no index options - no VIX only equity options. Mostly out right buys and sells - about 10% spreads or complex orders
10,000 option contracts trades per month is relatively huge for the typical individual, retail trader. Not to get too personal, but is your average annual income generated from your trading activities over a million?
The brokerage landscape is changing. Here is one to keep an eye on for future developments. Robin Hood ($0.00 commissions) just started providing options trading services. Oh, only on a smart phone? Not so great for an active trader with fat fingers like me. API is coming in "the near future." (ambiguous) But... RH does connect to Quantopian for algo trading. That is interesting. https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/210216823-Robinhood-API-Integrations http://blog.robinhood.com/news/2017/12/12/introducing-options-trading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinhood_Markets Anyway, they could pressure some brokers to drop commissions further. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/28/brokerage-firms-headed-for-an-all-out-price-war-analyst-says.html P.S. Since I am also interested, I just looked this up as I was posting.
Hm! Seems you may be an ideal candidate for TastyTrade with their new 2018 commission structure! <-- I don't use them myself, so using 2nd hand info.
You do realize that it's for non-directed orders only, right? There was a discussion here how PFOF model is detrimental to the customer, even if it's not readily apparent.
IB and TD will go to $.10 a contract plus exchange, ORF and OCC fees for their RIA clients where they get to custody the securities. Many of the RIAs will simply charge you a few thousand a year as a management fee. Schwab will go to $.00 plus exchange, ORF and OCC where there is $5 million to custody. Obviously the money is being made on stock rebate as well as the maker/taker, PFOF and liquidity rebates. They just don't want tons of SPX and VIX. If you trade that size don't talk to the retail help desk - talk to the professional/RIA folks.
Erm, say that's 20-100m in terms of GNV. Assume 5x leverage and we are talking 4-20 million in capital, more or less proper "upper retail" size.
How are you able to move 500 contracts a day/or at a Time in One order...without making the Bid/Ask price spreads have slightly explosive diarrhea? You would have to break up that order in much, much smaller chunks...wouldn't you, amongst many smaller orders...which would be a small pain to process and unload, each time Anyways, I hope to get that large one day. Where I become a small, mini whale making fart tidal waves with each order batch. -- It's just a matter of skill and compounding, right
I just discovered them so I have not thoroughly investigated them yet. RH is certainly not the only broker to use PFOF. That is what "Smart" and "Intelligent" order routing at IB and TS also do is it not? I just put it out there as food for thought, not as a recommendation. As they are set up right now, they are not suitable for me or probably the OP - but they are a benchmark. And they do put pricing pressure on other brokers with their 3+ million accounts. I do understand that RH is currently geared towards casual investors, but that could change as they evolve.