Due to a lot of good press here (superior option analytics, etc.), I opened a demo account at TOS 2 years ago. I have to sheepishly admit that I was overwhelmed and intimidated as I stumbled around blindly, getting nowhere. Quite frustrating! My intent was to use both, doing the bulk/even all of my trading on whichever one provided the best rates. I dunno, perhaps I no longer have the patience/stamina to stay up half the night trying to figure out what I already know how to do? While IB's platform can be just as confusing (maybe they all are), when I started with it 10+ yrs ago, I had the benefit of a trading friend who had already been on it awhile. That's probably the difference.
Must be at least 100 times here in the boards, people claim that they can match IB rates with TD, TOS, if they just negotiate and they have large volumes. I say Bullshit. They never say what volume they have. Short answer: IB options commission rates are far, far lower than TD's no matter what volume you trade. I'm not saying TD is a bad broker. They probably have far better service, graphs, etc... but based on price, TD can not, does not, and never will compete on price.
I agree. I'm waiting to see an actual screengrab from a TD/ToS account showing lower-than-IB commish actually being charged.
I think what TD and TOS has going for them is the flat rate pricing, which makes it very predictable. IB has so many pass throughs, which in turn are highly dependent on which exchange their SMART algo decides to route your order, that it's difficult to gauge your commissions until you actually trade. I think in the end IB turns out a lot cheaper, but it's hard to definitively say until you actually trade and see what commissions you were charged on your statement.
Think what you want. I don't work for TOS and have no need to pitch their product. Everything is negotiable. Everyone can be beat. But for most people on ET, IB is cheaper.
Dude for f*cks sake, I'm not a customer. I'm just passing along info. I could give two shits what you do with it.
Yes I do, I know the name of the customer that was trading at lower rates then IB. Dude, what are you, the president of the IB facebook page? Seriously, they are a broker. Why do you care?
For claification, I hate alot of things about IB, many which i've posted about such as lacking customer service, graphing, difficulty of taking money out, changing personal information, Raising IRA fees without notifying customers, etc... In fact, i pretty much hate them. But i still trade my main account with them. Why? because they are cheaper. By a lot. (Let alone the margin rates) Fact is, you're lying or your anonymous 'friend' is lying to you. Btw, it's not very nice of you to pass off info you know nothing about as first hand knowledge