s2prasad

You are looking at the two different strikes because some time back the vxx had reverse split. If you are new to options I would refer you to a reliable broker to get your quotes. Examples are TD Ameritrade, Interactive broker, Trade monster Etc. If you are interested in learning about options and there peculiarities you should check out Tasty trade.com. Good luck

Think or swim / TD ameritrade is another brokerage company where you can have the OCO orders. First you put the order to sell when it executes the second order to buy at the price you specified.

you should look for some brokers who will let you trade with their paper money account. Most brokers in the US offer at least one month for you to try their platform. example Think or swim, options express Trade monster Etc...... Ninja is mainly for futures and intraday trading, even then if you can write your own program it is better. It is expensive to buy and get data plans if you are planing to trade only stocks.

If you have an account with IB you can get real time data. Only limitation is you can only trade in a Sim account. If you decide to start trading You will have to pay for the Ninja. If you see some of the videos in the Ninja trader channel you will get a lot of information. I am also trying out the software.

They pick the stop orders.No doubt about it. set an alert in emini even though it traded below my alert did not get triggered. My alert was set for a ask price say 1160 the market traded down to 1159.5 apparently there were no ask . That means the market was pushed down to pick the stops. Then the market was back at 1161. I try to set alerts then I look to see what the price action and then trade.

You have to start some where. So consider the 100 share as a test. Invest only what you are comfortable to loose. consider the whole amount as a loss. When you reach that level of acceptance you can enter the trade. Also look at the opposite of not entering the trade. You would not be able to benefit from the gains you might have had. Hope this helps you. You expressing your feelings this way helps you to get control your emotions. Belive me you are on the right track. Good luck.

Have you looked at Think or swim. It has a paper trading account. You don't have to pay a cent. Just open a regular account. If you have no interest in continuing just cancel your account and get all of your money back. They have stock , options & future all in one. They also have weekly chat on wed and friday.