trades alerts executing trades via alerts

[branch]

Happy to join this cool forum!   I’m fairly new to options.  My account is with Interactive Brokers, and I've played around with their options trading interface on their main portal (account portal).

Do I need to subscribe to their trading platform, or can I use the simpler interface?

I’m also trying to sort out in my head two parts of the SteadyOptions experience:

1. the strong advice here to get involved in my trading and monitor my positions throughout the day, and
2. the published historical performance data, which I understand is a reflection of all of the past trade notifications. 

If I were to try to strictly abide by the trade notifications when they arrive in my inbox, am I correct that the challenge in “duplicating” the trade notifications has to do with possible glitches (partial fills, price movement, other execution issues) which require my attention?  Or is there more to this?

And once a trade is filled, do I still need to monitor it closely?  I’ve got a pretty busy life and there will be times when I can’t monitor my email, or my trades.

Thanks

Branch 

[Kim]

IB trading platform is free, but you might need to pay few dollars to get live quotes.

As for SO, as I always mention, the best way to use SteadyOptions is to learn the strategies and make them your own. If you do that, you will be able to take full advantage of our service. You will be able to make your own decisions, based on our discussions.

I highly recommend following the discussion topics to see how other members utilize the service. Yes, you need to monitor the trades after entering, otherwise you might end up holding though earnings with potentially big losses. It doesn't mean that you need to be glued to your screen all the time, but we recommend to set closing orders at levels that you comfortable with, and be aware when the trades need to be closed.

I recommend reading My Seven Stages of being an SO Member to get a better understanding of how veteran members are using the service.