At a German broker I made a roundtrip trade for 5000 options and paid 2 x 8.75 Euros commis. (about 2 x $11.38). I was thinking it was expensive, until I saw what TD Ameritrade asks for the same roundtrip-order: 2 x (9.99 + 5000/100 x 0.75) = 2 x $47.49 (--> https://www.tdameritrade.com/pricing.page#Options ) Unbelievable! Isn't that a rip-off? BTW, looking for cheaper brokers
I think in the US the 5000 options would mean 50 contracts, yes. Oh, BTW it was MSFT options, ie US options. BTW, it seems at IB one can get the commis for the above example down to about 2 x $5, depending on the monthly # of contracts traded. (--> http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=commission ) Unfortunately, at IB the min requirement for acct opening is $10k.
i have an account with think or swim just to check out the platform.. the commissions are so high its not worth the trouble.. i have several accounts i trade and they wanted to see last months statements to lower the commissions.. whats the point.. to be able to use their platform that looks like a blinking christmas tree.. so lame.. they are proactive about calling you but the guy you talk to that is being proactive with you doesn't know a think about trading... not a professional trading brokerage.. at all.. oriented towards beginning options trading.. the only thing worth a crap was the risk profiler and you can get that anywhere generally without a 10 dollar ticket fee.. try Interactive brokers.. or look at a broker that has .15 a contract with a low ticket fee if you are buying hundreds of more complex options strategies at once.. IE condors.. flys wrangles etc.
Yes, that's my goal, also because of the IB API (I'm programmer and want to do AT), unfortunately at the moment I'm undercapitalized to open an IB acct b/c of their min requirement of $10k; so, I think the best is if I stay at my current broker and try to bring my account to >$10k and then move to IB.
that is cheap. I am with IB, I trade options as my major activity. 5000lot just $47.49, cheap, very cheap! IB has cancellantion fee, 100lot round trip in most case cost 100bucks~300bucks!
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=commission&p=options-default United States - Smart Routed: <=10,000 Monthly Contracts Example Commissions Minimum Per Order Premium => USD 0.10 USD 0.70 per contract min. USD 1.00 USD 0.05 =< Premium < USD 0.10 USD 0.50 per contract min. USD 1.00 Premium < USD 0.05 USD 0.25 per contract min. USD 1.00 your order should be hundred forthy on one hundred contracts..
My German broker is DAB-Bank: http://www.dab-bank.de/servicenavigation/preise-leistungen/order.html But I'm not sure if they serve only Clients from Germany as their website is, as far as I could see, only in German. So this thread showed me that this broker, of which I wrongly thought was expensive, is in reality one of the cheapest. BTW, they have, besides Web trading, also a standalone platform (app) called "DAB Profi Trader", that seems to be professional, comparable with thinkorswim or IB's TWS, but I haven't tested it yet, doing my trades there so far only via their Web platform. Here's some info in English and screenshots: http://www.tradernetz.de/en/trading-software/dab-profi-trader https://www.dab-bank.de/hilfe-service/demos-anleitungen/dab_profi_trader.html