Just wanted to update the blog saying that I am still here, alive and kicking.
I have gone back to doing more reading (Position Sizing, Risk Management), evaluating tools (NinjaTrader, ButtonTrader, OpenQuant, Trade Ideas) and most importantly I am getting ready to switch brokers.
If you look at my trading journal, you will find that after only 2 months of trading, I have paid 481$ in commissions! Contrast this to the 384$ profit which I generated. As Yng discovered, commissions can really add up and it simply doesn’t make sense to lose so much money on commissions when I am a beginner and my trade size is small. Another problem with TOS is the poor availability of borrows. You have to chat with support and reserve shares. You frequently find that TOS has no borrows for so many shares which are PERFECT short setups.
Currently, my trading capital is 17,000$. I am borrowing 10,000$ from my friend and putting another 5000$ of my own, and funding my IB account with 32,000$. Even though I have not let PDT affect my trades, I just want to remove the PDT factor all together.
And watch for today?
CSUN – Penny stock pump and dump. Ripe for a short.
NCT – A huge spike at the end of the day, might crash today morning just like it did yesterday.
GGP – May do a little run to 1.5 today. Will watch closely.
Happy Trading.
RJ.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Allen // Nov 26, 2008 at 11:38 am
Is IB lower in commissions?
2 RJ // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Yep, IB has per share commissions model. As I trade around 1000 shares and for 1000 shares, round trip commission is 10$, half of what TOS charges.
RJ
3 iL Torello // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:39 pm
RJ…great move going to IB. TOS has been difficult lately getting the borrows for the great short plays. I’m hoping to make the move over to IB. I know we will do better over at IB. This is a short trading week, so I think I’m done for the month.
4 Allen // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Since I am only 19 I can go to IB at a minimum of $3,000, even less than TOS. But for now, as I will be trading only a few hundred, I’ll stick to TOS. I will also have to prove myself as a trader, learn A TON more about EVERYTHING, when I see things are moving my way – I’ll consider a move, I have 15 months
Yes, since I am very interested in shortselling in today’s market being at TOS may be a bit problematic, but I’m not rushing anywhere right now – if I can short the ones I’m eager to, I will – if not, I’ll wait for the next day, I’ll be limit by the stupid PDT anyway.
I can pump my account to $25K without taking a loan, but for now, and as I know myself to sometimes get extremely cocky and egotastic, I don’t wanna do this.
By first trading day next week I’ll have $4,000 to trade with, I intend to open only one position at a time for 50% of my capital, of course I will pre-set stop losses for 5-7% and hope that I’ll be right or lucky.
Hope your move goes smoothly Ramta, thanks for updating!
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