strategy, or can’t follow it.

One screen for DAS, and maybe one screen for screeners and the chat room. However, info overload definitely will kill progress and create horrible habits. I think you might find, like many others, even having the chat room up is too much. Especially at first.

If I had to guess they are manually adding them premarket.

Yes I would and have. However since you are more than likely countertrend trading (due to trading against the gap) be careful with placing your stop too close because there will likely be whipsaw price action before it moves in your direction. Also, build a tradebook on that type of scenario over time because it will behave differently than a 60 minute breakout in the direction of trend. (One of the precautions I have mentioned)

A lot of times this beep noise is from alert notifications. The notification may be hidden behind a top layer window when it appears, so you don't actually see it when it appears. Thus it just seems like a random beeping noise. Why would the window be coming up at all? Most likely you are hitting Max Loss with the risk controls or you have set up a price alert. Follow these windows and click on the final "Preview" button, odds are that is the noise you are hearing. I have my risk control page completely blocked off as you already know, but there is an option to disable hearing the noise if you stop out. Enjoy!

I have looked into this a little bit. The most common assumption as to why someone would use a specific route is because there could be an increase of execution speed on a trade. However, unless you are trading low volume OTC stocks or something like that, I am not sure that a custom selected route would outpace the SMRTL algorithm provided by IBKR. There is definitely a benefit in regards to share volume though! Here Interactive Brokers has made links to all of the major exchange rates for adding and removing liquidity. If you scroll down to the "US Exchanges" heading and click on the ARCA link for example, it will open up a window that looks like this: If you add liquidity (by placing a limit order that isn't automatically executed) you will be compensated monetarily via rebates from the exchange you are executed on. In this case, if you were trading stocks that are normally traded on BBT, you would be compensated $2 per 1000 shares of liquidity you add on both NASDAQ, NYSE, and AMEX stocks. Here's the one for the AMEX route: As you can see, AMEX will pay an extra $0.40 per thousand shares over what ARCA will pay for adding liquidity. Unfortunately this is one of the easiest comparisons of exchanges of the bunch listed, but you get the idea. DAS has a short manual on how to add a particular route to your montage here. It is worth noting that this was only written in regards to the tiered commission structure, I don't know how being on the fixed commission structure affects it. Let me know what route you ended up choosing for the maximum rebate because I may just change my "Sell on Ask" / "Cover on Bid" hotkeys to it! And could you like my post so my reputation points can stop being 69? Lol. Enjoy!

I have day traded on a laptop for several years, but the only thing I can really speak on is the screen space. In my opinion you might want a little bit bigger screen space than that especially when you are not sure what your strategy is yet. You will likely need at least 3 different time frames on screen, time and sales, account windows, and level 2. Unless you are going to be sitting extremely close to your screen, you may have an issue fitting it all comfortably without something a little bigger. That is my 2 cents.