[stephenNUTS]

Hello Barron,

The FIRST thing I want to say is compared to the other forums I frequent(mostly HSNL & Tournamnet Circuit)...I have been taken back by 95% of the intelligent,courteous,and mature replies/posts...compared to the majority of 15yr school kid/idiot responses over there

BRAVO!

Now back to the question..

What I did mean was that SW and Ren type firms... are GOLIATHS with extremely complex trading algorythms..that are tried...tested re-tried ..tested...fixed...and so on.There sheer success,is in there size.It might sound ambiguous then that why can they tarde 1000's of times a day...and show consistant profits,and a small DT'er cant?

As a former B/D OWNER I made a fortune capitalizing on commissions from individual DT'ers,using high-end software for indiviuals(e.g RealTickPro),it is like running in sand trying to overcome these costs.I was pointing this out to the new smaller guys,with no experience.As I said before 95% went broke ,and the ones that did werent very impressive,after the 2000 NASDAQ debacle and lost everything.Small daytraders for the most part play the momantum game looking to "ride the backs" of the big guys
Money Mangagement/Stop Loss is VITAL...that most never understood.

Another fiasco for DT'ers was when we changed to decimals from fractions.When I started trading making 1/4 pt positive trade was....meh....which was .25 cents,and that was usually a bid/ask break.

Now the spreads are in literal PENNIES...which makes it even harder to make a +trade.When that change occured...the traders lost a HUGE edge.Throw in the new shorting rules,forced liquidation on 4x buying-power down to overnight2x holds,a MINIMUM $25k account balance,pre-market trading ....which is the biggest scam out there with the giant spreads,and virtually ZERO liquidity on non-news realted stocks...are all hurdles the little guys faces

SW,Ren,and a few others are NOT considered daytraders in the true sense of the word IMO for a few reasons:

1.The costs they incur to intra-day trade are MINISCULE due to the sheer volumn vs. the trade spread/strategies gain expectations that are virtually pennies....BUT alot of PENNIES...LOL.

2.Firms like this usually self-clear,eliminating clearing house costs.That is no different than GS,Bear,Lehman,etc

2.They certainly DO break trades (as you said)to their prime/sub brokers to not only disguise their side(short or long),but MOST of these complex trades that are done intra-day are done by CU programs,looking for ANY descrepancy in bids to asks,amonst others,crossed market trades(where the program picks up stock where the ASK,is bigger than the BID),,and instantly sold...are privy to the bigger more powerful programs that can scan THOUSANDS of scenerios a second.

3.The size of these firms can ACTUALLY MOVE a particular stock/market in seconds (esp. in the most illiquid securities forcing a short squeeze for instance))thus amplfying/exaggerating the moves to whatever they desire

I can go on and on....but these type firms ...along with BIG BOYS ,and even some of the giant hedge funds out there,are playing with HUGE money

My point,and I am once again sorry if I mis-led anyone.......was that an individual daytrader churning his or a small house PROP account with little/or max leverage has a slim chance of being profitable over the long run

I am giving my professional opinion to the new guys,and young poker palyers that equate the two

Keep up the GREAT POSTS guys!

Stephen Feraca [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]