Welcome Back, Meta-Traders.
I'm off from my regular job and had a great week trading, doing home improvements and joining free webinars showing live trading from some of my favorite personalities in the business. This past week was far from typical, but it opened me up to the possibility of a much better future life, more to come on that.
The most significant step forward this week was to open an account with TradeStation Securities. Recall I have been with E*Trade securities for several years and while I love the platform and the technology, the commission are starting to become an issue. Looking back at my accounts in 2012, I spent a few thousand on commissions, which seems like a lot of money but just under one half of one percent of total assets under management which is not so bad in the world of Asset Management.
Money aside, I have found that commissions themselves prevent me from taking certain trades. Let's say I want to enter a spread position with a maximum cost of $115 for a maximum profit of $250 or vice versa. I would not consider that on E*Trade since the cost on each side would be $10 or more and about 20% or more of the profits! That same $20 trade with TradeStation would cost just 2 dollars!
As for another case in point, check out the above day-trade in AAPL weekly calls. Gross profit on this trade was 73 cents or $73 on a one-lot. After commissions from E*Trade, net profits are $53. With TradeStation, net profits on this trade are $70! That's a pretty big difference and over time could make the difference between success and failure in active trading.
On a another note, recall that Tradestaion has its roots in Omega Research which was a founder in the world of algorithmic trading. There was time back in the 1980's when access to this platform cost a few thousand dollars. More recently, TradeStation made this platform available for $99 per month. In my case, the platform is now essentially free (since I am a non-professional) and I still get the $1 for 100 shares or per option contract with no monthly fee! Sure there's probably a downside, but we will figure that part out later.
Merry Christmas to all to all a good night!
I'm off from my regular job and had a great week trading, doing home improvements and joining free webinars showing live trading from some of my favorite personalities in the business. This past week was far from typical, but it opened me up to the possibility of a much better future life, more to come on that.
The most significant step forward this week was to open an account with TradeStation Securities. Recall I have been with E*Trade securities for several years and while I love the platform and the technology, the commission are starting to become an issue. Looking back at my accounts in 2012, I spent a few thousand on commissions, which seems like a lot of money but just under one half of one percent of total assets under management which is not so bad in the world of Asset Management.
Money aside, I have found that commissions themselves prevent me from taking certain trades. Let's say I want to enter a spread position with a maximum cost of $115 for a maximum profit of $250 or vice versa. I would not consider that on E*Trade since the cost on each side would be $10 or more and about 20% or more of the profits! That same $20 trade with TradeStation would cost just 2 dollars!
On a another note, recall that Tradestaion has its roots in Omega Research which was a founder in the world of algorithmic trading. There was time back in the 1980's when access to this platform cost a few thousand dollars. More recently, TradeStation made this platform available for $99 per month. In my case, the platform is now essentially free (since I am a non-professional) and I still get the $1 for 100 shares or per option contract with no monthly fee! Sure there's probably a downside, but we will figure that part out later.
Merry Christmas to all to all a good night!
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