Unregistered

Hi Brenden,

how do you do your taxes from trading on lightspeed? I noticed the online statements only shows the profits and losses, but does not show the basis or total cost of each transaction. I used Scottrade previously, and they show the total amount for each transaction. I did quite a good number of trades on lightspeed and now thinking about how I should report the taxes related to the trading. Any special tax software you use? any additional information would be greatly appreciated. thanks!!

neo

Brendan Egan

Hi Neo,
Welcome to TradingApples! As a quick side note, I encourage you to take a second to register for free with TradingApples (unregistered user posts often get flagged as spam and don't make it to the thread).

I filed for mark-to-market trader's status last year so my taxes are simply dollars in shares sold minus dollars in shares bought and that is my income. Lightspeed mails out tax documents sometime in February that shows all the info on your trades (it comes in paper form if you don't have too many trades and CD form if you have a lot of trades).

I simply used TurboTax for my taxes last year, and you can contact Penson Financial (the clearing firm for Lightspeed and most brokers) and they can provide you with an electronic version of your trades if Lightspeed does not provide this to you and you will be able to import it into most tax programs.

Take care,
Brendan

Unregistered

Hi,
Is there a good selection of ETFs available for trade with Lightspeed trading. I read that their options offerings are limited, is this true?

Thank you

MikeFriesMN

Brendan I wanted to ask a question about the level two screen I use in Lightspeed trader and I will apologize ahead of time if this is the wrong place to ask it. In this picture of my level 2, what does it mean when there is a whole group of prints that are highlighted in a box of red or green? I understand that red prints are trades on the bid and green are trades on the offer but why are some grouped in a big highlighted box?...

Brendan Egan

Hi Unregistered,
First off as a quick side note I urge you to take a few seconds to register for the site (it is 100% free) as a lot of the unregistered posts get marked as spam.

Lightspeed allows you to trade any ETF that there is to my knowledge, however they do have certain margin restrictions on leveraged ETF's such as FAZ/FAS. I do not know the exact margin restrictions as I do not trade ETFs often but I know they do exist.

Hope this helps!
-Brendan

Brendan Egan

Hey there Mike,
Welcome to the community! This is a fine place to ask that question. The actual' window you are talking about is within the level 2 screen on Lightspeed but is actually called the "time and sales" window. We actually have a short video talking about it in our free beginner course:
Lesson 6: Time and Sales

While I use the time and sales screen fairly often, I actually never paid much attention to anything other than the prices and amounts of transactions so I am not 100% sure in my answer to your question. I do know, as you stated, that the green are at the offer price, red are at the bid price, and white are inbetween the bid and offer. I believe the highlighting in red or green simply mean that price has been at the bid or ask for some time and has absorbed all the buyers or sellers at a price and price has continued to move up or down.

For example, if there is a 100.00 bid and 100.01 offer and we saw all the 100.01 offers taken and then all the 100.02 offers taken and then all the 100.03 offers taken without any ticks at the bid price, I believe the 100.02 and 100.03 would be highlighted in green.

Hopefully this explanation makes sense--if not please let me know

Take care,
Brendan

MikeFriesMN

Question about the Lightspeed platform for anyone that may know the answer. What do the values highlighted in this picture represent? Most of the values in the Lightspeed stats bar are self explanatory but I am unsure about the ones highlighted here. Any help would be appreciated.

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MikeFriesMN

That did help Brendan. As it turns out the highlighted blocks of prints are taking place outside the current market or bid/ask. For example bid 20.00 and ask 20.01 and a print comes off at 19.99 it will be highlighted in a red box. Conversely if a print comes off at 20.02 it will be highlighted in a green box.

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tiburona

Hi, I just opened an account with lightspeed and I am overall ok with it... just don't get the hang with setting stop-losses, which is kinda irritating... (is it just me or is it "a little" complicated?)
to program a stop-loss or trailing-stop- what¨s the best order-type?....and is it true that I cannot set a stop-loss for an open position?
By the way....does Lightspeed charge for unexecuted or cancelled shares? Or when I modify an order?
I would be really thankful for some help/advice on that saludos!!

pmccandless

hey tiburona,

Stoplosses are limit orders. Limit orders will be the only order I ever use due to some bad experiences with market orders. As far as the lightspeed specific questions you had, I'm sure someone will chime in with the info you need. Good luck.

Pat