Xfanman

Thanks Ken I just downloaded it. For Free..how bad can it be??

I agree Kim, they can nuke PSE right off the planet for all I care (of course then my fills will go to hell and I'll be complaining about that next)! I do trade straight options too though and have had to pay these fees occasionally. I'm just happy to see them being responsive to customer input (seemingly) and addressing a major gripe that people have about their service. Now if I could get some charting enhancements put through I'll REALLY be a happy camper!

Well some good news, if you're an IB user ( or you're not but thinking about it) and you haven't checked your mail tonight, IB says they are lowering fees for Option Modifications/Cancellation as a test with potential elimination down the road. Two big thumbs up!!

Some interesting comments on Options for this weeks events when the markets reopen--> http://www.traderpla...market-reopens/

Bill, what would be your purpose in rolling, to extend the position if it's not going favorably or to see if you can make more money out of a profitable position? Also, are you in a straight directional position or a spread of some kind? Not sure I can help you but this may help others answer your questions. Thanks -- Scott (#2)

This sounds encouraging Chris, I know we all appreciate yours and the other testers efforts!

I just got my charting back in IB..hopefully they figured it out for good this time.

I'm away from my office today so I don't know if its a service issue but yesterday I was having the identical problem until I closed and restarted TWS.

If you chart with lines you'll just get 2 lines one each representing the bid and ask. If you hover over an individual candle you'll get the time average for the Bid and Time average for the Ask for the 3 minutes (or whatever timeframe you selected) as the body of the bar with the candle wicks being the high Bid and Ask on either end. If that's the same during your timeframe you have a solid candle. Look at ACN on the 2hour/3 minute straddle today. The opening candle goes from a max ask of 10.00 to a min bid of 1.85 at open but the body (average) only represents $2.77 - $2.35, after the first candle it normalizes.

Here's my IB Mosaic Desktop if it helps anyone else. I'd still like to see other peoples setups that they find functional for them. This is my option trading setup. My Options Trader window is in the lower left corner. A double click and it's full sized. I set up all my trades ahead of time by tab and keep the tabs active until the trade closes. Since IB doesn't keep the combo's if the platform is closed and reopened I find this the best way to quickly access the combos before and after an order is placed. Above that I have an Options Chain window to quickly view options info and the type of directional trades I usually make. I have 3 large graph windows open that I change content on regularly depending on what's on the table that day. The first one in this example is the LEN Strangle I have on at the moment and usually SPY and whatever else I'm watching that day. The Mosaic window itself is pretty self explanatory, I use the built in chart window to track other spreads usually and then my portfolio, orders etc. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28661345/Scotts%20Mosaic%20Desktop.png

Well that's the important thing!

Kelly, right next to your Account Number in the upper right hand corner is a drop down arrow. Click on that and there's a 3 Cube icon that says Group Windows. You can select a group color and group that to a chart (with the same group color) that you want to display your Options Combos too. Also, you can always just right click on the combo (they are listed in the Pending Orders tab if you have a sell order in)and select Charts/New Chart, as CWERDNA mentioned). I use Mosaic mostly but that should work in TWS also. I should also mention that anytime you click on a symbol or spread etc in the grouped window/chart combination that chart will be updated with the stock/option/spread that you clicked on. You can control all sorts of different combinations with the Group Window scheme. This is probably more functional in Mosaic but I can see how TWS would benefit also.

Kelly, if you have a chart grouped to your Order Window you can simply chart from your sell LMT order it will chart the combo. I use the 2hr bar chart time frame on the last day to see the activity. Do you use Mosaic or TWS?

For those of you researching new brokers and/or thinking about switching over to IB (or perhaps just did and you're still learning their platform), IB just released an updated version of their TWS Tours app for the iPad that includes a nice section on Mosaic. I just watched the TWS and Mosaic "tours" and they were very helpful pointing out a couple of customization tips that I hadn't seen yet (TWS is SUPER customizable for those of you that want to pull all the levers behind the curtain). If you have an iOS devise and want to check them out, you can find a link to these here --> http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=tradersu&p=tours and their web based tours here (which I did not find as helpful as the app versions but maybe they've updated them since I last viewed them)--> http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=tradersu&p=tours Enjoy!

Thanks I'll try that trick next time!

Yes that was it Kim, I cancelled that and added to my ORCL and reset my sell order. Thanks much....Scott

I know someone mentioned this already somewhere but I can't find it, is there any way to ADD to an existing position on IB? I keep getting a warning message that I can't be on opposite sides of a position (which I'm not). Thanks -- Scott

My guess is that you've already been marked as a PDT in that account but since you do have more than 25k it isn't a problem. On OH the same thing would happen, I'd get random messages about trade frequency (often inaccurate) but I had enough assets to meet the requirements. As soon as I dipped below 25k when I transferred money out they were all over me even before I made any further trades. Of course you may be correct and they aren't counting it the same, but unless you're below the 25 k minimum it's just speculation on both our parts ;^)

I just checked my last couple of days of trades and I was filled on PSE on part of FDX and all of GLD for .46 per contract on GLD and .38 on FDX. I'd noticed them being higher overall too I'd thought but recently - go figure! I don't track the exchanges on my trade journal so I'll have to pull up a trade report on IB to look further back.

Glad it was useful for someone Thaze

Ok here's a link to my spreadsheet that I track my trades on. I've left a little real data in there just so you can get a feel for it but obviously just clear it out for your own use. You can keep a running tally for the year or use a tab/month and keep a separate tabbed page to summarize your total trade performance, graphs etc. I haven't set up my reports in IB to be very user friendly yet but I intend to do that in the next weekend or two since it's sometimes hard to read across their reporting and add up things like commissions and leg pricing. It's much easier to input this as your trades are made (at least in IB it is). If you find it useful, great, if not I won't be offended if you don't use it If you are an Excel wiz and make changes others might find useful please post your changes so we can all benefit. Here ya go --> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28661345/SO%20Trade%20Tracking%20Spreadsheet.xlsx

Well answering my own question after reviewing the actual release day price history it doesn't look like that promising of a strategy if it's going to take a large positive move to be profitable because the historical day of moves don't look that significant unless the intraday swings are much larger than the end of day numbers?

Chris at Epsilon has proposed a back spread similar to the VXX play. Looks like I can get it for a credit at the moment on the 680 sell and 690 buy. Thoughts?

I'll post a link in a bit and let you know when it's up.

Awesome idea thanks Marco.