Xfanman

In IB these won't populate until the market opens.

I use a simple spreadsheet to track these trades that calculates the profit and loss of each trade with and without commissions and I add notes about how the trade performed on each entry (it's similar in layout to Kim's performance page). I keep a copy of this in Dropbox so I can access it from work, home or iPad since I don't want to worry about syncing different documents depending on where I am physically when I want to update it. It's still a work in progress but you are welcome to use and or modify it if you wish. I'd be curious to see what some other users have come up with and would be willing to share with the SO community also. I'm not sure how you'd build in a risk profile to a tracking spreadsheet but if someone here can do it I'm all ears ( or eyes)! Let me know if you'd like a copy and I can e-mail it to you. You can't post spreadsheets on SO (or at least I haven't been able to).

Chris I forgot to chime in after Kim announced you were "officially" writing a column for SO. I've followed your posts and I've been learning much from them, I look forward to your posts in your new column and hope to continue to learn from your trading insight and experience! Well deserved!

Yes, their Xspread is what I've been using on these virtual trades and its allowed me to make all the trades you were having issues with. I don't trade with OX, I had just set up an account to look at them some months ago so I was trying to help you out I use IB and OptionsHouse to trade with currently.

Well I just looked at the "Trade" I did to close this position and I had opened up the identical position. I then STC the 5 - 12 Calls and BTC the 10 - 14 Calls and it closed my position with one order. So it does appear it can be done. My guess is you didn't open it correctly? Are you using their Xspread function?

I placed this order as a Spread on my OX Virtual Account and it shows it as a 10/5 Call Spread which I can close as one order. How are you entering these?

I have to say that although I hate losses as much as anyone, they are part of investing and trying to make money. Kim, you do a stellar job being as transparent as you are and I really appreciate the candor you display in managing SO and that you display in your posts. I think it's a good idea to explore other investment strategies as you have already mentioned and have started to do and the addition of other columnists is a welcomed addition also. The fact that you quickly implement member feedback and changes when warranted and are concerned with "our" profitability as much or more than yours is apparent. Thanks again for all you do and I'm proud to be an SO member.

I find that the BEST strategy (let me know if you figure out how to do that though will ya?)

Kelly as long as you have more than 25K in your account it doesn't matter that you're classified as a Pattern Day Trader. "If" your account dips below 25K however you're back in the same boat you were a few weeks ago. AND I should add that because you were already marked as a PDT, they may require you to reset and/or add funds regardless of your recent trading history if you dip below 25k since you've already been marked a PDT even if you haven't "Day traded" for some time.

Marco this one gets "Liked". Thanks for the post!

As Kim said it's not IB but it sounds like you've exceeded the allowed 3 day trades in a 5 rolling trading day cycle (opening and closing just 1 Iron Condor would put you outside the rule since it would count as 4 trades). You can avoid this by having more than $25,000 in your account, or open several smaller accounts that you can trade out of without hitting the PDT cap. If you in fact exceeded the rule, you'll have to contact IB to get your account reset and/or add additional funds.

Have you made more than 3 day trades (opened and closed a position on the same day) in the past 5 trading days?

Thanks Marco, it's easy to forget about the data demands when you're sitting there staring at a screen. Would be nice though!

I wonder why you can chart IV on a stock chart but you can't put it on a Combo or Options Chart? Seems counter intuitive to me. Am I missing something in the settings perhaps?

That would be correct, they count each leg as a separate trade as far as the PDT rule is concerned. One IC purchase and sale in the same day would put you in violation of the PDT rule if your account is less than 25K

Does this help? Position and P&L - shows your profit and loss for the current day. You can elect to show New Position P&L which is only for transactions executed today, or Daily P&L, which includes all open positions plus the New Position P&L. To set the P&L calculation, right-click the field name and <a name="kanchor2674">select Configure Position and P&L Column. To display New Position P&L, uncheck the box to Include today's opening position in P&L calculation. The field heading will display P&L (N) to indicate it's for new positions only. New Position P&L calculation: (current price - purchase price) x (number of outstanding shares purchased today). To display Daily P&L, check the box to Include today's opening position in P&L calculation. The field label will read Position and P&L. Daily P&L calculation: (current price - prior day's closing price) x (total number of outstanding shares) + (New Position calculation for all new positions). Unrealized P&L - the difference between the current market value and the average price of your position. Realized P&L - shows your profit or loss on closed positions, which is the difference between your entry execution cost (execution price + commissions to open the position) and exit execution cost (execution price + commissions to close the position).

http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/123

Hmm I never thought of accessing my desktop via my iPad for trading. I use Splashtop to access my desktop which works "ok" but actually making selections on screens is tricky, especially windows with drop downs. Maybe Crazyremote works differently I'll have to check it out.

It sounds to me like an iPad 3 with LTE/4G (or whatever the European equivalent is) would be your best bet. It's more discreet than a laptop, has a larger platform than an iPhone and has it's own connectivity built in bypassing your companies network, plus you could say you use it for iTunes to listen to music as a cover if even that would be an issue. Before I made an investment in either a iPhone or iPad though I'd see if someone you know has one and download Mobile TWS and try it out, you can use their Demo mode (or your own account if you want) to run it through it's paces and see if it's suitable for what you want to do.

IB has a Windows version of their TWS software as well as Apple version. You can download it off their main page here --> http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/control/systemstandalone.php?os=win&ib_entity=llc If you're seriously looking at trading off an iPhone, look at the iPad too with LTE or 4G coverage, there's a lot more screen room and the faster connection is nice too unless you're always on WiFi.

Is this a work computer? Can you not install the desktop version of TWS, it works well even with slower network connections if you're able to do it. I've used the iPad and iPhone version of their Apps ( but not the Android) and you can trade combos on them both just fine. The only issue I've found is that you don't see the value of your trade before you commit to it. This caused me to buy 10x more contracts then I intended once ( but it turned out well) so you need to be cautious.

The AMZN spreads I tracked are around Breakeven for the $10 Spread and losing about 19% after commissions on the $5 at the moment. The GOOG spread however is up 64% after commissions on the $5 Spread and up 19% AC on the $10 if anyone's curious (I'm calculating commissions at .75 per contract).

Thanks for the update Chris. I wasn't too excited either as I monitored GOOG and AMZN. I'll be curious to hear your analysis when you have time. If you need help with anything this week let me know, IB makes it very easy to chart combos without having to watch it every second. Thanks -- Scott

Chris I somehow messed up the Opening Bids on the very top. Corrected version coming to you now. The data itself was correct however for the 9:30 timeframe. Thanks -- Scott

Chris, my data is in your PM inbox. I tried to attach it as an Excel spreadsheet but the forum has those blocked apparently. I sent it as a PDF but if you want it in a different format just let me know or shoot me your e-mail address. Thanks for compiling all this for us....Scott