[Redsox]

Interesting theories. First off, I think that Jeff Yass (president of susquehanna, one of the largest market making firms in the world) would disagree with you that the skills used in poker do not translate well to market making.

And as for your positional trading vs. market making comment. Lets examine the difference between the two in today's market place. A guy who sits off floor a makes positional options trades can get himself into a position that makes sense for him, and with the current market environment and competition (i.e. nickel wide markets, nbbo, streaming, the ise electronic market place, the box in boston) can do so losing minimal edge to the bid ask spread. A floor "market maker" must provide certain liquidity guarantees (especially to his own firms customers), must show the same market and size to broker dealers as legitmate retail customers (called one size fits all...3 years ago I could be mega wide and fade my markets for off-floor bd's, firms, etc....not the case any more). And at the same time, after making sickenly tight markets to keep order flow (most floors now have "short fall" fees. If you do not capture enough of the order flow in a certain name for the month, you have to pay the exchange a fee for not doing your job well enough), now I have to manage a position (just like the off floor guy), but instead of being in the position that I want to be in, I often find myself in the position that the rest of the world DOESN'T want to be in. How is that easier than doing what an off floor hedge fund or BD does? Please let me know in an environment which incldes NBBO, streaming markets, the ise, etc. why it is so easy to make markets.(If you are not familiar with these above terms, you don't know anything about making markets, and shouldn't bother trying to answer the question). I patiently await your response.