Hany

Thank you so much @frank the tank and @rasar for responding to my questions! You guys are awesome! I've been a member of SO for many years, but I've participated in only a few trades during this time. SO has been an enormous learning experience, and trading has been more of a hobby and a curiosity than a way to make money. Last year was the first year I made any real money. This wash sale thing is ridiculous. I've been doing more reading about it. Am I correct in assuming that if I make no trades in the month of December (31 days), I won't generate any disallowed wash sales for the year? I've scheduled a meeting with my accountant tomorrow, so I'll ask him this question. If this problem with wash sales continues, I might invest in software like TradeLog to keep track of these trades. Thanks again!

I found the documents! Thank you so much, @rasar! I really appreciate your help. However, this raises another concern. How can I have a wash sale if I closed all positions by the end of the year? It doesn't seem right that I should pay taxes on gains I did not make. Is it possible that TD Ameritrade made a mistake?

Can someone help me with a few tax questions? I'm using TOS, and according my 1099 form, my profit for 2018 is about 15% higher than my actual profit for the year (based on my personal records). I assumed my accountant made a mistake and forgot to subtract my commissions from my profit. If the commissions are subtracted from the net gain reported on my 1099 form, then this value would match my personal records. I called TOS today, and they said that my commissions and fees are included in my cost basis for each trade. So something is not right. Could wash sales be the reason why my reported net gain is greater than my actual net gain? Can someone explain how I can find out how much of my P/L is a result of wash sales? Thank you in advance!

Dear IB folks. I re-opened my account with IB after several years. I've been using TOS instead, and I've gotten used to the platform in TOS. The main issue with IB is that I can't see which contracts are working by looking at the options chain. In TOS, there is a little icon that says "buy" or "sell" next to the contract in the options chain. For those of you have have many trades working, how do you keep track of which strikes in the chain have trades working (not filled)? I would appreciate any help.

Thank you @aamaot and @luxmon for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate your help. I was able to create text message notifications in tradehawk. This is super helpful.

I like basic. Basic is good, but I will need some sort of trade alert or notification on my phone because I can’t sit in front of my computer all day. Without the notifications, I may not be able to use Tradier. Does anyone know whether tradehawk is rolling out a mobile app anytime soon?

Is anyone using Rho to manage trades opened in Tradehawk? If so, how do you like it? Does it give you alerts when trades are filled? Thanks.

Hey guys. Here is how I see things, and please correct me if I am wrong. 1. Tradier is a broker and TradeHawk is a platform that has orders processed through Tradier. 2. TradeHawk normally charges $159 per month for unlimited stock and options trades. 3. As an SteadyOptions member, the $159 per month is reduced to $119 per month. 4. This $119 per month fee is waived if more than 3000 contracts are traded in that month. 5. With the $119 per month rate, trading is entirely free if 3000 contracts are traded per month except for exchange and regulatory fees that are approximately $0.09 per contract. 6. With the $119 per month rate, Tradier's pricing is not applicable (https://brokerage.tradier.com/pricing). In other words, Tradier will not charge $0.35 per options contract. 7. Anyone who opens a new account now with Tradier will be able to trade in the month of February 2019 for free. 8. Alternatively, a SteadyOptions member can get unlimited options trades (but not stock trades) for a rate of $109 per month in TradeHawk, but that fee is not waived if a certain number of contracts are traded per month. 9. On top of the $119 (or $109) per month rate, a SteadyOptions member can sign up for CreatingAlpha for an additional $57 per month if that member signs on before February 1. Rates go up after February 1. 10. Finally, if a user of Tradier/TradeHawk wants a mobile app, one called Rho is available for an Apple device for an additional $40 per month. Are all of these statements correct? If not, can someone please clarify? Thank you!

Ahh yes, Christmas. I forgot about that pesky holiday. Market closure also explains why the Dec 28, Jan 4 spread is more expensive than spreads that expire at later dates -- because the short contract has fewer trading days than the long contract. Your answers make a lot sense and I should have figured this out for myself. Thank you!

Hi all. I’ve noticed a strange and persistent price discrepancy in the price of a specific calendar spread in AMZN. Please take a look at the current prices below for the 1700 put calendar spreads. The distance between the short and long contract for each calendar spreads is seven days. Short Nov 30 1700 Put Long Dec 7 1700 Put Price: 19.60 Short Dec 7 1700 Put Long Dec 14 1700 Put Price: 10.20 Short Dec 14 1700 Put Long Dec 21 1700 Put Price: 7.68 Short Dec 21 1700 Put Long Dec 28 1700 Put Price: 4.18 Short Dec 28 1700 Put Long Jan 4 1700 Put Price: 6.53 Short Jan 4 1700 Put Long Jan 11 1700 Put Price: 6.28 Short Jan 11 1700 Put Long Jan 18 1700 Put Price: 6.43 The discrepancy is the price of 4.18 for the Dec 21 Dec 28 calendar. This spread is much cheaper than all of the other spreads. Shouldn’t the price of the calendar increase as expiration date approaches? If so, why is this spread much cheaper than longer dated spreads? The discrepancy above is not limited to just the 1700 strikes. It extends across all strike prices and for call calendars as well. Also, I have observed this trend for a couple of weeks now. Is this normal? Does anyone have experience with this? Can we take advantage of such discrepancies? Thank you in advance.

How about TOS? Does anyone know if they charge cancellation fees?

Hey Deron. I use both TOS and the mosaic interface in IB. The mosaic interface in IB is much more user friendly (in my opinion) than both TOS and IB's traditional platform. Are you using mosaic?

Hi Jr. Thanks for comments. I think a day trade with an Iron Condor would be a really good trade on expiration day (instead of calendar two days out). What do you think? What other symbols other than GLD show pinning behavior? Before they had a price split, AAPL and GOOG used to pin regularly at expiration.

Hi guys. Thank you so much for all the feedback. I did some reading on the web, and apparently the IB interface requires Java, which can't be installed on chromebooks. So a chromebook cannot be used for trading. Maxtodorov, let me know know how the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 works out for you. Since it has a microsoft operating system, it should be okay.

Hi all, I'm thinking of getting a chromebook for trading, but I'm not sure it can run the Mosaic interface from Interactive Brokers. I tried speaking to someone at IB's customer support about this, but he wasn't helpful. Has anyone tried using a chromebook? Can it load the Mosaic interface from Interactive Brokers? Any feedback and comments would be really appreciated. Thanks! Hany

I got this message from IB a few minutes ago: Dear IB Trader, Due to the ARCA/AMEX execution issues from this morning, it has been indicated that your account was affected by this Exchange issue and the trades deemed erroneous by the Exchanges will be cancelled out of the account. Exchange information is currently being processed and is expected to be reflected in the affected accounts some time after 10:00pm ET. Until that time, we will likely not have specific information regarding the trades that are being cancelled in each account, but we ask that the account be monitored carefully after that time. Feel free to contact us if any clarification is required regarding this incident. Regards, Interactive Brokers Customer Service

Has anyone heard anything yet?

Thanks for the messages, Bret. I'm on hold right now. Did they tell you when they will credit our accounts?

oops, I thought he said calendar, not straddle. sorry.

Chuck, On the last earnings date (Dec 2), KKD dropped 16% in after hours trading after reporting earnings, and it closed down 20% at the end of the day. This is a huge move and larger than the 12.5% implied move. Was this really profitable? Can you tell us more about the trade? Kim, Why do you think this looks good?

Hey guys, Can someone please explain how you can spot unusual activity such as the $1M spent on calls on AZO that jr1221 mentions above? Did he just look at the volume on that day, or is there a phone app or website that reports this info? Also, how does he know the contracts were bought instead of sold (or both in a calendar spread)?

Hey guys, Has anyone seen the following article: http://www.minyanville.com/business-news/markets/articles/Stock-Market-Is-Trending-Perfectly-With/10/21/2013/id/52323?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo&refresh=1 Does anyone know of the "volatility of volatility"? Also, does anyone know anything about the first chart in the article?

Bill, Strategies work until they don't. How long have you been doing this?

Not all the volatility products have options. Does anyone know if this would change soon?

Can someone point me to the recent discussions about when to use the straddle/strangle pre-earnings strategy and when to use the double calendars?