I've been using TOS as my primary broker for a number of years. I trade options and futures, and ocassionally stocks. It works fine for me, I'm not scalping either.
opt789, what is the key to negotiating better trading rates? Do you have to do a certain volume, or have a certain opening balance to get rates better than on their website?
Yes and yes. I have six figures there and trade a lot sometimes. If you have a very small account and don't trade a lot then IB usually has the best rates, but if you are an active trader you can negotiate. As I said their customer service is good, so just give them a call and see what you can work out. As with many firms, sometimes you actually have to open and start trading the account to show them you are for real then try to get the best deal.
For options traders, I can't speak highly enough of using ThinkOrSwim. I've traded with IB, TradeStation, E-Trade and Fidelity (yuck!), and the TOS platform, execution, and service blow all the others out of the water for options traders. As far as rates, I was able to negotiate something similar enough to my other brokerages that made me switch the majority of my options trading to TOS. I don't think the platform is quite ideal for futures at the current time, but at the rate they innovate the platform, I expect they'll be very competitive shortly. Stock trading through TOS is fine, but as I stated earlier, most of my trading now is options. TOS is so good for options, that since I started using them, my trading has mostly switched to 100% options from futures and equities.
Natty, Without going into specifics, I can tell you that it is as good as or better than I have been able to find elsewhere. Obviously it depends a lot on how much you actually trade and what your overall product mix is.
I wish their equities and futures capabilities were equal to their options trading platform. I may give TOS a try for my options trading. BUT they will have to quote me a good - and firm - price in writing BEFORE I deposit. And it has to at least equal the competition. I wont play games like I used to when I was younger. Many of the more experienced gents here will know what I'm talking about.
The key is get on the phone with a TOS rep, and tell them that you are currently an Interactive Brokers customer, and would like to know what competitive rate TOS can offer versus Interactive Brokers. The rep will moan a bit about IB's all-in cost (all kinds of miscellaneous fees that will nickel and dime you to death, which is somewhat true), but will quote you a rate that is better than what they advertised on their website. However, they WILL NOT match IB's rock-bottom option rates. For myself, I got them to take off the $9.95 flat commission, and charge me $1.25 per option trade. If you trades tens or hundereds of options at a time, the $9.95/trade is not a big deal, but if you trade 1 or 2 options at a time, the absence of $9.95 makes a big difference. At $1.25 an option trade, it is low enough for me even though it is still more expensive than IB's option rate. The other plus is that somehow TOS got their software working behind corporate firewalls, which to me is somewhat of a miracle -- considering that i've tried Schwab's Streetsmart Pro and IB's Traderworkstation, and nither of them would work behind a corporate firewall. Their trading platform is very impressive. Its Bloomberg-like appearance is very professional-looking and inviting. The option trading platform is very flexible and easy to use, especially if you have trade multiple legs or combo trades at a time. I use combination options to create synthetic future or stock positions, so it's a godsend to me. TOS's stock trading commission is $5 minimum a trade, so if you trade in small size, that's still quite a bit of overhead cost (but better than Schwab). Btw, TOS's clearing firm Penson's inventory of available ETFs for shorting is very poor, especially some the lower volume ETFs. So if you short ETFs, you should be prepared to frequently get blocked when you try to short. Its not really a show stopper as you can create synethetic shorts with options. TOS's monthly statement (prepared by their clearing firm Penson) is essentially unuseable and unreadable, IMO. Trying to reconcile your cash balance from one period to another is a bear using the statement. Fortunately, you can use the software platform's cash balance history to reconcile your cash account. Another thing to note is that TOS's P/L tracking does not include the commission in the cost component, which is somewhat of an annoyance to me.