options (finance)

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

"Firm I trade with gives me 10:1 margin, hence the 250k room to maneuver that I have. It's a pretty good deal, especially since it's free unless I keep it overnight."

can you give more details on your relationship to the firm?

[Kneel B4 Zod]

kirk,

how did you learn to trade? just from the books you listed?

[APXG]

Kirk,

How old are you?

As of now, do you plan to trade for the rest of your life if you are successful, or is it a bridge to some bigger (perhaps more enjoyable in other ways) professional goal?

[poker1O1]

[ QUOTE ]
"Firm I trade with gives me 10:1 margin, hence the 250k room to maneuver that I have. It's a pretty good deal, especially since it's free unless I keep it overnight."

can you give more details on your relationship to the firm?

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how did you learn to trade? just from the books you listed?

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at the site you mentioned,www.tradingacademy.com , I learned a lot. Now, you said you work at home, so how are you able to have access to the level II data? thanks in advance.

[poker1O1]

recommendations for direct access broker? tradestation seems good for a beginner, no?

[pig4bill]

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My uncle who is a venture cap guy suggested to me that I may want to consider trading options as a career. He said that the earning potential is incredible and that because I'd never be the work-for-the-man type

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One idea might be to do lots of research, learning, and work on my own, create and manage either a real or imaginary portfolio, do well (hopefully), show results along with poker/chess results to some young star option traders, get taken aboard, profit.

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Two contradictory statements. You don't want a job, yet you want to impress someone enough to hire you. Most options trading jobs are probably going to be high stress. IMO if you can trade well enough to get hired, you might as well just trade your own account and be your own boss.

[Kirkrrr]

KKF,

Sure, just not on a public forum. There's nothing complicated about it, though.

Kneel,
Books helped a ton, of course, but I got a major jumpstart when I went to OTA, as I mentioned before. I also browse the trading forum www.elitetrader.com, as I also already mentioned.

APXG,
I'm 25 so I got nothing but time, baby!! Ultimate goal would be to run my own hedge fund, just like everyone else... but it would fulfill my desire to stay in the trading game, interact with other intelligent human beings on daily basis and bring some sort of value to society, although one could obv argue that making the rich richer adds only so much value... but it's better than nothing.

Kirk

[pig4bill]

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i run a derivatives desk at a hedge fund...if people care, i can answer specific questions...

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How does your fund use options? Just to hedge off stock positions in the port or do they trade the options outright?

How much of the fund's total return is expected to be earned by the derivatives desk?

Do you take positions and just use the options for greater leverage? Or do you buy and sell volatility?

[pig4bill]

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recommendations for direct access broker? tradestation seems good for a beginner, no?

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Good for a pro too. They also have an options-specific platform called, you guessed it, OptionStation.

[The once and future king]

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The DOW bottomed out in October '02 and has been on the rise ever since, granted. The thing most people forgot to pay attention to is that the dollar has lost over 30% of its value since the high in January '00. Adjusted for actual dollar value right now, we're about 18% off its peak back in '00 which would put us square in bear market territory.

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This is such bollox. You are arguing that a market that has trended upwards every year for 5 years was in fact a bear market because of the currency the market trades in? Get out.

Anyway that is irrelevant. My point was that for the past 5 years the market has been benign for day trading, it has been very predictable, so predictable that then need for selective bias is all most unnecessary to show a profit and a blind monkey throwing darts at a board could do it. (Where is this dealt with in this tread, swerved more like.)

Obviously a blind monkey is less likely to make as much profit as someone with good selection bias but they would show a profit non the less.

Yes markets drop twice as fast as when they rise. But when those drastic drops occur historically they have allways caught the market by surprise, a few market players made some big bucks but the vast majority got burnt. You miss the pertinent fact about Bear markets, they are much more unpredictable than Bull markets, it is not the down trend that clears out investors, it is the unpredictability.

Due to this unpredictability, even shorting in a bear market is more difficult than a bull market. In a bull market, the shorts stand out against the calls in clear distinction, in a bear market calls and puts are much harder to identify, everything seems alot more random, and special knowledge becomes much more valuable and indeed is a virtually a requirement to successful trading.

Day traders are so out and behind of the information loop that it becomes very difficult for them to show profits in a bear market. This has been borne out many times and if you dispute the above point you are merely deluding your self.

This is a total guesstimate admittedly but I would guess that for every 1000 would be self taught day traders 1 in 1000 has the intelligence, knowledge and skills to succeed in a true bear market.

The true problem with day trading is that it is such a limited investment philosophy it is dooms most to ultimate failure.

As I said before, day traders were two a penny not that long ago, what happened to them, you dont answer that question do you, too uncomfortable? They got cleared out by a bear market. Ultimately this has to do with massive theoretical weaknesses in the day trading investment philosophy.

1: It is restricted by time
2: It is restricted by asset class
3: It does not have access to the commodity that above restrictions demand for long term success: information.

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If you understand that much, how can you be so thoroughly ignorant of the rest of what I just said?

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Because I am not ignorant. Physician heal thy self.