I flew for a guy in Alaska that would let me trade when I was standing by, between flights or when the weather was bad. He was a great employer in general and I tried hard not to abuse the luxury.
Luckily I have 2 computers at work with only 1 monitor and have a KV switch to toggle between the 2. so when someone walks up I just switch over to other computer. Sometimes they catch me off guard though. I've learned to enhance my other senses. i can feel or hear people walking more than ever before
Most companies have IT departments that are stretched so thin they don't have the time nor inclination to deal with this. It's more of a threat than reality.
I do, but I don't daytrade. I rarely miss opportunities since I trade long term. Caught? It's the opposite, as people at the office get excited and ask questions, too many questions in fact.
Companies would often use a "filter" that block "inappropriate" Web-sites. If a Web-site occurs that is not white-listed or black-listed, they would send it to the filter developer for classification. In either case, checking cash balance with a stock broker or bets with a betting web-site is considered ligitimate in most companies as long as you don't spend too much time doing it. Distinguishing checking balance from daytrading via Web-interface is impossible unless the company breaks encryption that protects broker connection or use some heuristic - both are a massive overkill for the purpose.
I make it a point not to check stock positions from work computers. Period. Doesn't mean that I don't have a blackberry with a data plan, however I definitely tend to change my trading strategies when I am working. I would never hold a volatile position when I cannot devote my full attention to it. However, I will hold relatively large (for me) swing trading positions of ~500,000$ for weeks to months at a time, but you can bet I check on them at least daily. g
The IT departments do not have to deal with it. Where you visit, how much time you visit sites, etc. is automatically monitored, logged and summarized/reported to superiors. The number of comapanies that actively monitor this is very high, currently and growing. Employees/contractors are being warned and fired because of this, especially in this economy. And keyloggers, monitoring email, forum participations, websites visited and other things are a very high priority, given a lot of the leaks, inappropriate contacts, and many other legal aspects. Any other opinion is in ignorance of what goes on in the IT world these days. This kind of software is cheap and deadly effective.
Not talking about blocked websites. And it is impossible to block all possibly offensive sites. IT/Software tracks Websites visited, and amount/% of time spent on sites by employees (including total time spent surfing) Anyone who works in a seriously professional corporation is well aware of the corporate usage policies. This thread is reflecting a serious ignorance of the modern culture.