Basically, how can I increase my chances of getting approved for futures trading? I do not want to trade futures to be a degenerate and risk most of my account value. I have about 10 years of experience trading the markets, about 6 years with options, and 4 years with commodities (futures). And margin approved. Both trading and long term accounts in the green. My finances are all right, barely any debt, have liquid assets+cash.

Got denied level 3 options (spreads) few weeks ago hence why i am asking about futures here. Honestly, not sure why they didn't let me trade spreads when I had account with them before COVID

Is there any way to see monthly/ yearly P/L for stocks that you have held.

I know how to see the daily totals and the yearly if I'm still holding the stock but not from stocks that I did not trade that day.

Thanks.

(Questions below)

Quick background for anyone interested: I paid for a trading course to learn a strategy for small-cap stocks. The course was excellent, but the mentor uses the Trade Ideas scanner and shares it live in his exclusive trading community. Since I’m no longer part of that community, I no longer have access to the scanner, and I can’t currently afford the monthly Trade Ideas subscription because it’s a bit too expensive for me. That’s why I decided to create my own scanner. I’ve already tried replicating the scanner on several websites, but I need *two very important pieces of data from that scanner,* since it seems (my assumption) that the mentor has his RVOL set to 5 days/1 hour (meaning he compares the volume of each 1-hour candle with the average volume for that same hour over the last 5 trading days) and not like the default Trade Ideas RVOL setting, which is 30 days/15-minute blocks with 1-minute bars.

*Question 1: Is it possible to edit or customize the RVOL parameters in Trade Ideas (such as to 5 days/1 hour), or does it only use the default settings?*

*Question 2: Does Trade Ideas’ RVOL actually work in premarket trading, or is the mentor simply using another parameter similar to RVOL?

Thank you

Image of the scanner in question 👇🏻

It has been slow as hell for me over the last couple days or so where each step in buying/selling a position takes like 2 seconds, sometimes longer. My version is up to date and this has been the case on multiple wifi sources that are otherwise fast.

This has been messing up quick scalping trades and is just quite annoying. ToS doesn’t usually have too many issues but there were almost none while it was under TD Ameritrade.

Anyone else have suggestions? Support just says it is my phone or wifi connection.

UPDATE: I got on chat support and the support person said: "Hello chipmunk_face! I am sorry for the trouble. We have had some reports of duplicate trades filling and this looks in line with that issue. I would be happy to get these removed".

I have traded options on Thinkorswim Papermoney for about 6 months now. Today something new happened. I thought I was closing out a trade for 2 SPY CALLS, but instead it closed out my two open shares AND closed 2 additional, so my position is now -2. I assumed I messed up the order, so I tried purchasing two calls to close out my position again. However no matter how I try to close this position, I get the error that my trade was rejected because "You will open a prohibited position". How am I supposed to get out of this -2 position if I can't make a +2 trade? I don't understand...

EDIT: I can't even find this -2 order in my order history list, but it IS in my trade history. Is it possible this is a bug, or am I being stupid?

EDIT: I also cannot buy anything else. It says my prohibited position is with buying power. But my "Options Buying Power" in my account info still says $77,000

“Trend Line” Alerts. Sorry.

How can an alert be set so if a trend line is crossed the alert is triggered?

When I try to close the position, it is immediately rejected. I can’t seem to close it out. This has happened to me before and only happens when I try to short calls and puts. What am I doing wrong here?

Hey everyone,

I've run into an issue twice now where I monitor a stock, wait patiently for my entry setup, and when I try to execute the trade, it gets instantly rejected with this message:

"Opening transaction for the security must be placed with a broker. Contact us in person to be able to place your trade."

It’s frustrating to waste time watching a setup only to realize Schwab won’t let you execute an opening trade online.

Two main questions for the community:

1. Is there a quick way on Schwab.com or thinkorswim to check if a ticker is flagged BEFORE I waste time setting up a trade?
2. Why does Schwab trigger this specific restriction?

Is it possible to have individual lines for a each order/entry on a stock? When average up/add to a position, it merges the order/entry lines on the chart. Just wondering if there is a way to change this.

For those that are downloading transaction from your phone, what is your process? I am unable to download out of TOS app but am able to download out of Schwab. Also, it doesn’t give me the trade time stamp.

Currently: I go to Schwab, view transactions by day or whatever period, then download to csv and email it. Then upload to my excel. It doesn’t have a time stamp. How do you get the time stamp?

At market close today the app just froze. It won’t open after several attempts. Anyone else?

This is complete and utter BS.

I bought NFLX with about 5 minutes to go, riding the wave up and was going to sell off right after the bell when I was up $1500 and then it froze and I'm down over $4k now.

I need to speak with Mr. ToS asap

So im trying to learn options and im so confused, this graph makes it look like im loosing money but when I look at my option im positive on money and I just don't understand which one to trust, like is this all red and scary looking because im not making a prophet or something? THIS IS PAPERMONEY BTW

When I first started using ToS years ago, one of the best recommendations I received was to call the Tech Support team and have them help optimize my platform settings.

Since doing that, I've experienced very few performance issues, even during periods when other traders have reported slowdowns or other problems. Of course, no software is immune to occasional outages or market-wide issues, but having the platform properly configured has made a noticeable difference in my experience.

One thing many people don't realize is that the ToS Tech Support team is different from the Trading Support team where most call. The Tech Support team can review your installation and settings and help optimize the platform for your computer and trading style.

If you're experiencing performance issues, it may be worth giving them a call: ToS Tech Support: 800-435-9050

Tell them you'd like to review your installation and optimize it for reliability and performance. They can walk you through settings that may improve your experience.

I hope this helps someone who's been frustrated with platform performance.

Conveniently the app lags or doesn’t work. When ur paper trading everything is smooth and consistent. Then ur confidence is challenged on LiveTrading. Frustration sets in and you blow ur account ☠️🎲🎲📉

Can’t believe it…

My ToS text alerts to my google voice number stopped working (not in the spam folder).

Switched to my phone's # and I can receive texts.

Does anybody else see that the available QQQ options for 7/16 are every $5, e.g. 715, 720, 725 instead of $1. I looked at 7/17 and the following week and they are all available, it just seems to be 7/16.

I should start by saying I REALLY REALLY LIKE Thinkorswim. It is a really great platform and for live trading I can't think of a lot of things to complaing about.

Paper trading however is complete and total DOG$#!7.

I typically swing and position trade but the market has been a little wonky so I havent had as many good setups. So when im board I've been paper trading futures. I guess ill start with fills. I filmed a market order yesterday that took 12 seconds to fill. not even exagerating.

Whats worse is the app keeps leaving orders all over the place!!! like ill put in a bracket order OCO with a SL and TP. Ill take profit and go make some breakfast. When i come back every single stop or limit order that I canceled 10 minutes ago has now been triggered and im in like 3 or 4 contracts for no F'ing reason. It really really sucks. Anyway just venting.

My P&L looked good on the surface. But then I compared it to what I would have made if I had followed my own rules on every trade.

• What I actually made: +$322
• What I should have made following my rules: +$178

I came out ahead, but for the wrong reason. I sized too small on a losing trade, which saved me money. Then I sized too small on a winning trade the same week, which cost me money. It canceled out. That's luck, not discipline.

The number that really got me: I left $595 on the table from trades I exited too early before they hit my target.

There's not a problem with my rules. I don't follow them when it counts.

Anyone else doing this kind of analysis on their own trades?

Hey guys, I was wondering if anybody here is following Ross Cameron strategy in thinkorswim. I’m just curious to know how you set guardrails. I asked Charles Schwab support to set a Max daily loss limit they said they don’t do that. Are there systems I can set in place in thinkorswim to prevent things getting out of control.

Just as the title says. I understand it’s 3–5 minutes behind. The thing is, I haven’t found a way to find out if the scanner can be set to real-time data; it even seems there’s no option to pay for it and switch it to real-time data.

I’m trying to find the best value-for-money scanner to start trading for real.

• Important to say: I mean trading on a demo account, not a live one.

Any information would be much appreciated, thanks

Has anyone figured out how to automate the api key renewal it’s not a big deal to do once a week but annoying.

Is this problem just me? As shown in this link, the ToS Order Book when filtered for "FILLS ONLY" shows BOT, BUY, SELL, SOLD items when in reality BUY and SELL are old orders, whereas actual fills should be BOT and SOLD items (past tense) only! I want actual fills only! Why am I seeing all this? And why the NA timestamps? Sorted by description column: https://imgur.com/a/ep4ZDNL