Question about option level 2 from a newbie

First post for me.

I have been trading since Oct 07 and I haven't made money but I haven't blown up yet either. I am down about the same percentage as the market.

I tried to obtain options level 2 from E-trade but was denied. I was approved for options level 1 trading ninety days ago. How can I improve my situation so that they will approve me? Will another broker approved me if I move my account? I am somewhat conservative and I am positive I won't do anything to blow myself up, at least not, right away.

Thanks.

 

Fuck e-trade.

They're a shitty brokerage w/ rip-off commissions and a pain in the ass to get privileges to risk YOUR OWN MONEY.

Just go to interactive brokers if you want to trade all option strategies, they won't give you this "level" crap for options.

(btw, I opened an account at etrade, got rejected for options, and closed it within a week after i opened it)

 

Thanks for the reply. Did you need to deposit a lot of money in IB? I am a small investor and my account has about 8-10k available for trading. What's the commission rates like?

Thks again.

 

ThinkorSwim also has no levels or tiers and will match commissions with a lot of other brokerage firms if you request it. They also also provide their software for free and are considered by most as the best platform for options trading (although many here at ET prefer IB). Also if you look at the brokerage ratings here on ET ToS has one of the highest if not the highest rating of all the options brokers listed.

 

Thanks...how is either IB or ToS for trading my equities with my IRA? Is it possible to trade index futures with my IRA in either? I know I can only trade covered calls with my IRA but I am not clear about trading futures.

I am thinking into the future. I am nowhere near ready to trade index futures.

Thanks for putting up with the additional question.

 

I know ToS has IRA accounts and yes you can trade equities. i am not sure about futures though. Check out their web site and maybe give them a call. They have one of the best customer support groups in the industry.

 

cool, thanks...I'll follow up with the suggestions.

 

Hi there,

I have been having etrade for years and I love it. I also have IB and Man however the other two brokers are best for professional or semi-professional traders. On the broker review part of this site I wrote my opinion on all brokers.

I have level 4 and I understand your frustration with etrade. After 90 days you can change your personal profile. I think that you need to make more than $ 50 k per year to be able to trade at the highest levels and have a capitalized account. Whatever or not you make the 50 k it is your business, but they do all this to protect themselves from lawsuits, and within a certain extent to protect yourself.

If at the time you opened the account you didn't take care of answering the option questions chance are that you do not much about options, so they want you to take it easy.

Belive it or not some miserable idiot in the past not only got the highest level aproval, but after blowing up his account sued the broker and...won !

Think about it, any borker wants you to place as many trades as you can, etrade is no different. That's how they make money, right ? They have no reason for not letting you trade.

All you need to do is to understand how their policy work and act accordingly.

Smart Money just rated Jun 08, etrade as one of the best brokers again and in my opinion they give you a lot of stuff.

Some brokers have trading platforms that have a learning curve, etrade trading platform is highly intuitive, the baby ad they had could not be more appropiate. In about 5 min you will figure it all out by yourself.

In addition to that they give you a credit card, you can spend the money you make in the market right away, or you can easily transfer it to any bank of your choice. Last but not least there is a 3.15% interest of the money sitting in your account. And the web based site, if you want to trade there, is even easier to use then their platform etradepro.

Before making impulsive decisions, it is never good in the market, I would suggest you to take some time to understand how your broker works, then if it is not for you go ahead and look for something else. There are a lot of brokers out there, you should get one that makes you happy.

Good Luck

 

You cannot trade futures in an IRA at TOS, but they are working on getting rid of that restriction.

 

.... tos has shit commish for futures...
.... and they won't negotiate on it.
.... anyone who has found otherwise plese pm me