I am a professional trader, that is why I am not to get involved in backroom operations... I exercise my strats and backrrom takes care of the rest
From what you are saying you are just a retail trader as you put it...you have to do everything.
If you are not familiar with or do not have a backroom then you are not professional. If the name Commodities Corporation does not ring a bell you are in a completely different league.
All of the world top traders have their teeth cut in Commodities Corporation.
Orix Corporation is the Largest Financial Institution in Japan and was a founder member of Simex.
I was mentored under Robert Rotella...if you are any trader worth your salt you would have read his book...I have a copy personally autograpthed by him.
You are just a wannabe.
Commodities Corporation (CC) was acquired long time back - that's past and with advent of technology, a lot of stuff, including the pits in Singapore have been phased out. You are out of times and living in the past. Even if the top traders cut their teeth with CC, claiming association (even if that were true) does not mean you are in the same league either....(maybe that's why you need to come to this forum bragging a 100% win strategy and trading small sizes?)
What has been clear has been your lack of knowledge and dismissing point blank questions with a play of words.....
The questions asked: "And for someone who has traded options, how do you reconcile trading on retail option vols spread when the interbank market is so much tighter? How can you not know about your mark to market positions to the point that you thought the 26k cash account reflects your full profits? "
This is a simple consideration - as a trader, you would buy a stock at $1 or at $2 (where the retail platform spread you an extra $1)
Knowing your own risk profile is not backroom. If you were a trader, you would know your portfolio, instrument and position inside out and at any point in time. How can you call yourself a pro option trader when you do not even know your risk parameters and allow yourself to be systematically spread by a retail platform? No wonder you struggle even to differentiate your liabilities from your cash position. You do not know your option geeks but dismissed it as back room operations. Any traders worth his salt would be most sensitive to his vol and gamma position and how his strategy may playout as the underlying changes. And here you are in this forum, advocating derivative strategies claiming that they are 100% wins.
I leave readers to draw their conclusions.