Here's a "fun" exercise: Look at your past trades, and log some new trades, at least on paper, using your system. Get a free options graphing tool like: https://www.hoadley.net/options/strategymodel.htm#download. Or use sites like this to analyze and/or get past option prices and/or IV: http://www.optionistics.com/quotes/stock-prices or http://www.ivolatility.com/options.j?ticker=SPY:NYSEArca&R=1&period=12&chart=2&vct= Then you can estimate what your trades would have done if using options instead of long stock. Try long calls, verticals, condors, whatever you like. Yeah there will be some inaccuracies, but if you work at it a little you can get a pretty good idea how things would have gone. Ballpark, anyway.
The commissions with IB tiered rate is not bad. Probably cheaper than other brokers charge to trade stock. There's gotta be cheap ETFs, but they will also be less liquid so you have to factor that into your trading costs. Just buy fewer shares.
I want to trade in round lots. Buying odd lots results in nonstandard routing, and also messes up my math. Example: Nasdaq:AMD - Buy 100@20.00 = $2000.00 Price moves to $21 - Average up - Buy 100@21.00 = $2100.00, total 200 shares $4100 Price moves to 22. Average up - Buy 200@22 = $4400, total 400 shares $8500 Etc... Do this with SPY @ $270 per share and I’ll quickly be up into five or six zeroes. I don’t have that kind of cash, but I still want to trade the S&P like this.