The thing is, SML is a Scalper of Bull Trends. Secondly, he's only got like $100 in his Account. So he might Scalp $40 over the course of the Comp giving him a 40% return. Not really real life is it.
Percentage returns often seem like a fair comparison, but they can be misleading. For instance, two traders might both make 10%, but if one risked 100% of their account and the other only 1%, the second trader is clearly better. It's not just about how much you make—it’s about how much you risk to make it. Without considering risk, percentage returns alone don’t tell the full story. But for this purpose (Trading competition) we generally use percentage return from beginning to end. The one with the highest percentage return wins. Whatever the account size or the risk involved. Or we could use the risk-adjusted return. Because Poopy said sim or real account ?! If I want to win then I max out a sim account and take degenerate bets. But if it’s risk-adjusted returns … Then I better be the best trader ever to win, even if I have all the paper money in the world.
But why declare a rule to handicap scalper, if the other party is supposedly specialized in scalping and you know it ?
Because Mark was going to run a sim-account for the competition. I can't specify broker so I am not going to allow someone to buy the bid and sell the offer and bypass FIFO on some game-able sim-account. If he was somehow trading a real money account he can trade whatever he wants on whatever frequency.
ON, you missed it. I.e., he's long volatility into the election. The words "the only sensible position" come to mind.