goumie

sorry. Not trying to argue just trying to confirm. I appreciate the information. Thanks

My understanding that isnt that much lower than short term capital gains on equities which is around 20%. Long term holds over a year around around 15%. I can understand that the taxes themselves can get more complicated though as I have had to do them on investments but never traded in high quantity.

I am from the US and I understand what you are saying and I agree. I am not asking to determine whether or not I want to trade in the equity market but only because it was brought up by others as a coparative advantage with the futures market. Also I will check the IRS site I was just asking in case someone knew off the top of their head. But I do think it is good to learn before you decide to dedicate countless time to learning a market and pursuing it what you can expect as an end result. I agree it shouldnt be your only motive but I believe for me at least it factors in. No one just trades and spends all the time trying to learn for shits and giggles. The incentive always comes down to money in one way or another.

okay does anyone know what the tax rate for day trading equities, individual stocks, is?

Sorry for being slow and confused but simply you are saying what. If you day trade equities, you are taxed at 40%? Then what is the tax rate for futures contracts?

day trades are taxed at 40%, are you sure on this? i thought it was closer to 25

The thing is if you are trading such small lots I fear the broker fee is going to eat almost all of your gain. Also I understand there is always risk of something like this happening but how often does a stock suddenly drop 30%. This rarely happens in a single day nevermind within 15 minutes. I would consider possibly starting with 100 share lots. It seems like not many people on this site actually trade equities, is there a reason other than the higher leverage available in trading commodoties?

Yeah that same Merrill Lynch analyst will probably tell you Merill is the best broker on the street. The truth is analysts can say what they want but if they really knew what was going to happen with the market they would have predicted this mess to begin with and as far as I know the only notable broker to do this was Goldman Sachs.

With futures there is much more volatility, correct? My idea was to trade equities because it is a market I already have a basic understanding of and if you are buying 500 shares of a $30 stock it isnt often it is going to go more than a point or two in one direction or the other. I am not trying to get rich quick so my idea was if you can be successful with stocks say in 500 share lots and maybe make a point a day then that would be $500 gross (before taxes and broker fee). I understand there is still considerable risk and a lot more capital is required but my feeling is it is less volatile at the same time so it would be possible to have your account in better control for a beginner. Any thoughts or feedback on this would be appreciated.

WIth futures on things with wheat and things like that though isnt it a lot harder to apply fundamentals which come from news and other sources as it isnt as publicized as companies are? basically the reward is higher but isnt also a lot harder compared to stocks where more information is available?

Sorry I should have stated the question more clearly. I know that day trading min is at 25k if you make 4 round trips a week. The question I should have asked is 15k a reasonable cushion above the 25k min. I actually do not plan to do this for about a year while soaking up knowledge and practicing strategies and such and then will I decide whether or not to make the jump but want to know how much I should expect to save. Are equities not the best thing to start with? Any feedback is appreciated.

What if you wanted to trade individual stocks. Would 40k in a margin account be a decent start?