He is either German or at least lives in Germany. Up 200% after 12 days... I don't think his strategy is what I posted before because that doesn't require constant trading. He might identifies stocks with a certain direction and bets against that direction by selling puts/calls. I sim sold SRPT puts and calls today with Friday expiration. If the stock doesn't move much, I get a 40% return on my buying power. But if the stock moves a lot, I blow up. So he has to have some kind of directional bet beside just selling puts/calls automatically on high premium stocks. He is scanning 4000 stocks, and only sells options on those that meet his criteria.... Hey Marsman, you could withdraw the original 10K and then you would be playing with the house's money, so even if you blow up, it was good education and great fun!!!
That's what he does, he sells high IV strangles... and he says he actively manages by hedging with underlying, but only when it hits the strike... which doesn't work on gap openings. But you know, it's very doable... he doesn't want to share any potential risks/drawdowns on big moves though... which is probably because it's pretty big... 10x account or so.
If a wrong decision was made then the right thing to do would be to be objective on exactly what happened, who said/did what when and why, the consequences of each action/words, the explanation about the EGOs involved. And obviously a sincere apology to the concerned with clear explanation of the EGOs involved and a private and open invitation to come back if he so wish. It is never too late to do the right thing.
Marsman is into trading - even on demo. Nutter trader ? there have been plenty here, and there are plenty. Big Bragger ? plenty before , now and tomorrow. Dishonnest trader ? this is where ET posters can pitch in and point out the lack of honesty. Fear of seeing a trader blowing his account ? Oh well, won't we be able to understand how and why he blows up IF he does. From what I understand this forum is for people who are into trading. As long as Baron has not signaled that the purpose has changed, and I trust Baron's honesty, then we should assume that ET is still about trading. So I too sign. Also, why is there not a space where he could have defended himself and things could have got sorted out before any banning?
I don't think he has the buying power to hedge it with stocks (hedging would also take away most of the profits), and it looks like he usually closes the trades by the close to avoid overnight gaps. I guess during the day he watches the stock's move and if it goes against the expected direction he closes out the options. A stock can have 3 directions, and 2 of them are working for him, as opposed to option buying when you have to guess the direction correctly. He has to guess which way the stock won't move, and if sideways, time works for him. ============== I think ET should let him come back once he is banned on T2W...
Let's get everybody caught up as to the marsman situation. ● At the beginning of the month he started a thread in the Trading Forum that was totally irresponsible, suggesting numerous ways to skirt the law and quasi-legally conduct illegal activities. It was removed and he was warned. ● A short while later, in the middle of the night, he got into a heated back 'n forth with Pekelo (and others) in his journal and hit the Report button 9 times complaining that there was no moderator available to immediately address his concerns. That won't get ya banned, but it was annoying. ● In the midst of that he posted this: That also didn't get him banned, but did get him a warning. ● Later, against ET policy, he posted: That kind of stuff will normally get ya banned, but despite the huge EGO that was mentioned earlier in this thread, it didn't. ● And at another time he posted: Again, easily enough to ban him, but I didn't. Instead I sent him yet another warning, reminding him of our strict No Free Advertising policy and alerting him to the new Vendor Account. But to someone who was supposedly killing it in the market even that inexpensive option was too costly. ● Then he took one of my PM warnings and posted it publicly. I guess he didn't understand that the P in PM stands for PRIVATE but, once again, it was very annoying. ● Next, within his journal he started multiple posts complaining about the moderation, letting readers know that the mean ole mod said not to PM him regarding his solicitation for money (and in doing so reminding them of a non-public way to contact him outside the journal). He was warned that a trading journal wasn't the place for such complaints but he continued posting them anyway. So while any number of things could have legitimately gotten him banned it was the accumulation of offenses... where enough was enough. I wish him success at T2W but as far as Elite Trader is concerned everybody is now up to date.
I give him 2 months at T2W... then he's banned there... Thanks @Magna, there's only so much in arrogant back and fort banter you can take... good job!