Popular - Today: How can I be expected to still make money? - Stocks To Buy Forum

I realize now that my biggest enemy in trading is the brokerage firm. I used to foolishly think that making money in the markets meant being disciplined. I thought you had to have a good money management system, a method to correctly forecast market direction, and a well thought out Trading Plan. All of that matters to a point. What good is it when brokerage firms hiding in the shadows with no paper trail decide to arbitrarily raise margin requirements because OTHER traders lost money? Why am I being punished for the mistakes of others? Margin requirements are there so that the brokerage firm is not liable for having to cover losses of the customer when they lose more than their account.

I'm referring to the 2nd increase in margin requirements to sell uncovered calls in VXX in just the last 2 months. The first time, margin requirements were raised by 33%; the huge 16% up day in February caused the requirements to be raised. I got caught short through the entire move, and took an 18% loss. This is a terrible trade, but that is 18%. Why did the margin requirements have to be raised? Why is margin not tailored to the individual? It would be ok to have large margin requirements in the beginning, when an account is first opened. But why are my margin requirements double what they were just 2 months ago?

Since I opened my account, I have made $27k over the last later. That's averaging 300 contracts sold per week. That's some nice commissions for the broker. You would think that brokerage firms would be more inclined to offer competitive margin requirements to long time traders who have proven that they pose absolutely no risk to the firm. I find it very insulting that my livelihood, my ability to pay my bills since this is full time job, the amount of money I can earn is no longer about me. It's about how much the brokerage firms say I need to put up per contract. I used to average $1500 a week. Now with the new margin requirements, it's $750 a week. What recourse does a person have? All of the brokerage firms act in unison, when one raises it, they all do. How can a profitable and responsible trader get around such astronomical requirements?