Any stock traders in here ? (Page 2)

Isn't it the case that institutional investors pay for live market information whereas the free information available to most people is at least 15 minutes delayed?

Not so I get free streaming quotes with my brokerage account.

That's interesting - although to be fair, I don't know what I'd do with information if I could get it any quicker anyway!  I guess it's more useful for the algorithmic trading world.

I think you mean black box trading world. 

Meulen - 2012-11-29 10:23 AM I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but just had to say.  About the time this thread came up my wife started her own business, with my help of course.  But between the two of them it really got me thinking about what I want to do.  I'm trader now for an asset management company.  I make money for other people, and pention funds, large institutions, etc.  But I'd like to do this on my own for myself some day.  I've got lots of restrictions at work for personal trading.  But I've been finding a way to trade quite a bit with options and stocks within the rules.  So far it's been pretty good, but man...........my accountant is going to kill me at tax time!!! lol

lol, I own a business but I still have aspirations to just sit at home and trade all day.

I have been tweaking a new options system that's been absolutely rocking so far this year.  I just started it in August and I'm up over 100% in 3 months from Aug-Oct.

I've been doing short term diagonal spreads on QQQ using the weekly options.  Buy Month out 5 strikes into the money and sell weekly 7 days out ATM and roll it to the next week each week.  With the market not swinging too wild before the election I was making bank, between 10%-15% per week.  I bailed the week before the election and am waiting for the fiscal cliff stuff to smooth over because the most profitable market is a flat one with this system. 

tuwood - 2012-11-29 10:35 AM

Meulen - 2012-11-29 10:23 AM I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but just had to say.  About the time this thread came up my wife started her own business, with my help of course.  But between the two of them it really got me thinking about what I want to do.  I'm trader now for an asset management company.  I make money for other people, and pention funds, large institutions, etc.  But I'd like to do this on my own for myself some day.  I've got lots of restrictions at work for personal trading.  But I've been finding a way to trade quite a bit with options and stocks within the rules.  So far it's been pretty good, but man...........my accountant is going to kill me at tax time!!! lol

lol, I own a business but I still have aspirations to just sit at home and trade all day.

I have been tweaking a new options system that's been absolutely rocking so far this year.  I just started it in August and I'm up over 100% in 3 months from Aug-Oct.

I've been doing short term diagonal spreads on QQQ using the weekly options.  Buy Month out 5 strikes into the money and sell weekly 7 days out ATM and roll it to the next week each week.  With the market not swinging too wild before the election I was making bank, between 10%-15% per week.  I bailed the week before the election and am waiting for the fiscal cliff stuff to smooth over because the most profitable market is a flat one with this system. 

I've been looking at some leap call options for oil/energy stocks .  With the recent low volitility and the oil pullback, they just look cheap to me.  I also went long calls IYR's .  Some OTM options are trading for penies and I think a slow drift upward into Jan would put you ITM.  Withe the fiscal cliff looming they are cheap and there is little risk in the trade.  I'm really doing well with a model I developed working at a hedge fund to predict companies that will beat/miss earnings estimates.  I'm putting 2mo out call/put spreads on those to comply with rules here.  Fun stuff!

Oh....Tuwood,

I'm also playing the Knight Capital deal.  There's 2 offers on the table for that Co.  $3 cash and $3.5 cash and stock.  Jan 3.5 Puts were selling for .35.  I dumped some short and captured some premium.  Little risk with a $3 cash bid on the table.  I'm also long stk and will benefit from the buyout anyway.

Meulen - 2012-11-29 10:49 AM

tuwood - 2012-11-29 10:35 AM

Meulen - 2012-11-29 10:23 AM I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but just had to say.  About the time this thread came up my wife started her own business, with my help of course.  But between the two of them it really got me thinking about what I want to do.  I'm trader now for an asset management company.  I make money for other people, and pention funds, large institutions, etc.  But I'd like to do this on my own for myself some day.  I've got lots of restrictions at work for personal trading.  But I've been finding a way to trade quite a bit with options and stocks within the rules.  So far it's been pretty good, but man...........my accountant is going to kill me at tax time!!! lol

lol, I own a business but I still have aspirations to just sit at home and trade all day.

I have been tweaking a new options system that's been absolutely rocking so far this year.  I just started it in August and I'm up over 100% in 3 months from Aug-Oct.

I've been doing short term diagonal spreads on QQQ using the weekly options.  Buy Month out 5 strikes into the money and sell weekly 7 days out ATM and roll it to the next week each week.  With the market not swinging too wild before the election I was making bank, between 10%-15% per week.  I bailed the week before the election and am waiting for the fiscal cliff stuff to smooth over because the most profitable market is a flat one with this system. 

 

I've been looking at some leap call options for oil/energy stocks .  With the recent low volitility and the oil pullback, they just look cheap to me.  I also went long calls on some Reit stocks.  Some OTM options are trading for penies and I think a slow drift upward into Jan would put you ITM.  Withe the fiscal cliff looming they are cheap and there is little risk in the trade.  I'm really doing well with a model I developed working at a hedge fund to predict companies that will beat/miss earnings estimates.  I'm putting 2mo out call/put spreads on those to comply with rules here.  Fun stuff!

Yeah, options are a lot of fun.  I mostly stick to QQQ just because it doesn't have huge weekly swings typically and stick to relatively neutral strategies. (plus I don't have the time to properly research others).  I used to do Calendar spreads years ago, but it was  tough to get consistent returns due to market volatility.  With the weeklies though it's a lot easier because I only have to forecast out 7 days.  I use the 90 day SMA to make a bearish/bullish bias for the month and either put on a call diagonal or a put diagonal depending on the bias.  I can make great returns in a flat, up, or down market as long as it's somewhat consistent.

I'll keep an eye on it.  Good luck.

Meulen - 2012-11-29 9:23 AM I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but just had to say.  About the time this thread came up my wife started her own business, with my help of course.  But between the two of them it really got me thinking about what I want to do.  I'm trader now for an asset management company.  I make money for other people, and pention funds, large institutions, etc.  But I'd like to do this on my own for myself some day.  I've got lots of restrictions at work for personal trading.  But I've been finding a way to trade quite a bit with options and stocks within the rules.  So far it's been pretty good, but man...........my accountant is going to kill me at tax time!!! lol

yeah, your accounting is just going to bill you for his/her time calculating your gains/losses for the year.  I don't work in the financial industry but I hope to retire and make a living trading.  I do ok and feel I could do better if I had time to commit to it.  Right now I don't have the confidence to take that risk.  I just recently completed an options application with my on-line broker.  I want to try trading options sometime after the first of the year and I am educating myself currently.  Anyway, I am sure you have much more knowledge than the average investor.  Seems if you are making money for others you should turn that energy towards making more money for yourself.

rayd - 2012-11-29 12:52 PM

Meulen - 2012-11-29 9:23 AM I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but just had to say.  About the time this thread came up my wife started her own business, with my help of course.  But between the two of them it really got me thinking about what I want to do.  I'm trader now for an asset management company.  I make money for other people, and pention funds, large institutions, etc.  But I'd like to do this on my own for myself some day.  I've got lots of restrictions at work for personal trading.  But I've been finding a way to trade quite a bit with options and stocks within the rules.  So far it's been pretty good, but man...........my accountant is going to kill me at tax time!!! lol

yeah, your accounting is just going to bill you for his/her time calculating your gains/losses for the year.  I don't work in the financial industry but I hope to retire and make a living trading.  I do ok and feel I could do better if I had time to commit to it.  Right now I don't have the confidence to take that risk.  I just recently completed an options application with my on-line broker.  I want to try trading options sometime after the first of the year and I am educating myself currently.  Anyway, I am sure you have much more knowledge than the average investor.  Seems if you are making money for others you should turn that energy towards making more money for yourself.

I strongly recommend using a virtual trading account for a while on options before you risk real $.  I didn't do that and lost a lot of $ about 8 years ago.

Your comment on the accountant reminded me of a funny story I have from 5 years ago.  I was swing trading options and doing a lot of spread trading for the year.  I ended up netting a loss of a few hundred dollars on the year but I didn't want to go through the hassle/expense of putting it all on my taxes to deduct the loss.  Well, about 6 months later I get a letter from the IRS stating that I owed $250,000 in taxes to the government and they cited all of my gains on my hundreds of option trades during the year.  Apparently they weren't aware of the loss side of the equation which is why I was supposed to put it on my tax return.  oops.

Fortunately I was able to email them the downloadable tax form from my online broker and they called it good, so ultimately I didn't have to do the actual tax return portion or hire an accountant.