Heard Echo required a minimum of $75,000 and only gave 1:1 margin (i.e. no risk-based haircut) which is the same as retail. Might as well go to IB for that and lower commissions.
The option statement I have says that you need 25k to Buy options, but you already need to be trading stocks. When asked, they said that you can call in and it's up to the risk department on whether you can do the trades, but from what I heard, they're pretty good about that stuff. The 75k is to get setup with options electronically.
Sounds too restrictive if you really want to trade options, especially given that there was no mention of risk-based haircut. Everytyhing I have heard of Echo regarding equities has been exceelent so no hesitation in using them for stocks but the option side sounded actually worse than retail abilities.