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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (67791)	2/13/2003 11:47:30 AM
From: chomolungma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

I read once where 90% of futures accounts end up at zero. The odds are clearly against the amateur. I would never trade in markets where I felt like I was at a disadvantage like the agriculturals. I stick to the financial futures and a few industrial commodities where I feel my economics gives me the edge. From time to time, I've played stock index futures, mostly from the short side. Now here's a fact that most people don't know. There's only one way for a short-side player to get long-term capital gains tax treatment and that's by shorting an index future. 60% of all gains on a futures account are taxed as long-term and the other 40% as short term. If you feel the market is too high and you need a hedge, why sell out stocks and pay capital gains? Short an index future and you've got a lovely hedge. But I ramble. Thanks for the wishes, the same to you.