Okay.... I understand MM and their books, I’m wondering how a retail trader can “trade the spread” and I don’t mean just buying the bid/selling the offer. Ive been mostly trading flys as well, not so much on SPX, more on single names. There’s much more opportunity for me at least in the single names
I don't really want to name names. Let's just say they are not the well known big caps techs. OK I will name one since I mentioned it elsewhere: GILD.
Why? Because I am just a struggling mom and pop retail, no formal financial training, not selling courses, subscription or soliciting OPM. If it is a good list, folks will accuse me of making it up after the fact, demand to see my "audited" broker account, want it "time stamped", for proof. If it is bad, I get eggs on my face and folks will laugh at my stupidity. No win either way.
That's why I stopped posting my trades, I posted a $100,000 overnight and $50,000 Google short day trade, snippets of brokerage trades only to get hammered. No more, learned my lesson well.
Hang in there, I hope you keep posting. There needs to be a balance. There are a lot of frauds out there (and here) preying on desperate traders like me, selling snake oils, get rich quick schemes. In the past, many of us fell for it hook, line and sink. I applaud those tireless posters exposing many of them saving us from potential ruin. Some masqueraded as expert traders, posting "winning" trades not to sell stuff but to live out their fantasy. Those we can spot quickly and I would leave them alone since they are harmless. So, in general I don't understand the purpose of posting trades unless it is accompanied by a discussion of why those trades were made. The best such example was @TheBigShort posting an analysis of his trades on CELG and why he made those trades. I am forever grateful to him as it reinforced my own analysis of CELG, knowing a professional is agreeing with me gave me courage to execute my trades. As a pay forward, a tribute to @TheBigShort, I posted trades I made related to CELG: BMY-RT, explaining why I did what I did. Best wishes.