Oh wow, is this even normal?

I'm a newbie and just stepped into the chaos of SPX trading on my TOS demo. I just increased both the normal and the IRA account (they give you 2 accounts with 100K of play money in each) by several thousand dollars each in a matter of 2 hours selling and buying April 10/20/10 1 strike butterflies. It went so fast I could barely keep up with it. I clicked on nicely priced spreads, submitted orders, got filled, prices were going up and down wildly all over the place. I then submitted close orders for most of my open orders and most of these got filled too. I didn't even put them in at the midpoint, but quite a few cents more toward the natural. I even got filled on some long butterflies at a credit.

Is this insanity normal? Is this what it's like to trade SPX contracts live? Can you really make that kind of cash so quickly?

The only bad thing was I was operating so quickly I failed to understand the effect of all of this on my margin and options buying power. I reached the point in one of the accounts where I was prohibited from submitting some closing buy orders on the short butterflies because a screen said an overnight position had to be liquidated and I can't open another buy position unless I intend to hold it overnight, or I would get a margin call. What'd I do wrong here?

Is this even real?

 

I can't speak directly to your question other than to state:

Can you really lose that kind of cash so quickly?

 

Haven't executed on TOS demo in awhile but I'm pretty sure they are simulated fills (i.e. not likely), if you went live you are in queue and have to be at midpoint or 'worse' like everyone else to get filled.

 

Some of these trades I went very far off the midpoint toward the natural to close out profitable trades quickly.

Is this how SPX day trading really works? Do the prices really jump around that much from second to second?

 

On flies? What sort flies are these? Them must be some super flies or sumptin'...

 

Beginning balance margin account this morning: 100K. Current balance, $103,950.
Beginning balance IRA account this morning: $106,579. Current balance, $113,761.

 

NO it is not...it is frustrating ......and when you NEED to close it will cost you dearly.

 

Don't you have anything better to do than troll the posts of a beginning trader? Since you're such a geenyus, wouldn't your time be better spent making millions and millions of dollars from your completely original strategies?

 

Sell call spreads bc the mkt is going lower over the next 12 months. There you go, now you can stfu.