I was talking about options. Not sure of their performance on stock; as 99% of my stock trades are in PM stocks on a longer timeframe....where I have time to wait for a good fill on limit orders. thanks though...
I do my options trading at RF Lafferty that can service my full service and online accounts. I have found a reputable 60 year old firm that specializes in stocks and options. The aren't the cheapest, but the fills I get are great. You can pay $8.00/trade and get a lousy fill and wind up paying much more than if you paid $50/trade and get a great fill. As a customer I have access to two inhouse independent research reports on stocks, & options. They even have an Mutual fund analysis tool that has steered me towards ETF's with an option play. (Long Term= Better returns with lower expense ratio's). Anyway I deal with a guy over there named Scott Clarke. But I have found everyone to be helpful. Hope this helps.
You need to switch from the CBOE to the CME, from SPX to SP(ES). Same prices, same underlying, but only half the margin. Equity index options are subject to reg-t, futures options are subject to SPAN, thus only one side is charged. IB futures options spreads are fair right now, sometimes I get amazing fills at prices I could never leg with, other times they are mediocre. That is more a statement about Globex and not IB. You need to switch products.
ktm I heard currency options are coming up soon, if not already. Are they reasonably liquid/tight? Thanks
Currency options seem to be liquid in the pit but not on the screen. The main problem IB have with option trading is that some people are having problems with the software redrawing the screen. This is a problem in 845.5 and 837.4 but not the browser based 847 beta. 847 though locks up when you try and get market data for a spread order.
Can you please tell me the exact steps to take to get TWS to lock up while making a spread order so I can reproduce the problem? Thanks.
ktm Thanks for the advice: "You need to switch from the CBOE to the CME, from SPX to SP(ES). Same prices, same underlying, but only half the margin. Equity index options are subject to reg-t, futures options are subject to SPAN, thus only one side is charged. IB futures options spreads are fair right now, sometimes I get amazing fills at prices I could never leg with, other times they are mediocre. That is more a statement about Globex and not IB. You need to switch products." There is very little information on future options on IB site. Are spreads on ES options traded natively on CME? In other words if you put a limit order do you se a price change reflected on the data feed? That would be great if there is no middlemen or computer program waiting for bid/ask on IB site. Also, are they having the same European stile expiration? How liquid they are?