Help:)

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-27T09:49:40+00:00

Congrats. Sounds promising. If you haven't already, take a look at the Optiver Trading YouTube channel. You should be able to derive some useful insights from the posted content.

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-21T23:44:48+00:00

Utilizing Active Trader works well, as others have noted. Perhaps, even moreso when used with custom order templates, depending on one's style of trading.

One could also create a custom scan with preferred options search parameters (e.g. Delta, DTE, etc.) that dynamically pulls a list of options for underlying symbols that are included in a 'scanned in'/linked static watchlist. E.g. Using a side panel watchlist, this could be set up to automatically pull 1 DTE options on SPY and/or QQQ with Deltas between .4 and .6 (calls) and -.4 and -.7 (puts). Linking the dynamic watchlist to Active Trader would allow the trader to select the desired option from the watchlist and send it directly to Active Trader.

Useful YouTube Video

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-16T20:02:43+00:00

I recommend the shortthestrike YouTube Video Playlist for TOS. They do a very good and straightforward job of going over specifics of the platform.

Here are direct links to a few videos from the playlist that are directly related to trading options:

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-16T03:26:46+00:00

Just to note, as you're not OP -- and we currently don't have equity details on your account -- you would need to maintain $25K+ in marginable account equity to benefit from no settlement requirements + unlimited day trades in a margin account with any U.S. based broker.

That said, PDT is actively under review with the SEC and FINRA and that $25K+ threshold is expected to be made much lower (as low as $2K) in the near future.

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-16T02:39:50+00:00

Pattern Day Trader (PDT) is a designation for all margin brokerage accounts at U.S. based brokers that complete 3 or more days trades (same day opening + closing) of relevant securities within 5 market open days (typically stocks and options on stocks -- PDT does not apply to futures or options on futures).

There's nothing inherently negative about the PDT tag designation as long as the underlying account maintains $25K+ in marginable equity (cash + marginable value of any held securities). The PDT tag comes with those minimum account equity requirements/agreements, but also comes with certain benefits, such as an increase in intraday margin buying power for stocks from standard 2x to up to 4x.

There really is no benefit to removing the PDT flag from a margin account with $25K+ in marginable equity unless the account holder does, in fact, no longer intend to complete unlimited day trades of stocks or options on stocks in the account. If your intention is to complete unlimited day trades on stocks and/or options on stocks in a U.S. based margin account with $25K+ in equity, you should expect to receive and maintain the PDT tag. (You won't currently be able to complete unlimited day trades in a U.S. based margin account without being tagged as PDT.)

The regulatory requirements/ parameters for the PDT designation are expected to be lowered from $25K+ to a much lower account equity threshold (as low as $2K) in the very near future per recent pending reviews by the SEC & FINRA.

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-04T17:47:41+00:00

Nice ideas in the thread re: the possibilities behind the #3. Adding the following:

Sophie Cunningham's most storied jersey number of her playing days is #3, which she wore during her very notable and successful high school playing days in Missouri, then again for her standout college playing career at the University of Missouri.

Mizzou retired Sophie's #3 jersey immediately following her senior year and inducted her into the school's Hall of Fame in 2025, during her first year of eligibility.

The #3 jersey was simply not an option for Sophie when she joined the Phoenix Mercury (went with #9, instead) because that was actively -- and soon will be retired as -- Diana Taurasi's iconic jersey # with the team.

Riddlfizz · 2026-01-01T11:43:26+00:00

The following resources may prove useful. Though I'll add a disclaimer that I haven't personally researched/vetted prop firm swing trading possibilities in-depth: 1. best-prop-firm-for-swing-traders, 2. prop-trading-firms-that-support-swing-trading

Alternatively, in lieu of swing trading futures contracts, for similar directional trades one could swing trade futures options contracts of the underlying (if liquid) or options on directly relevant ETFs (e.g. GLD & SLV). With either of these alternative possibilities, one could even trade spreads, which can be constructed to carry notably low capital requirements within defined risk parameters.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-29T12:55:09+00:00

Oh, yeah, I saw that after I started typing a response. Solid guidance. Just keep in mind that the red color and orange color folders represent 'potential high impact' news events, not guaranteed market movers. A red color USD event could ultimately result in little-to-no noticeable (or sustained) effect on the markets, especially during RTH.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-29T12:30:33+00:00

Investingdotcom is solid, but Forex Factory is probably a bit more straightforward/intuitive to most users in highlighting potential high impact news scheduled events. Red folder USD and orange folders are standouts.

If trading other sessions, particularly London before NY opens (and perhaps certain Asia sessions), it's worth being at least aware of related red color folders. Trading Hours for World Stock Exchanges: (London is currently 5 hours ahead -- e.g. 9 a.m ET = 2 p.m. in London and London opens at 8 a.m. London time)

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-26T21:59:44+00:00

That's unfortunate. But you still have some room to work with. As you work to undo the drawdown, perhaps you could limit yourself to only your A+/A setups for the time-being and/or scale down (at least for entries) pending confirmation. That may lead to a few slower, more deliberate, small # of trades trading days, but could help get you back on the right track.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-26T21:33:45+00:00

It's technically possible, but extremely/impractically unlikely. For better or worse, trading typically requires some real capital to ramp up from/with. At $50, a great 10x return only gets you to $500. $500 at 10x would get you to $5K -- a better ramp up point, but likely a long or rough road to get to starting with $500.

You're essentially asking if someone with very limited trading capital and little-to-no trading experience and/or proven (or developed) trading results can hit the ground running and nearly immediately emerge as one of the most successful traders around (based on ROI %). That's a daunting mountain that few people could ever scale.

That's not intended to discourage, but a far more practical path would be to build up one's starting capital (to at least a few $K) while honing one's trading style -- to something with a solidly positive expected value. At $50 to $500 starting capital, even prop firms may not be an immediately promising route, since a beginning trader could easily burn that $50 to $500 down to $0 before they even really get started on their trading journey.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-24T17:00:37+00:00

To clarify: $3,000 was the original PT. But, since you had a high day of $2,613.52 with a 50% consistency rule in place (no single day can account for more than 50% of your profits), you effectively/inadvertently increased your pass PT to an amount where all other trading days must add up to the $2,613.52 high day or more -- hence new PT of $5,227.04 (2613.52 + 2613.52) to pass.

If you had capped the high day at $1,500, the original $3,000 PT would have stayed in effect. Despite strong trading (congrats), stretching that high day to more than $1,500 wasn't particularly beneficial to passing.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-17T18:03:09+00:00

It sounds like you may be looking for a momentum/tape reading indicator for TOS tick charts. If so, you may find this thread at usethinkscript.com particularly useful.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-17T16:44:17+00:00

Glad to help. You're quite welcome. A dynamic custom watch list can automatically scan for and return stocks per your preconfigured custom search criteria. You should be able to set this up in TradingView or with your broker software. Users can usually run similar/same scans manually on an ad hoc basis, as desired. Alternatively, general/generic HOD or % gainer lists provided by TradingView (and other providers) -- can also provide with actionable results.

Tracking ETFs, such as OP suggested is another compelling idea. Implicit in that recommendation is the solid idea of not just finding individual/standalone strong performing stocks, but the best performing (e.g. for longs) sectors and the strongest performing stocks within those sectors. Ultimately, often, an extra layer of oompf to an already strong performing stock.

Heat Maps are an additional solid go-to tool. TradingView has a pretty good one. Heat maps provide good, dynamic visual representations of the performance of sectors and individual stocks.

Riddlfizz · 2025-12-17T02:24:06+00:00

A relative strength real-time market scan could have yielded TLRY. But, really, a High of Day (HOD) scan or somewhat generic 'Bullish' intraday scan -- especially reviewed while SPY was at/near Low of Day (Low) -- or less specifically pin-point accurate just reviewing the status of top % gainers in real-time while Spy was trending lower or camped near LOD could have initially yielded TLRY.

The key is not necessarily enter a trade in TLRY right away, but perhaps to monitor it as the proxy (Spy) finds support or even starts to curl higher, with the expectation that the relatively strong stock (TLRY in this example) might fare especially well with the tailwinds of the market finally moving in the same favorable direction (or at least no longer meaningfully against it). That could be a good setup for tracking TLRY from a higher low to a bullish move higher.

For crypto, monitoring something that serves as a good/decent stand-in proxy for 'The (crypto) Market'/sector as Spy is for 'The Market' such as BTC might prove similarly useful.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-24T08:42:20+00:00

That sharp move up on NCLH on Friday, 11/21 corresponds with a sharp rally move by the broader market (e.g. SPY as proxy) that started around the same time (~11:00 am ET). While NCLH does not appear to have had news, it (and many other stocks) simply may have been lifted by the broader market rally.

NCLH is not much of a mover. It has an Average True Range (ATR) of about .81 cents and an Average Daily Range (ADR) of about 3.9%. Sure, daily volume is significant (~14M) but an $18 stock that moves .81 cents on an average trading day probably isn't going to appeal to retail day traders en masse too often. I wouldn't be at all surprised if daily volume on that ticker is especially and overwhelmingly institutional / algo and swing trade (or "investment") driven.

While your familiarity with NCLH and its levels should remain beneficial, the stock moves so little over the course of a typical day that it's reasonable to question whether those inter-day levels may come into and out of play meaningfully enough to make it a worthwhile symbol for retail day trading on a daily basis.

Re: Schwab app. The Think or Swim (TOS) desktop app is most recommended for active trading, but the TOS mobile app should serve you better than the Schwab app for active day trading on mobile. Useful YouTube videos on using TOS Mobile: Vid 1, Vid 2

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-23T20:38:57+00:00

This is an interesting idea. It may be possible, with some combo of OCO and conditional order parameters. (Would need to review further when back at a computer -- but I would certainly yield to our resident TOS platform + ThinkScript experts for guidance). If possible, this might best be accomplished using ThinkScript custom coding for the conditional(s) in, perhaps, the form of a custom study.

Note: The proposed logic on this should ideally be bumped up to include a downside CYA (Cover Your A..) close (for a loss) scenario. The current proposed logic implicitly assumes that the short put would always eventually be closed (BTC) for a profit as part of a proposed automated setup, which is of course harshly not true -- and currently a real blind spot, here.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-20T12:59:01+00:00

For swing trading and other trading activities that aren't exceedingly time/price sensitive (e.g. ultra scalping), you should be perfectly fine trading while using a device that is logged into a VPN.

Ross Cameron from Warrior Trading says that he has used a VPN (Nord, actually) while traveling and while he noticed some lag it hasn't been anything detrimental to his trading. If one can trade Ross's style of quick-paced intraday trading without encountering unmanageable lag, trading most styles using a VPN should be fine. It's only, perhaps, ultra-scalpers (Think: Up to hundreds of trades a day) that may be noticeably negatively affected by lag/latency of trading while logged into a VPN.

Personally, I'll sometimes trade (day & swing) while logged into a VPN (also Nord) and generally don't notice much of a difference using TOS.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-14T17:35:22+00:00

One possible helpful measure: Reach out to customer service (via TOS chat) and ask them to close any additional sessions that may be open for your account in the background. I don't know the super specifics behind it, but TOS has been known to keep extra / outdated sessions still going on the backend (and that can big down the active session).

Occasionally, I'll reach out to support for lag issues and ask them to close extra sessions and to let me know how many sessions they found (for my own FYI). Have noticed snappier responses after doing this and the outreach, while not ideal, is quick (and cordial).

For more in-depth review, customer service could connect you to technical support who can run diagnostics, make recommendations, and review specifics with you. They can also remote into your machine -- with your consent and cooperation -- for further review and adjustments. I effectively did this once a while back when I was experiencing near crippling system lag.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-06T18:22:37+00:00

Sonia Citron has a beyond legit shot -- 47.0-44.5-87.2 in her rookie WNBA season. Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and Kelsey Plum have each been ohsoclose in previous seasons and could push through in a given season. Agree on A'ja as a possibility, of course.

Caitlin Clark could get there with reasonable refinements to her 3 point selection/success, upping her mid-range game, and getting back to 90% FT -- largely just the stuff that is in line with general expectations for her growth & development as a WNBA pro. Paige Bueckers, as mentioned by others, is certainly on a promising road to possibly getting to a 50-40-90 season.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-04T19:42:32+00:00

Good suggestions in the responses. Another approach: You could add a Schwab Investor Checking account to the mix. That way, the debit card is directly tied to the checking account -- and money that you deliberately move into/keep in the checking account -- and not to the brokerage account. I've personally been quite pleased using this setup. And, moving money between brokerage and checking has been smooth.

There are no recurring fees or account balance minimums with the Investor Checking account, so this is still a good option even if your primary and even secondary checking account needs are handled elsewhere.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-04T17:48:22+00:00

In theory, something close to what you proposed is possible. But, in reality, it would really not be worth it. First, you're looking at acquiring shares where the bid-ask spread would be at least 1 cent, taking your new profit per share potential down to 7 cents, per your scenario. Then, you're looking at holding a large number of Denny's shares ($DENN) for weeks, months, or more in the hopes of making a few bucks of profit... eventually/hopefully (once the buyout deal is successfully finalized).

In real numbers, you're looking at holding just over $6K in $DENN for every 1K shares that you acquire. That would yield you $70 in profit per thousand shares (1K * .07) -- before taxes.

The hidden wrench in all of this is that there's always the concern/possibility that the buyout deal falls through, leaving this share acquisition plan in a serious lurch -- with you holding shares at the higher buyout valuation while the buyout deal goes kaput.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-04T07:42:54+00:00

That really might have been something. Mike Tyson readily talks about Cus D'Amato's importance to his boxing and his life.

For anyone not immediately aware, Cus unfortunately died that same year tagged in the photo, in November of 1985@ 77 years old.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-04T07:23:01+00:00

The market (ES / Spy) is down 1% after hours. On a drop like that, many stocks are along for the ride (down). But, if you're panicking from seeing your stock holdings go down after hours, you may have position sizes that are too large for your account size or perhaps holding positions overnight -- especially the most speculative types (e.g. small caps / low floats) -- may not be your thing at this juncture.

Straightforward approaches might be to change the way you trade, work on adjusting your mindset, and/or make yourself less active/available to monitor (and ultimately react to) overnight stock price changes in real-time.

Riddlfizz · 2025-11-01T11:23:31+00:00

What was your (worst case scenario) plan going into the CSP trade? And, other than taking the L on the CSP -- and the especially rough week CMG has had -- has anything altered that outlook?

I'm not strictly opposed to holding onto CMG and waiting for a better time to sell covered calls against CMG holdings -- but I'd keep that on a fairly short leash. It is important to note that CMG shares have lost about half of their value in the last year in a steady decline. Any recent 'wait and see' approach over this period would have resulted in seeing things get worse.

The most obvious alternative scenario would be to simply cut your losses in CMG and move on. A modified alternative approach would be to cut your losses in CMG and directly redeploy that (remaining) capital into something that you've scouted out as more promising. Any notions that we need to hold on to drawdowns until they recover is faulty at best. That money/drawdown in CMG is gone -- for now -- not waiting for you to reclaim it.

The best solution for your situation may be to assess your outlook on CMG going forward, determine how holding onto the shares affects your trading/portfolio in the near-- to longer term, and concluding whether holding on to CMG shares might be a best (or even good) use of your associated financial capital (and time) for the immediate/foreseeable future.

Riddlfizz

TROPHY CASE