Does anyone know any good option trading platform beside Think or Swim? I am using IB and it is killing me when entering a spread. Thanks
I mainly use WEX, which is great for spreads. You can see the exchanges spread books, and populate a spread ticket just by clicking on the spread in the book. You can direct which exchange you want it to go to. Also very easy to enter other spreads as well. They also have a good cross product spread trader, so if you want to trade vxx options against spy you can do that as well.
As fyi to the op, Silexx Obsidian is now available at IB, so you can trade your account at IB and utilize IB's order routing for both IB's internal spread book (guaranteed spreads) and exchange native spread books. Disclaimer: As you can probably judge by my handle, I do work for Silexx
When evaluating options platforms, you need to make a distinction between analysis and execution. And further distinctions in each category depending on your focus.
This thread prompted me to poke around some web sites I hadn't visited in a while. It may be old news but OptionVue now allows Interactive Broker customers to use the IB data feed. The standard OpVue software still costs $1000 and the interchange with IB is $60/mo or $50/mo if you pay a year in advance, but it sure beats paying several hundred/mo to OptionVue and the exchanges. Note: this deal probably only applies to non-professional traders as defined by the exchanges and in the IB paperwork. Edit: I'm not a customer, but I did buy their $50 one-month trial a few years ago. I thought it was clunky, the data was expensive and I only used it for a couple of days. It looked like a DOS program, which was fine in the 1980s or early 90s, but not in 2006 or 2007. The latest release looks a bit better, circa Windows 3.11. It might be the greatest analysis package in the world and make all their users billionaires, but their design sucks. A perfect marriage with IB.