After using the "Virtual Trader" on Optionsxpress for the past few months, earlier this month I noticed a "feature" that has almost put me to the tipping point in dealing with this company [It started with needing 25K to trade futures]: YOU CAN NOT BUY OR SELL INSIDE OF THE PROGRAM'S BID BY ASK SPREAD -- NO MATTER WHAT! I have tested this on multiple trades that I have been doing. No matter what, cannot get inbetween the spread. For example. Say the BxA on an option is 6.7 and 7.2. IF I set a limit on the program to buy at 7.1 [a dime off], I will not get a fill [when realistically I should on an open interest of 1000 or more]. Can anyone recommend a good paper trading program that can handle options and futures [currently, under advice from the Forex thread, am using the FXCM platform to practice trading forex]???
TOS has a decent options simulator...only thing that I ever saw that was unrealistic is it gives you fills on complex spreads (DD's, IC's) a little more easily than in real life on less liquid instruments. The fills on the more liquid options was decent though. You may just call around and see if any of the brokers have the option on the simulator that makes it trade through your price by one tick before giving you a fill....not sure if that is out there, but it would be handy if you could find it.