Never tell a broker you trade for a living?

Does a broker really care if you say you are self employed with a non-finance "side gig" so you qualify for non-pro market data exemption?

 

No, but be careful on social media like Linkedin. If you say you are a professional trader, and the NYSE see that in a review of accounts, they will want to take away your exemption.

 

yea, I heard if you are trading other peoples money that means you are a pro.

Other than that, you should be good. Just don't go around saying you are a "pro".

 

Yes they do. If you say you trade for a living, then your broker has an obligation to bill you the exchange fees at the"pro" rate while giving you nothing extra in return otherwise they will get into trouble with the exchanges. The bad thing of course is the higher fees but the silver lining from it is you can deduct the exchange fees as an expense on your taxes now that you are officially touted as a "trader". But if you don't want that, then yeah you would need to be careful with both the broker and with what you disclose on the internet.

 

He said he trades for a living as a self-employed trader. He never said he trades for others.

From NASDAQ:

 

The NYSE's criteria for the "non-professional" status is even more stringent, I find. They have their own set of questions. So you could be categorized as "non-professional" for NASDAQ fee purposes but "Professional" for NYSE.

 

You are still “non-professional” if you are an at home trader trading your own capital with no other job.

 

That's at least how InteractiveBrokers considers the situation ime.

 

They are very similar but that page was hard to screenshot as it went over two pages.

 

Questions 5. and 8. are ambiguous when it comes to trading a personal account to make a living. Under IRS rules, if I qualify and declare trader tax status, then I report expenses as a business. The default business is a sole proprietorship. Does a sole proprietorship check the box for either 5. or 8.? Only by looking at the full document for determining Non-professional status and asking about it here on ET could I come to any conclusion. In my particular case, I would not be considered a professional for data fee purposes. If I create an entity to trade through, then I would be a professional. I didn't find these questions trivial to answer though.