+1 Thats who I use. Unless you are very small and investing only a few hundred dollars at a time, or only buying options on multi hundred dollar stocks like google, then options house is the way to go. Its flat rate fee is the best. The fifty cents a contract or whatever you pay at some other brokers really can add up.
Can I route directly to an options exchange using OptionHouse without any interference from them routing the order to Peak6? Are there cancel fees?
The Peak6 relationship was actually recently addressed on another website/forum, see the link. http://www.theoptionsinsider.com/forum/posts.asp?id=285 They don't allow order routing which used to bother me, but lately I've been getting sent to CBOE primarily so I'm happy.
Then it is wothless to me. I strongly discourage using a broker with this type of relation with a Market Maker (and an internal one no less) and Exchange.
This goes back to the whole thing of payment for order flow. If the customer was passed through the PFOF instead of the broker, watch how fast most of these schemes would implode. Although in this case it is a double whammy since it is extremely lucrative for Peak6 (or any other broker/MM combination like Timber Hill/Interactive Brokers or Citadel/Etrade) to match orders internally against their market making operation. People say how bad it was to repeal Glass-Steagall Act that seperated banking from invesment banking. This malignant relationship between brokers/market makers/exchanges is even worse imo. It is amazing to me that the SEC (or soon SEC + CFTC) allows this internalization of order flow just because it is euphemized under the guise that they wll give you the NBBO or better when they match it internally. This is more of the same crap that orders are not exposed to the market place. It is in essence a dark pool, with only one member.
I agree, commissions are only part of the cost. If, for example, a broker can get a consistently better execution by 0.05-0.10 compared to others, it's $5-10 per contract. Similarly, if the platform is not reliable it can end up costing you much more than commissions.