Strictly speaking (from IB's website), a professional is: (a) registered or qualified with: the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, any state securities agency, any securities exchange or association, or any commodities or futures contract market or association, or (b) engaged as an "investment advisor" as that term is defined in Section 201(11) of the Investment Advisor's Act of 1940 (whether or not registered or qualified under that Act), or (c) employed by a bank or another organization that is exempt from registration under Federal and/or state securities laws to perform functions that would require him or her to be so registered or qualified if he or she were to perform such functions for an organization not so exempt. Any person who does meet the above criteria (a,b,c) is considered a Professional Subscriber.
You can call youself a pro when you can do it for a living and not have to worry how your gonna pay your bills
qdz3se, This is the official definition for determining if you are required to pay exorbitant exchange fees for data (they stick it to the professionals). If you are asking in a broader context then I would say that if your primary source of income is from your trading profits then you're are a pro; i.e you make your living from trading.
The definitions given are fine....I prefer to use the "Professional vs. Retail" instead of "Professional vs. Amateur"...since many non-licensed traders are serious, professional traders. Yes, it's true, as in any business, there are some additional basic costs involved. But to be able to trade seriously (since 1998), you really should be licensed...unless you have a lot of money. It generally takes the "use of" (not "abuse" of) about $500K-$2Mil to make a good living in this business...and licensed traders aren't limited by the Pattern Day Trader rule. And, since all retail orders have to flow back through their own brokerage account before hitting the NYSE, it makes those exchange fees seem pretty minor. Don
Don, can you please elaborate on this? Are you saying that an individual can day trade with less than $25k without worrying about the PDT rule if they are licensed? Which license would they need, Series 7? Thanks for your help.
One of the major benefits of joining BT is that you can "use" our money to trade with...heck our guys may use $1Mil simply doing opening only orders, with less than $25K in their accounts.... They get to keep 100% of their profits as well..."best of both Worlds".... Don