SB companies are worse than FX brokers: they can fuck you on every market and they continuously create new products designed to kill you, like binary and exotic options: these markets work like slot machines for them and are quickly gonna put you out of business. I know of no one who is a consistent profitable sreadbetter. Beware of the 'tax-free' deal: the spread is 1000% more expensive than a round trip commission charged by a direct-access broker.
Well if hes intent on trading petroleums, sb's might be the way to go. And if their as bad as bitstream says, then you would be an insane person to be intraday trade this stuff anyway. But i do like "unlimited capital", i must say-sounds like jolly good fun.
Sure go to the gas station and buy all the gas you want to invent in then. Keep it your home or garden.
on 8/24 Tom Preston had a online seminar on the subject. if you trade options you might like to see it. <www.thinkorswim.com> you don't have to log-in. on the left column under quick links pick Online seminar transcripts. enjoy
================ There are a few institutional grade stocks under 30; most are not. May want to do as much research as possible.
XLE isn't a pure oil play - sometimes it follows oil's lead and sometimes it follows the stock markets lead. I was thinking of trading oil futures too, but I've never traded futures of any kind so I'm very unfamiliar with the market. I know I can do it through IB, but is it as simple as trading a stock?
QM E-miNY has been very volatile. Tough s.o.b. Scaling back contracts is not a bad idea but you can make some decent coin with it now. I do about 30K shares of XLE per week but that figure could be daily with recent price action. It is no oil equivalent, in case you wanted to know. OIH is not bad as well but i have better P/L ratios trading the Select Energy SPDR for some reason. Take it slow. After watching QM you may change your mind about trading it. Good Trading.
I see XLE vs crude oil price has widened since the hurricance hit ? what has been the historical correlation between XLE and crude oil prices ? not that I will pull the trigger on this trade but whats the downside with going long QM vs short XLE for a trade ? of course one would have to manage risk and size the spread accordingly.