Hi, I want trade the options with TOS. How you negociated the price? How much? what are all fee (month, quarter, year, stream,...)?
TOS will match other brokers rates or try their best. So find a broker that offers cheaper rates and send them an email asking to match the rate. I've spoken with others and you can get even get near free trading if you do high volume.
The man to speak with at TOS for custom commissions is Scott Sheridan (773-435-3249) or email: Scott@thinkorswim.com. As far as all normal fees they are posted on the TOS website.
IB I know for sure they won't...b/c I asked specifically. I think it's simply b/c IB's commission schedule is too complex with multiple tiers and different rates based on the premium of the option etc. As far as TS I have no idea I didn't ask. I went with the Tradeking commission rate of $0.65/contract and $4.95 per ticket/leg. The TK commissions will be more expensive than TS if you trade small quantities per trade (1 - 14 contracts). Anything over 15 contracts per leg/trade then TK starts becoming the less expensive commission rate. I am not sure how easy it will be to renegotiate commissions later on down the road so you might need to decide on how soon you will be hitting the 15 contract point and if by then the extra commissions will even matter to you.
It depends on the volume that you trade. They will not match IB because IB charges extra fees and cancellation fees. If you trade 2000+ option contracts or 1,000,000 shares a month in stocks they will give you $6 flat for stocks and 0.85 per contract with no flat fee for options.
Keep in mind that TOS does not have time and sales information. Some people don't care about this, but for me it was a major disappointment because I use time and sales heavily when trading.
Never used IB myself, but they say that they have time and sales for options. Pretty much every broker/platform I have ever used has time and sales except TOS.