I've been doing "paper trades" since 2007. I've taken about 5 years off. I've probably made, on average, 5 paper trades per trading day. I would regularly predict not only massive moves but also exact tops and bottoms and the pathways in between. I would estimate at least 1 out of 5 options trades was worth at least 200% but many many other typical trades were worth several times more than that. I also traded options with at least a projected volume of 80X my own trade. What I found was that an extreme familiarity with subtleties and nuanced behaviors of individual stocks plus a host of many other clues pointing to the same conclusion would almost guarantee success every time . My win rate combined with my profits compared to my losses almost guaranteed that no losing streak would ever wipe me out .
What was wrong with the volume ? The daily volume seemed to be at least 80X what I was buying. I would think that's good. Of course, the minute to minute volume looked abysmal. Is the minute to minute volume listed on TDA charts actually accurate ?
If it is it ain't me turning it into one. I'm not even sure how what I'm saying is so hard to believe. I'm not really even that knowledgeable at trading. I am, however, very good at predicting. I thought seasoned traders were WAY better than me. My psychological problems always held me back in life A LOT! I was going to seriously get into several fields of engineering, physics, 3d animation, software programming ,entrepreneurship and more. Trading should have originally been only a mere speck of how I was going to make my money, but extreme fogginess and racing thoughts stopped all that. Being successful at trading wouldn't be much of an accomplishment to me tbh. I'm now just chit chatting really.
The posting showcasing rule 605 is what you need to understand. SEC has not approved dark pools in options and all the bullshit about payment and internalization is pretty much irrelevant with SPY options. There is dark liquidity on the exchanges, but that would just give you a bigger size and it is firm-specific so a plus to some firms. Liquidity in SPY is massive and it is traded on every exchange. SPY and SPY options are not price-protected in fast markets because the data cannot be aggregated fast enough
%% I NEVER trust completely broker's charts/quotes; even if they are ok. Maybe you can afford to lose that money\ but volume wise i meant 500 contracts with you admitting '' kinda sorta newish to trading'' Some of my orders on liquid + semi liquid stuff never get filled; but thats ok\ some do
Ok just make sure you hedge and start small. You can be making 10's and thousands' of dollars in imaginary trading, but if you make one bad trade in real life, it will set you back really badly, both financially and psychologically. Real trading is completely different from imaginary trading. Trust me.
I also have a guarantee. Anything posted live beyond a lucky trade or two, will fail to match the last 10,000 fantasy trades.