7 Comments
User's avatar
Boldux's avatar

This was super helpful and straightforward, thanks. Just to confirm are you doing this in a brokerage account or retirement account? And do you account for taxes in your math? So the example 15% spread is cut by margin fees and taxes (but still profitable)

TheGamingDividend's avatar

Hey there! Good question. I do this in a regular brokerage account (non retirement).

I personally do consider taxes as part of the calculation but for the sake of simplicity in this article, I didn't even include that.

Boldux's avatar

Forgot to follow-up on this, but thanks for clarifying. That's how I'm running my calculations too.

Jamie's avatar

Clear, clean cut breakdown, thank you for the explanation. Margin seems scary to someone new, who doesn’t know much about it.

Wrong Thinker's avatar

Could you provide a little more specifics? There are some ambiguous words, e.g., "some cash" "spread not wide enough." Also, do you consider the opportunity cost of the cash sitting in reserve and not producing income? How does that figure into your calculations? Is that more like insurance?

Chris's avatar

This is an old comment but I assumed cash loosely refers to safely stored liquid money invested in money market, T-bills, etc

Steve Kang's avatar

Awesome strategy! I did look into margin requirements at Fidelity. I don’t qualify yet.