great point, so this is one reason l always do vertical spreads when trading options with IB. But the useful functions that are available in single leg options aren't available for spreads / combo. eg OneCancelAll which is important esp for traders who can't watch the market all day. eg if you buy a spread at 1.00 can have a sell lmt order at 2.00 and a stop at 1.50, whichever one is touched first the other is cancelled. Their developers have been aware of this. but still don't add this feature that they have for single legs. Also only one option chain can be opened at a time. Their commission structure for option trades is average at best relative to speed, quality of execution and features available for their clients. Many of the time over $1.2 per leg is charged. If the commissions don't go down will leave them permanently. If you trade options, l recommend TOS, their software is far superior, has almost all the features one can wish for, and even with all the features on, like live CNBC, multiple option chains open. multiple top quality useable charts (IB's are a joke, Bigcharts rated more highly) it uses about 50% less RAM than RAM hogging IB software with not even a chart open. Get act together IB or many will move to others
If you're an active trader and have the funds necessary for a portfolio margin account, you can have access to an introducing broker like myself. Bob ----------------------------------- Robert L. Morse Business Development VICTOR SECURITIES 285 Grand Avenue,Englewood, NJ 07631 rmorse@victorsecurities.com office: 646-545-3860 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-morse/6/8a7/617 http://www.victorsecurities.com/ -----------------------------------
Morse, If you are going to shill for your company every time the word option comes up on these boards, at least get your facts straight. You made a quote earlier in this thread that so blatantly wrong and misleading that it makes me wonder if you've really been in the option business all these years. You say: "because IB hits those levels from their own trading, it's easier to charge everyone than just charge the account that creates the fees" IB doesn't trade so it doesn't hit any levels from "their own trading". Also, I assume it is no coincidence that you fail to mention that at IB credits are given for executions which make the charges nominal at best for most accounts. Since you also mention portfolio margin which implies larger sized accounts, it is important to note that IB's clients have the comfort of placing their funds with a well capitalized firm with substantial risk controls. Can you say the same? Finally, with fees starting at 70 cents a contract and sliding down as low as 15 cents a contract the exchange costs have to be passed onwards. To steal a quote from Sy Syms "An educated consumer is our best customer".
No, they can match commission of most brokers, with IB they offered me $1 a leg. IB's commission can be over $1.2 a leg AND they charge over $1 for a cancellation or modification in price for eg.
please note IB often charge >$1.2 a leg for stock options and always >$1 per leg for index options eg OEX, SPX. so this "great" value, doesn't occur 99% of the time. They say its the exchange fees that make their commissions expensive.
It very obvious that I'm in these threads to help traders when I can with my experience, and promote my firm and our services. You're here to defend Interactive Brokers. The fact is that I don't know ANY other Prime Broker that charges ALL their clients cancellation fees. I don't know of any other Prime Broker that in ET the clients are complaining about auto liquidation. And I've never gone in any of the ET forums and posted anything untrue or attacked the competition with name calling. Why don't you tell everyone who Timber Hill is and their function? What are you worried about that you feel the need to follow me around attacking me?
Timber Hill is a market maker and and under the same parent of IBG. This fact is not hidden on our site, corporate filings, etc. Market makers are not charged cancel fees and the TH market making is independent of the IB brokerage (this is also well documented in the corporate filings and on our site). Someone who claims to have so much knowledge of the options industry would surely know this which certainly makes one wonder what your motivation is for bringing this up. Nevertheless, when you make false or misleading statements - especially on a thread discussing IB - I'm certainly not going to let it slide. Now if you want to talk Prime Brokerage, let's compare apples to apples and discuss all fees. Exercise/assignments, wires, shares, custodian fees, interest (earned and credit), execution credits, credit worthiness of the custodian including any off balance sheet items, etc. While you're at it, you should talk about execution statistics including price improvement, payment for order flow and so on. feel free to do that another thread. So if you don't think making inaccurate claims or statements about a competitor isn't attacking the competition, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. Finally, you think way too highly of yourself to believe I'm following you around. I'm not the one popping up on the IB threads breaking up discussions to tout their firm.
For those who are nagging about commission and canecllation fees in IB. Check out my orders today and see how much I paid for commission. If you can find any broker that charges less than 20% more than IB, let me know and I will send you a $1000 check and leave IB in a heartbeat. Remember your broker can charge 20% more than IB but not more !!! Simply you cannot find any broker which means IB rocks.