When I"m in Chicago, I don't even have to leave the building however....everything self contained from my trading room, GS, nice hotel and restaurant. But, I think we do ok here in Vegas too. Don edit: Man is it slow. SPY vol about 15 VIX at 18, geez. And, so far today, I'm breaking my winning streak for 2012, actually down today, bummer. I should know better than to try to make something happen.
Just to get this thread back on topic Don, I'm curious, how much leverage do you offer a "pure" directional guy over night. No hedging, no pairs, just directional stock trade. Let's say for a guy with 20k in his account. And the same for intra-day. Not opening orders or pairs, just a pure hard core grade A good old American directional stock trade.
Many go 10 to one or bit more with "naked" positions for short periods of time. Overnight, maybe a bit less, depends on the trader. We would prefer 5 or 6 to one. Many just hedge the stock(s) with SPY overnight and then go 20 or more to one. Don
Give an example of how one might leverage a 20k equity account at $200k in directional positions long with the SPY short. How much SPY in that case?
Oh geez, now I have to do my own math, LOL. Let's see. Long 5000 shares of GE at $19 = $95,000 (my stock, as an example) Short 700 SPY at 132 = $92,400 Counts as hedged of about 20 to one. Is that what you mean? Don
directional trading naked is typically 6-1 overnight if your hedged then you may go up to 30-1 is the best case right ? the statement i posted that bright offers about 1 mil bp on average was for daytrading only Hey Don Do you still offer that bp for intra-day bp only to your traders ?
How about we use this example. Short 2k shares of SHLD (two days ago), Long 700 SPY. This trade is about dollar neutral with 100k on each side roughly. Sears gaps up 5 pts on the open, SPY opens flat. Trader blows out 50% of his account on his first day of trading. Any questions? Next step, go next door and fire off 10 rounds of ammunition with an AK47 to let off some steam.