GoldStandard

By attempting to predict the future, speculators provide the valuable service of helping the markets prepare for the future, enabling decisions to be made today that prepare for tomorrow. Take futures markets in oil for example. When prices rise in the present because speculators look at the future and see higher oil prices in it, they are effectively transmitting valuable information from the future to the present where it can be acted upon in preparation for the future. This preparation could take the form of additional investments in new oil exploration, or in investments in alternative energy such as solar, wind, etc. It also signals people in the present that they might want to adopt technologies such as hybrid cars to conserve a resource that is becoming scarce. Futures markets also help maintain price stability. Instead of waiting for a given commodity to actually get short of supply, futures enable producers and users to prepare for the future, which results in less dramatic price swings than we would otherwise see. This is illustrated in this article: CARPE DIEM: What Can Onions Teach Us About Oil Prices? which compares the price of onions (which don't have a futures market) to other commodities where futures trading is allowed. And as other posters have pointed out the equity markets have a distinct purpose in helping raise and allocate capitol in the most efficient way possible. It is true, though, that in our modern financial system, a great deal of the useful purpose of speculation has been replaced by various forms of rent-seeking, corruption, and manipulation by privileged parties. However the basic purpose of speculation is still a great benefit to society, because it allows people and markets to prepare for the future.

I'm guessing the reason for this is because life insurance benefits are not taxed. It wouldn't make sense otherwise, since no life insurance company is going to sell policies at an overall loss. But if the money saved on taxes is more than the marginal cost of buying the insurance (the overall cost of premiums minus the overall benefits received) it would be a net win for both WalMart and the insurance company.

I have to quibble with this statement. Greenspan did express some libertarian leanings when he was much younger (including a well-written paper in support of the Gold Standard), but he has long since abandoned libertarianism for centralized control of the economy by a fiat money fractional reserve banking system. Libertarianism and fiat-money-based central planning are pretty much diametrically opposed schools of thought.

Sounds very interesting, especially if it makes profits. Reading the screens of various trading applications is a very cool feature. Must have been somewhat difficult to program. Kudos to you for figuring out how to make that work. Regarding features 5 and 6, those sound quite ambitious and difficult and not necessarily needed in order to be successful with your basic arbitrage concept. Also not as unique (there are other existing trade copier softwares out there already) Feature 7 sounds even more ambitious and difficult than the others, and also not really necessary for your arbitrage concept to work. One thing that would be handy is some sort of interface to calculate and display the profits you're making in arbitraging between the different platforms, including some metrics on slippage and commissions. Also you might need some way to deal with requotes, error messages, etc from various platforms. If you need a beta tester who is already running a number of platforms let me know.

Here's a link to their recent webinar: Trader Kingdom - Order Flow Analysis in the eMini S&P 500 He explained that the COT number is not the net delta for the period , but the delta 'since the last temporary exchaustion' Interesting stuff. That was an interesting screenshot of depth ratio indicators davewolfs. Was that a neoticker indicator?

Thanks for the report, its much appreciated. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I agree with you that their pricing structure could be more attractive to their target audience. The $99 monthly lease would be a very attractive option if it included all a trader needed to get started with them. With an additional $1200 or $1600 one time fee required in addition to the monthly fee, they are raising the barrier to entry quite a bit. I can't help but think they would make a lot more money if they raised their monthly fee to $150 and didn't require any one-time initial fees. A trader who stayed with them for even one year would give them substantially more revenue than the one-time fees generate, and traders who stay with them for longer would be a goldmine for them year after year. EOTpro's business model is a good example. There are no large upfront fees to make it hard for people to join, but their monthly fee is hefty and over time they make way more money than they could possibly make by charging one-time fees.