I have been doing research on all of the various online options brokers. They are a lot of smaller ones that have been started in the last few years. I think I have managed to filter out the ones that look like chop shops, but I still have a fair amount that most people have not mentioned. I was wondering, does anyone use a firm that is not a large Ameritrade, optionsXpress, or thinkorswim type place? If so, could you give me your opinion and experience. Thanks!
If your looking for a boutique type of firm that is a little more expensive but has a human/customer service touch you should look at http://www.benjaminandjerold.com/about.html They've been around (as a firm) since '91 I believe. I used them way back when and they were great. They were actually the first firm to allow options trading in IRA's back in the days if my memory serves me.
Why are you so willing to go to small players when OptionsXpress and IB and Ameritrade are among the cheapest and have great customer service (IB sometimes bad in that area). Phil
It's actually mainly out of curiosity's sake. You have to think that if it is a growing and profitable market then there would be some decent upstarts. Also, everyone seems to have some sort of problem with at least one of the large brokers, so I'm just trying to gauge everyone's sentiment.
Do yourself a fovor go with the bigger firms. You will end up paying more in the long run because the little guys don't have the capability to do this or that.
There will always be complaints against brokers no matter how small. But there is more risk with an upstart, especially when there are so many established option trading brokers out there. Options require more specialization and more complex platforsm (combo orders, margin requirements, etc) and start-ups usually spend the first few years updating and refining software. For example, IB is so much better than it was 4 years ago, but it sucked so bad at that time it pushed me to OptionsXpress. OX has also been improving evne though they were quite good. I say go with the best broker that suits all your needs but also be wary of start-ups since technology is key to online trading. Good luck. Phil
And you think that going with a small broker will solve that problem!? I can assure you that no broker is perfect, otherwise everyone else would be out of business. It all comes down to what you're looking for in a broker. For example, some people like IB because they get very low commissions. Others don't mind paying a bit more in commissions in return for an extensive list of tools and customer support, and thus go with Optionsxpress or Thinkorswim.
An online broker that you might want to check out is www.cobratrading.com Their options commish are very competitive with other firms and they scale it as well, so the more options trades you do the cheaper the commish. Nice software packages and you can demo one of their systems for free. Why not take a look? Just my 2 cents.
$8.99 + $1.50/contract, plus a monthly software fee, is a little on the expensive side. How good are the fills? If you want to hit the NBBO, will they send your order to an exchange that's at the NBBO?
My rates are cheaper than the $8.99 + $1.50 but I trade quite a bit of volume per month. I'd just give them a call and see what type of rate they can give you. The fills are as fast as I've ever seen and you can send your order to any exchange you choose to get the best fill possible.