A retail broker rejected me for buying options. Etrade just rejected me to buy options. I am extremely pissed off. I have about 19,000 dollars to invest and these assholes did not approve me for options. I have just wasted 3 weeks and some cash trasferring my damn cash around, not to mention all that time spend sitting around doing jack shit and wasting my time on useless forms. Where can I go to get a good, cheap options broker that will let me trade options?
"It would be unethical for us to tell you why you were rejected." They don't fuckin tell you why because you might cheat on the next application. Bunch of fuckin bullshit.
The paradox is that they won't let you trade options unless you're experienced. Of course, it's impossible to gain experience unless they let you trade. Bottom line: They want you to lie to them.
Yeah good point. Do they double check your application for truth or what? I might just say I am worth over 100k and that I have been trading options for 5 years. Last thing I want is to get in trouble over this shit. Fucking compliance bullshit.
I can't think of a better broker for small option traders, than Interactive Brokers. You can trade 1 option for $1 commish. That's right, one single dolluh. No minimum. If you put all that $19K in and tell them you have years of experience, you should have no trouble from IB. Heck, just count all the time you have ever looked at stocks and investing, like for your IRA/401, or bought savings bonds, etc. It all counts in my book. But if you lose it all there is no one to blame but yourself! PLEASE - make sure you have a well thought out and TESTED system for trading options! Otherwise, you are just gambling and you might as well give your money to the Cancer Society, instead of letting the sharks and brokers get it. Good luck. C
I am actually an intern at a financial company. I am not officially an employee there. I am being mentored by a guy who has been trading options for 23 years.
Sometimes they check. My friend lied on the options application, but they did a credit check and found out that he owed much more than he stated.
He got approved many years later, but he was out of debt by that time. You have nothing to lose by applying to another firm. Are you in debt? or low income?