They got rid of their $9.95 pricing for up to 4,000 contracts in a single order. They have now taken to the standard pricing of $8.50 + .15/contract. Still better than a lot of places except Interactive Brokers and their platform isn't as close to as good as IB. What a terrible business decision!
As pissed as I am that they won't just let the existing customers keep the old rate, it actually isn't a bad business decision. (They have one of two rates you can switch between, the one above and one that's like $5 for up to 5 contracts and $1 per over 5) .. So they undercut TK/Zecco/etc etc now for low volume option traders and on stock prices. .. So I'd say it's a good business decision although it means I'll be using my EOption acccount more now. Bleh.. shitty way to wake up today.
Are Eoption any good? Their comm seem good (3$/side +0.10$ per contract). I am disapointed in OH but for me it does not make much of a difference because they did not allow foreign accounts... Although I do agree that they were putting some downward pressure on option commissions. Currently I would have saved almost 1600$ in commission in the last 3 months using eoption instead of my current canadian based crappy broker... so unless you guys tell me they suck it seems tempting...
Same as any other U.S. discount broker except their interface needs a complete reworking.. Looks like something from the 90s.
You want to know crappy? My online broker does not even offer to place spreads online, I have to call them everytime... I put up with them because I used to work there and know all the traders, I also get an Ok price per contract for Canada but still... I have both bloomberg and quotestream so data providing is not something I am looking for. If you can place spreads quickly and simply, that does it for me. What has me worried about is the order routing thread people had going on a few months ago: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158732&perpage=6&pagenumber=5
I proposed a new commission structure for them like this: (1). $0.7-1.0 per contract under 10 contracts, no ticket fee. (2). $10.00 Above 10 contracts.
Guess real problem is when people start throwing huge contracts. Today I traded 40 contract spread (total 80) for $14.95 and modified it 2 times to get better fill. Stupid exchange do charge for order modify and cancel. Not sure how much money they made on this transaction. OH can not sustain fixed cost model (like you suggested in #2). PREIOD! I said it few months back too. What is wrong in matching eOptions pricing? I get .70 cents per contract at IB, why do I need to maintain and fund two accounts to get the same deal?
The problem is this: When you are the ONLY ones out there that offer flat rate, well then you can be sure that you are going to attract every single big volume retail traders around... That means that your average trade size is going to be considerably bigger than your competitors and you just won't have enough small size lots (that are profitable) to cover for these big boys. I know if I had access to a fixed rate broker I would have raped them, even if their system/platform is not the best considering the number of lots I trade... I agree that their model was flawed from the get-go, just look at those vultures at CBOE and see the fees they charge per contracts. http://www.cboe.com/publish/feeschedule/CBOEFeeSchedule.pdf