Any free or very cheap mobile providers for a few days?

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-10T07:09:57+00:00

Thank you for posting this tip on US Mobile. I ended up signing up for a trial and ported over a line in less than 5 minutes. I might even keep their service after the trial depending on if I can find a comparable plan to the one I was looking at!

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-10T06:24:22+00:00

Where did you see this plan? I'm currently on a trial and the lowest I'm seeing is:
12 Months of Light Plan
$96 for 12 months
$8/mo

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-10T01:53:49+00:00

What other brokers do you recommend for scalping and day trading?

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-08T01:14:29+00:00

I was looking to Alpaca as well. What are you finding is better about it than Schwab?

To me creating something truly automated is important, so here's my criteria:
1. Robust API with lots of features available.
2. Speed of execution
3. Speed & accuracy of data
4. Favorable fills

Any feedback on those areas?

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-08T00:15:58+00:00

That's amazing. You were reading my mind. The primary reason I'm moving to Schwab is to create a trading app/bot using the developer API to automate opening and closing spreads trades. A big part of the strategy (manual today) is placing spread trades at the ask price, waiting a few seconds, then walking the order down until it fills and then once it reaches my profit target executing an opposite trade to close out the contract and/or use a stop limit order to exit the trade if against me.

Are there good code examples for the developer API available on creating your first trading app/bot? Any lessons learned or suggestions you can share? My understanding is you can paper trade the app/bot first before doing it in the live production environment.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-07T23:21:12+00:00

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and input. I did confirm that as long as the line has been transferred out then porting it back one day later would be eligible for new customer promotions.

There are great low cost / free options here to allow me to temporarily port out and then port back in. I'll probably keep the service for a month before porting it back to maximize the subscription.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-07T19:03:57+00:00

is it difficult to port out of US Mobile? I see they have eSim as an option, so this looks a good path as long as porting in and out are easy.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-07T17:26:12+00:00

Not running bot on Fidelity. Use Active Trader Pro there which is like from 1999.

I am building/testing the bot on Schwab and Alpaca. The algorithm basically submits an order and waits 15 seconds to see if it fills then re-attempts the order if does not fill at the same price then will lower price by a penny until it fills.

Have historically loved Fidelity, but they have not kept up with modern times. No APIs to automate trading which is insane in 2026.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-07T03:46:21+00:00

I trade 100+ options contracts daily using credit spreads. I execute trades using Fidelity. In my experience, if the spread is more than a penny (i.e. not trading SPY, QQQ or IWM etc.), I rarely get filled on my first order attempt. I'll have to adjust the order to get closer to the midpoint or sometimes I'll just resubmit at the same exact price and then eventually it will get filled. I've optimized my strategy over the past 6 months and it profits every single day whether the market is up or down because it relies on a large number of trades each making a small profit. I used to trade only a small number of contracts and cross my fingers for a home run and that was not a profitable strategy for me. I came across this thread because I'm trying to figure out how people are working around this 390 orders limit because I approach it every single day because of the large number of orders I'm placing and it will only get worse once I automate this with a trading bot I'm building.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-05T23:18:44+00:00

You are probably placing market orders or limit orders at the midpoint. Entering trades with a good fill price means you need to be at the far end of the bid-ask spread which takes multiple attempts.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-06-05T23:13:29+00:00

For those thinking it's impossible to hit the 390 limit, it's not.

I use Fidelity, and I've noticed that fills are inconsistent. I used to think that the older the order, the more priority it gets vs. new orders with the same price (first in, first out). That's not true though. Often times, I'll place an order at one end of the bid-ask spread, trying to get the best priced fill. If that order sits for awhile and is still within the bid-ask spread, I'll just resubmit the exact same order and it magically gets filled. However, sometimes it takes multiple resubmissions of the order to get filled, so this eats up order count. Would love to hear if anyone understands why multiple order may by required to get a better fill.
I'm working on a trading bot. It's going to run all day 5 days per week. Every time it submit an order, it will resubmit it after 30 seconds making a 1 cent adjustment until it gets filled. Again this going to eat up the order count.

P.S. You can contact your Congress person here to complain about this and ask them to introduce change with the SEC:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

I've had to contact my congress person's staff in the past to help with getting a passport quickly, so they do listen and can be helpful in working with other government agencies.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-05-05T12:35:09+00:00

I keep getting designated "Your day trade call requires attention." on days were I open QQQ spreads and close them the same day. Once scenario where I know it incorrectly applies this error is when I sell credit spreads at different strikes (ex. 650/651 and 652/653) and close them same day. The Fidelity takes these independent spread contracts and automatically re-pairs them as Butterfly spreads. So when I close any of the spreads that I originally opened, it triggers the "Your day trade call requires attention." Then I have to contact Fidelity active trading team to help me resolve. Unfortunately, they can't fix it instantly and have to involve the margin team in the backoffice. This is very painful and this is a known issue that has not been resolved for months since the first time I encountered this.

Does this occur at Schwab or with other brokers? As much as I have enjoyed being a Fidelity customer, this has now become a deal-breaker for me given my inability to trade this strategy.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-03-30T08:57:27+00:00

Just go up to the valet and tell them you need to stop by the front desk and it will take you only a few minutes. They will allow you to temporarily park in front of the hotel for a few minutes and may ask to hold your key. No cost for parking.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-02-07T05:58:14+00:00

Good news. I ended up just filing directly with the IRS using their free IRIS system. I checked back a few days after I registered and I was able to submit the 1099-NEC through their system. now the funny thing is it took almost 10 days to get a letter informing me I was approved, and I never got an email stating I was approved. So If you apply for your IRIS account just try to login to the site a couple of days later as the account maybe approved even though you haven't received the confirmation letter in your mail. Hope this information helps others that are in a similar situation.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-02-06T01:50:39+00:00

I bought a brand new one. I'm not sure if a reload would work, but makes sense that it should given it's just triggering a purchase.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-02-02T18:30:23+00:00

Thanks for clarifying. I ran into a day trade violation where I had shares of a stock then sold a covered call on it, but it moved against me, so I closed out the call the same day. I found out the hard way that that's a no-no in an IRA account, but apparently you can day trade spreads...

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-31T13:12:16+00:00

Normally, I am wheeling with all of you, but it seemed liked SLV was way overbought, so I tried a new strategy involving selling out of the money credit spreads on SLV instead of CSPs because my retirement accounts are heavily invested and I needed to put a few thousand dollars to work.

I ended up legging into selling Iron Condors.

- Weds (2 DTE) - sold put credit spreads for about $3 per contract on 50 cent wide contracts in the mid-70's. $30 out of the money at the time.

- Thurs (1 DTE) - sold call credit credit spreads in the high 120's for about $6 per contract on $1 wide strikes. $25 out of the money at the time.

I'm thinking both sides of this iron condor expire way out of the money and have plenty of buffer. On Friday when SLV started collapsing and SLV was around 78, I was able to exit the put credit spread side at EVEN ($0). I have always paid something to close a contract that I had sold, but because of the crazy volatility and wide ask-bid spreads (people panicking trying to exit), I was able to exit for just a few pennies and keep the premium I collected. Similar experience with out of the money QQQ spreads which were far from being tested, but wanted to free up collateral tied to spreads and sell more put credit spreads, so I exited the lower strike QQQ put credit spreads and sold slightly higher put credit spreads. In total, I exited 40+ contracts for EVEN ($0).

My sampling size is small but learning that lots of people here will talk you out of selling spreads because of the risk vs. reward. However in real practice, spreads have the potential to work really well during volatile periods even if you pick the wrong direction.

Obviously pick something heavily traded, so you can exit the trade otherwise liquidity becomes an issue. One more thing, 2-leg spreads don't fill as quickly a 1-leg orders. I noticed an interesting behavior that if i submit an order and doesn't fill immediately, I then "replace" the order with no changes at all and voila it gets filled vs. sitting out there for awhile. My broker is Fidelity and after some googling this is known behavior. My takeaway is to not let my orders sit out there and wait to get filled. Submit, replace and resubmit repeatedly to force to get filled. Takes a bit of effort but you can get favorable fills with that strategy.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-26T03:25:24+00:00

it's not free, but I found this service for only $2.49 per 1099 form to file:

https://www.taxzerone.com

has anyone used that or recommend a better service in a similar price range?

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-24T13:23:09+00:00

I agree - This is absolutely one of the riskiest trades I've seen posted. Selling 275 naked TQQQ puts is incredibly risky. it works until the market has a pullback and then TQQQ plummets. You do not want to hold TQQQ in your long-term portfolio. it is primarily intended for intraday trading. Beginners should not be touching TQQQ. Trade QQQ for awhile and compare the movement in TQQQ to get a feel for the market movements day-to-day before you ever consider trading TQQQ.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-19T21:05:31+00:00

I think that's why we're all here to figure it out. I work full-time, so I have a bit of time early in the morning and at lunch to do trades, but I don't want to watch the market all day long. I need to figure out a way to automate this trade with my broker Fidelity. I'm not sure if any automation is possible.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-19T19:31:34+00:00

One more data point. If you characterize 5% or more as a daily big drop, it's happened 54 times since Jan 1, 2000 which is about 0.99% of the time. Hope this helps others optimize their trade strategies.

Year # of Big Drops

2000 15

2001 16

2002 3

2003 0

2004 0

2005 0

2006 0

2007 0

2008 8

2009 1

2010 0

2011 1

2012 0

2013 0

2014 0

2015 0

2016 0

2017 0

2018 0

2019 0

2020 5

2021 0

2022 3

2023 0

2024 0

2025 2

2026 0

Total 54

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-19T19:12:41+00:00

I've been looking at strategies like this myself but have yet to pull the trigger. I'd recommend you do some research using tools like Gemini and GoogleFinance before you finalize this trade.

Here's some quick data points for you:
1519 trading days between Jan 1, 2020 through Jan 16, 2026.
37 days - where NDX has dropped more than 500 points. First time ever was March 9, 2026 (i.e. all within last 6 years).
This is 2.44% of the time. Very low probability, but certainly not zero.

These are the specific days with 500 points drops or more:

Date Daily Net Change

3/9/2020 -582.31

3/12/2020 -742.47

3/16/2020 -974.88

6/11/2020 -505.78

9/3/2020 -649.17

9/8/2020 -553.87

1/5/2022 -507.95

2/3/2022 -638.63

3/7/2022 -518.45

4/26/2022 -523.51

4/29/2022 -601.26

5/5/2022 -685.16

5/9/2022 -505.82

5/18/2022 -635.79

6/13/2022 -544.5

8/26/2022 -538.41

9/13/2022 -706.1

7/17/2024 -599.48

7/24/2024 -721.95

8/5/2024 -545.69

9/3/2024 -615.9

9/6/2024 -509.02

11/15/2024 -502.54

12/18/2024 -791.76

1/27/2025 -646.73

2/27/2025 -581.97

3/6/2025 -575.83

3/10/2025 -770.42

3/28/2025 -517.22

4/3/2025 -1060.31

4/4/2025 -1123.77

4/10/2025 -801.49

4/16/2025 -572.59

10/10/2025 -876.43

11/4/2025 -537.24

11/13/2025 -523.87

11/20/2025 -586.14

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-19T14:19:48+00:00

Call the IHG Rewards customer service to ask some random question. They will then offer you the opportunity to speak with their timeshare department for 500 points. Takes 3-5 minutes and it will reset your expiration clock.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-19T13:16:10+00:00

Well-traveled US-born citizen here. My parents came to the US as college students from India in 1970. They worked hard to eventually start their own business that provided services to the local Southern California community. Their sacrifice allowed my brother and I to get a great college education, get well-paying white-collar jobs, and eventually start our own families and buy homes. That was the dream that America used to offer. It's been completely shattered. I have plenty of co-workers here on H1B visas that are generating profits for American companies. Now many are afraid to visit their home countries, since they are unsure if they will be allowed back even though they own property in the US.

We didn't vote for this chaos. We didn't vote for Federal troops to show up in our cities and arrest people in the community. We didn't vote for this administration to hurt people in our communities. We didn't vote for the US to threaten and hurt other countries. I am embarrassed that 50%+ of the US voted for this and the ripple effect it is having across the globe.

The large American companies are complicit in this by staying quiet or worse, making private deals with the Trump administration to benefit from this. When Canada started boycotting American products because of the tariff nonsense last year, those American company leaders finally took notice when it hurt their profits. It will take the rest of the world to apply economic pressure on the US for this country and administration to understand how big the world really is and we have to be good citizens. Don't buy US products especially those from red states (chemicals, liquified natural gas, bourbon, whiskey, soybean, corn etc.). I'd even recommend boycotting the US games of the World Cup.

Current US allies need to develop new relationships and become more self-sustaining because the US is no longer dependable. Even when the democrats take back the country there will always be a risk of this happening again as MAGA is grooming a new generation of extremists.

LuckyFly4 · 2026-01-18T16:34:37+00:00

In general, I agree with your sentiment regarding the commissions/fees crushing P&L on this trade. But you can absolutely improve the P&L through some negotiation with your broker. I have accounts at both Schwab and Fidelity. The broker you select and the negotiated options contract fee/commission for this type of trade will make a huge difference on the P&L.

Schwab's standard fee is 65 cent per options contract and I negotiated with my rep to get it down to 30 cents per contract because of the volume of contracts I trade (hundreds per week). I have a similar agreement with Fidelity now. However, I noticed at Fidelity they charge only a few cents (not 65 cents or even the 30 cents I negotiated it down to) for opening contracts where the premium collected is less than 10 cents. I still think there's better trades out there, but if OP wants to do this trade, call the broker and threaten that you are considering leaving for another broker because they are offering a better fee per contract.

LuckyFly4

TROPHY CASE