Does anyone do it? I want to trade some options contracts that are often <0.5/share. The per contract fees add up at that price.
eOption dot com has $3 per trade + 15 cents per contract. Cheap as it gets unless robinhood dot com gets into the biz.
No, basically, unless I'm writing a cash covered put on stock I want to own or selling a covered call (on stock I'm already up big on) to buy a put for a net credit for a synthetic short, I'm skeered of options. I like the finality of trading futures...knowing within minutes whether I'm a hero or a goat.
I notice on a another thread here that Tastyworks is supposed to launch and announce prices tomorrow (January 3, 2017). I'm not expecting them to have record low prices, you might as well check. I believe that, even though options on Untied States exchanges are subject to National Best Bid Offer (NBBO) rules, a brokerage can save you more money than their commissions by shopping for hidden orders and queuing your order at an exchange that has no order ahead of yours by time precedence or one that offers price improvement auctions. One thing that I like about Interactive Brokers is that they let me specify prices for options at penny increments even when the tick size for publishing prices is greater. They then participate in price improvement auctions based on this authorization. By the way, I think it's quite scandalous that the Options Clearing Corporation is allowed to prevent the exchanges from listing option prices at penny increments for US equities outside of their penny pricing program. I can understand the argument that some equities might not be listed were it not for the larger tick sizes, but, I'm not arguing that OCC should force the require the exchanges to offer penny tick sizes, just that it should not prevent them. I expect that, with such a change in policy, most US equities would go to penny pricing for all price levels (not just below $3) and that that would make many options combinations into much more feasible trades, but I digress.