I get what you are saying, but there are plenty of tools everywhere.

sierrachart uses ib feed and I think it handle spread better than NT, jmho.

Two items that might be of value to you from my perspective.

First, this particular thread is kind of stale in my opinion. Your inquiry probably deserves it's own thread as I suspect most that would offer helpful advice to you are not tuned in here anymore.

Second, My current opinion on BRK is that they are better prepared to both identify the best value plays and negotiate preferred deals that I can not. Their management track record is in my opinion proven and reliable.

Also, Wave 59 does allow mathamatical expressions in their quote window. So if you where setting up a spread or a ratioed spread between two products you could do that easily through the quote window. The "basket" route is also interesting to me. All the best and happy trading. DB

@ tandreasian

I don't know what your knowledge of portfolio trading is, and I don't want to offend you, but I found this book to be a good introduction for a layman like myself:

Amazon.com: The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk (0639785323259): William Bernstein: Books

I always wanted to live in Dubai, HK and TOK are my other options... I am envious..



ok, right path thus far...



hmmm... my opinion.. spreads still more than work.. that is what I trade... well, a bastardized version...

the spreads you picked I havent done... I dont think PL has enough volume, at least IMO. Look at index spreads instead, you might be surprised... I only do intraday spreads, I dont hold anything long term.. for long term I use options..

if you are fairly risk averse... you should stick only to options and spreads.. nothing more I would say.,..



if you are trading options, TOS(AMTD) is fine... anything else, caveat emptor... the acquisition by AMTD made TOS worse IMO..a shame... AMTD buys stuff and quality goes down.. same thing happen when they bought Datek..



BRK's are expensive... and there is no "yield".. anyhow.. I rather do options on something more accessible.. use IB for your portfolio mgmt, margin is perfect if you leverage..



CQGIC... that is your best bet... not cheap @ $1000 a month for standard trading and a few other things, you dont need the spreader right away.. with spreader and all, it will be around $2K..

you can try doing the spreads with MC or NT7 if they support custom instruments, I dont recall off the top of my head... MarketDelta allows custom instruments, and creates some spreads, but when compared to CQGIC, it was a bit off...



what do you mean?! that strategy I bought wont let me figure things out?!

welcome to the few...

trade well... and prosper... (my own twist on @ wldman's signature... a la spock )

Thanks. Right on BRK--that's their expertise--and I'll check out Wave 59 (never heard of it). Yes, the basket is interesting. Only paper trades so far, but it lets you create a basket of stocks based on any number of US or foreign indices, using different approaches like top/bottom by weight or cap, use statistical representation of index, create orders using $ figure or # shares, use as an arb for the index, etc. Or you can put your $100k into a fund and someone takes two minutes to plug it in to an IB basket, saying something like our investment profile for this fund is the top 20% of stocks by capitalization of the Dow Real Estate Index because we feel that real estate offers great potential return over the next 3-5 years and the largest 20% offer the safest return. That'll be 1.25% of your investment on an annual basis, plus 20% of your gain. Slight exaggeration...maybe, but you get my point. If it's possible to do yourself, why not? In fact, that's not a bad idea, anyone interested?

HO/RB used to be a very nice seasonal spread to trade on the floor. Trade the Jans or Febs approaching the winter and Mays or Junes approaching the summer. I'm watching them all to see how they now move. Though I've never traded them, I've seen CL/HO/RB and CL/NG trade very nicely during hurricane season, the Aug and Sep contracts. The downside is that all these spreads can have dramatic movements; GC/PL moved $50 overnight recently, so not good to hold.

I've been thinking about indices too because they seem more stable than commodities. I've been considering ES/YM because I'm somewhat familiar with their movements already and I can trade them in the overnight during my Dubai day. Which do you trade and how do you trade them? Off charts? Do you leg in or put in a simultaneous trade ala IB combo? Been thinking to "buy the bid" and "sell the market" in MC. When the buy is filled, sell the market. That's more or less how it was done on the floor--except you had your friend next to you in the pit with an order. Alas, those days are gone.

you are oversimplifying what a real hedgefund does.. and keep in mind that unless it is a tiny fund, they wont take you for $100K.. and also, 2/20 is the rule pretty much... anyhow, now with all the pendin reg, lots of funds are just returning money, so I am sure a lot of people will have to do what you are looking to do...

I have not done seasonals... I will take a look at them..



I do index because those I am allowed to do without having to get approval, and also, because of liquidity... I do what works for me... Index vs. Interest Rates, CME Index vs Eurex Index... biggest issue with Eurex/Liffe is the currency risk, I dont know what the final conversion rate will be.. so hedging it is a pain.. as to how I leg in, less liquid leg first..and the closest I can get to required value on the other leg... right now, with CQGIC Spreader which I am testing, I just click on the spread based on my Qformula and it goes get what it needs to working both orders at the same time.. so having a dedicated tool to enter both orders is nice.