Mikael

thanks marco! did you find passing all 3 tests consecutively extremely difficult? (the pass rate seems to indicate that, someone people point out the probability of passing all 3 tests consecutively based on 2012 pass rates was about 9%). any tips for studying? I guess there's no shortcuts you really just have to sit down and review all the material. I did some research and it seems most people study much more than the 250 recommended hours by the CFA institute. did you go to prep classes etc.?

Do any of you guys hold a CFA? I'm thinking of trying to get it. I know it's going to be a very long process but seems the gain in knowledge and new opportunities might be worth it. Would be good to hear from you if you hold a CFA! Thanks PS. Not sure if it would help with trading but it does have some portfolio management in there. So for all you CFA holders, did it help with your trading as well?

yeah, basically i always try to take profit around 15-20% range. i don't wait on Kim's alerts for closing the trade, i just close it when it goes into the 15-20% range.

Hi Kim, i was just wondering how you select the strikes for the strangles. Thanks.

Kim I closed out for 6.1 as well. Regarding the IV spike, it is my understanding this kind of calendar trade will benefit if the stock doesnt move much. If the IV spikes that would indicate a sell off wouldn't it? In that case wouldn't the trade suffer a loss? Granted that is only if the spike corresponds to a change in stock price that would be sufficient to affect the calendar.

Okay here's the update, they called me back. Couple of things that kills them: 1. they don't have a software ready yet which allows you to trade spreads. So right now, if you want to place any spread orders you have to call into the trade desk. That is a huge deal breaker. 2. they have "SMART" routing, but they don't do it like IB, they will not split up the legs of a combo to attempt to get a better fill. Combined with the fact they don't even have a software that let you place spreads... in summary, probably no point of switching over to them. i think questrade is still the best option for registered accounts.

thanks for sharing, i think it's important to tune down expectations. I have a buddy that works in capital markets (actually the derivatives market but credit swaps) for HSBC and he told me many times that the traders that are the most confident in their abilities and those that let's emotions affect their trades lose the most money.

I called VB this morning, they let you keep usd in registered accounts for 50 dollars a year. Considering the commission we will save from questrade I think it's a no brainer. I asked a few questions regarding their routing system and fills and the CSR was clueless. He took down my number and said someone from the trade desk is going to get back to me, so I will update when i hear back from them

yeah i tried them this morning, heavy sigh. I have over 250k in 2 accounts with them and they just said flat out no. let me know how it goes with virtual brokers (i'm worried about their fill speed, people have said optionhouse has horribly slow fills).

I'm not sure if i'm the only Canadian at SO but just in case there are others what broker are you using for your registered account? I'm with Questrade right now and they are charging 6.95 ticket + 75c a contract on options (with the QT advantage package) , but they let you keep USD in your RRSP and TSFA accounts. Have anyone tried negotiating with them on reducing the commission to match IB? I really hate to split up the accounts but seeing how IB is only 70c flat i seem to have no choice.

So basically based on what srf335 said I take it that IB will theoretically have a faster fill than TOS since they proactively move your orders to exchanges that have higher probability of filling your orders. Combined with the lower commissions IB seems like a no brainer for me over TOS

okay, just to clarify. if we trade straddles, strangles, iron condors or whatever option strategy that is a combo (meaning more than just a single put or call) then they don't charge any fees if you 1) cancel the order outright 2) change the limit value on the order thanks for the answer, because i'm thinking of changing to IB for options.

marco just a quick question, doesn't IB charge for changing orders? so if you keep on switching orders for 1c... don't the cancellation fees add up?

I did this trade on a Canadian broker - Questrade. I'm planning on switching over to IB because the commission is alot lower. However, somebody told me if you want your order to be filled it's better to put it as DAY instead of GTC because brokers take DAY order over GTC orders to fill since they will be cancelled by the end of the day, so they potentially can lose out on commission if you don't place the order again. not sure how true that is but does make sense logically. as a side note i was also following this trade on ToS paper trading and that got filled too. but then again it's paper trading LOL.

Not sure if you guys looked into this yet, but i came across an interesting article on SA. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1040231-black-swan-insurance-that-might-pay-off-even-if-there-is-no-crash

thanks!

thanks. also on an unrelated note, what do you mean when you say "futures are up/down/flat" in your daily updates? Are you looking at S&P500 or COBE futures? How does this tie in with our trading or portfolio management?

good thing i sold my positions around 680. laughing at the crash now when people are still writing about how cheap AAPL is from a P/E, ROE standpoint etc. hey Kim what program did you use to make the P/L graph in your seekingalpha article here? http://seekingalpha.com/article/443011-apple-s-implied-volatility-what-does-it-tell-us

Hey Chris i sent you a PM, Cheers

Hi Chris, Kim mentioned in the first post those with larger portfolios could consider transferring some to your hedge fund. Can you let me know a ball park figure that would make sense? Also do you have data for your fund like MER and historical returns etc.? Cheers,

Hey guys, I know this community is about trading options but just wondering if you guys also have longer term investments? I'm holding mostly dividendend paying ETFs, REITs, and Stocks. Maybe we can exchange some ideas on those if anyone's interested. For ex. Gold dropped like a rock, what do you guys think about picking some up? Cheers,

okay good to know. i thought it didn't make much sense to have constantly 30-40% of the portfolio sitting as cash. but i guess it would be wise to have a bit more liquidity around earning seasons.

Good to know. I stil haven't figured out IBs trader station yet haha. I was just using the super simple web based platform with ITrade before haha.

Hey, do you guys have a settings file you'd share for the IB Traderwork station? I still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the program since i just got it. Also are you guys subscribing to any market data from IB? I didn't choose anything yet since google finance offers live quotes anyway. Not sure if any of the other stuff is valuable Cheers,

I went over some of the basics and it seems SO never have more than 6 trades open. Essentially 40% of the portfolio is pretty much free. Can i allocate the 40% to ETFs instead of having it as cash? Will that affect my margin or purchasing power? I'm with IB right now. Are you guys keeping it as cash or do you hold some other investments? Also, is there any program or website that would chart out the P/L of a trade and show some basic stats like probability of touching etc.? Thanks!