What are the pros and cons for the different Options trading commissions at: thinkorswim Interactive Brokers TradeMONSTER OptionsHouse eOption Thanks in advance!
Can't speak for all of them but: thinkorswim: "good" platform, commissions are terrible IMO... They have a good rep. for customer service. You pay for the platform and the service really. Interactive Brokers: the shittiest platform that I know of but very good commissions. They do not sell their order flow so execution is good, if you can stomach their platform... TradeMONSTER: very very user-friendly platform. Limited for charting and that sort of things but depends what you are looking for. 2 bad things: they have a ticket charge (you may get it waived though) and they sell 100% of their order flow and that means bad execution and slippage. I never used either OPTIONHOUSE or EOPTIONS. I would trust optionhouse since its a sub. of Peak6... the other one all I know is what you can see on their website. for disclosure: I have accounts with IB and Trademonster. Used to have Optionsxpress also.
Great info! Over the years I've gone from Dean Witter, to Scottrade, to Options Express, to thinkorswim. So don't want the hassle of changing again, unless I'm really blown away with a better deal for the way I trade. Will see what everyone says...
From the other Thread: If you trade SPY, then 10 spreads is probably your minimum to make any meaningful return in absolute terms. These are the brokers and their commissions for 10 spreads: TOS: $60 IB: $28 TradeMONSTER: $20 OptionsHouse: $18.5 eOption: $16 For 10 ICs (40 contracts) total tradeMONSTER commissions are 40*.50 = $20. $15 is a minimum for spreads. If you sell 1-7 ICs, your commissions will be $15; for 8 ICs it will be $16, and so on. ------------------------------- I have a question on TOS commissions, specifically Options on Futures. it says $3.00 per contract inclusive of exchange fees, whilst it says $9.99 + 0.75 per contract for Equity or Index Options. None of these rates are close to what you mention, and indeed I was put off from checking further by the high rates. For a simple buying of a call or put, what should we expect the commission to be? Is it tied to a volume scale? ------------------------------- I saw that $9.99 + 0.75 there too. I think I had it changed later to a flat rate of $1.50 per Option. I also get a $39.95 cash refund each month from t.o.s. if I do enough trades. But I forget how many trades I need to get that...duhh... Just started a new Thread to try and get to the bottom of this!!
They ALL sell their option order flow without exception. Some these firms like IB, also have trading desks that get first look. This does not affect the quality of your execution, but might delay it by a micro second as it enters the option dark pool.
1245: All the options exchanges pay for order flow. However in IB's case you can direct your order to whatever exchange you wish. See https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=smartRouting&ib_entity=llc You can get the rebate (order flow payment). A directed order will cost more in IB commissions than using their Smart routing. It may be reduced by the order flow payment. Jack
Part of choosing an option broker is an expectation of how much volume you trade per month and average size of your trade. The smaller the volume, the less important rates are. If your average size trade is small, you want to aviod ticket charges. If you trade large lots, ticket charges with small per option charges will save you money.
TOS is 3.50 per contract I believe for futures and options on futures. You can negotiate their options for equities down to .75 per contract. Key word there being negotiate.
that makes the most sense i've heard so far... you can sort of make a blanket statement about commissions like that.. I did extensive research on it when i was shopping brokerages.. They couple expensive commissions with better trading platforms.. IE Tos.. Tradestation... I went with Interactive brokers.. i read everything on the internet i could about them.. found quite a few complaints about customer service.. THATS NOT MY EXPERIENCE.. they are very helpful... that probably changes depending on who randomly ends up taking your call i'm sure though... As much as i wanted the crazy cool 3D options analytics i went with the cheaper broker that has access to the most markets. I Can trade currency against options.. futures against spot.. options against pig butts whatever.. not that i do.. but what it really came down to for me was... if i wanna micro sand box trades a large ticket fee is going to kill me.. buying penny options.. trading at opex.. trading way otm options is way better at IB there trading commission goes down as the amount goes down.. Premium => USD 0.10 USD 0.70 per contract USD 0.05 =< Premium < USD 0.10 USD 0.50 per contract Premium < USD 0.05 USD 0.25 per contract they have a min deposit of 10 grand.. and 10 bucks a month you can't get out of.. obviously 10 dollars a month shouldn't be much for anyone here with the amounts i hear you guys trade.. oh and on that note ... as you trade more and more contracts.. it goes substantually down... all the way down to .075 per contract. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=commission