For Boyd Stone, our charting expert

Hi,

You wrote:
> To make money as a
> trader you have to either make allowances
> for how the floor brokers make money, or you
> have to only trade when the floor brokers
> are out of control of the price movement.
> The latter way is best.

I tend to agree. That's one drawback inherent in daytrading: when you're daytrading, you're fighting on the pit brokers' turf, and you're playing with certain disadvantages (like the time lag in seeing new prices, the time needed to get filled, and not being really aware of 'market sentiment' with all that implies).

Let me add one thing about my much heralded losses as a trader. I did over 1500 real-money S&P futures trades, and ended up losing about $20,000. That's an average loss per trade of $13.33 including commissions, which were $20 per round turn. See what I'm saying? I actually make money, excluding commissions.

For someone daytrading the S&P futures for so many trades, that isn't really that bad, considering that in that market it's possible to lose at least everything you've got.

Best,

-Boyd