ron99 

Number 1 was customer service. You only talk to Carley. Not sometimes getting inexperienced persons at OX. Number 2 was SPAN minimum margin. Sometimes OX increased margin above minimum without notice. Number 3 was OX sometimes put limits on my account because I was selling options. Never happened with DeCarley. Number 4 is lower commissions for me because of my volume at DeCarley. Better thing at OX is you can trade stocks. For me that doesn't matter.

Thank Ron. You convinced me to register with DeCarley. Should I go with the Self Direct “Standard” account, or the Self Directed “Pro” account? I have many years of experience. Just not sure of the pros and cons of each.

Also Ron, is there a referral credit I can do so you’ll get credit? You can pm me.

Zero85 

Thank Ron. You convinced me to register with DeCarley. Should I go with the Self Direct “Standard” account, or the Self Directed “Pro” account? I have many years of experience. Just not sure of the pros and cons of each. Also Ron, is there a referral credit I can do so you’ll get credit? You can pm me.

I'm not sure of the difference. Just email Carley and ask. She answers emails very quickly.

[email protected]

I don't think she does referral credits.

I use the Zaner360 platform with Gain.

She does have a new one, City Trader. I haven't tried it yet. It is supposed to work better with doing spreads than Zaner360.

Has anybody else checked out City Trader?

I kept my OX account open so I could still get Dow Jones News and Hightower reports. You have to keep $50 in OX account to not get monthly fees.

ron99 

I kept my OX account open so I could still get Dow Jones News and Hightower reports.

As a customer of DeCarley you also get the daily Hightower Reports.

Best regards, Myrrdin

Thanks guys, will do. Yes, the Hightower report is excellent. Very important to keep a pulse on each market daily.

Hi Ron,

I've been following your progress and just wanted to say excellent work.

To overall summarize your learning/research sources in the last 700 or so pages. From what I've gathered you learnt a lot of your strategies from James Cordier's book (and self-taught of course), is there any other source you recommend? Also does Cordier's book teach futures fundamental analysis (my preferred method as i'm moving away from TA, too much headache).

Also for your daily updates/information on what you would trade, what else do you recommend? I understand you have already mentioned: US Agriculture Publications and Bloomberg Economic Calendar.

I also have accounts with SaxoTrader, what's your opinion on Saxo as an options trading platform.

thanks in advance for your reply.

Regards

ron99 

I'm not sure of the difference. Just email Carley and ask. She answers emails very quickly. I don't think she does referral credits. I use the Zaner360 platform with Gain. She does have a new one, City Trader. I haven't tried it yet. It is supposed to work better with doing spreads than Zaner360. Has anybody else checked out City Trader? I kept my OX account open so I could still get Dow Jones News and Hightower reports. You have to keep $50 in OX account to not get monthly fees.

JokerTrader321 

Hi Ron, I've been following your progress and just wanted to say excellent work. To overall summarize your learning/research sources in the last 700 or so pages. From what I've gathered you learnt a lot of your strategies from James Cordier's book (and self-taught of course), is there any other source you recommend? Also does Cordier's book teach futures fundamental analysis (my preferred method as i'm moving away from TA, too much headache). Also for your daily updates/information on what you would trade, what else do you recommend? I understand you have already mentioned: US Agriculture Publications and Bloomberg Economic Calendar. I also have accounts with SaxoTrader, what's your opinion on Saxo as an options trading platform. thanks in advance for your reply. Regards

Yes Cordier's book is heavy on fundamental analysis.

Carley Garner has some books too. Videos too.

Twitter is a good source of info if you follow the right people. John Kemp for oil news for one. Dow Jones if you have access to it. Hightower daily reports. Bloomberg News. Reuters.

I have never looked at SaxoTrader.

ron99 

Has anybody else checked out City Trader?

City Trader is the basic platform offered by Options City, who recently got bought by Vela. I know nothing about Vela, but Options City's "Metro" software is a very high end options trading and market making software used by many people that don't have their own in house software. One of their major competitors are Orc. I've seen it several times and if your option-centric it's impressive. Has a TT Xtrader Pro level price tag though.

This is an image shared on another thread that I thought I'd share here. This is the % return on the S&P500 every month going back throughout history.




Interesting look.

/rsm005/

Mentioning the Spoos thread as your source seems to be hard

On 12/30/2016 the ESh18 futures contract settled at 2227.25. On Dec 29, 2017 it settled at 2676. That's a 448.75 increase.

If you bought one future on Dec 30, 2016 at 2227.25, it would have made $22,437.50 in 2017.

If only our crystal ball was working!