I just tried to place a vertical spread (10) at my bank, and the cost was going to be $56!! 1.25 per contract + flat rate etc. Like seriously wtf? That's 15% of the pnl on a 1 SD move! If you place 1 trade a week and price moves 1 SD on 60% of them, then its $10,920 in gains, $7280 losses, and $2880 in fees, so you will net $3640 - 2886 = $754! You are practically paying the equivalent in fees as you are gaining in profits. Does any broker have a flat rate for options yet? Robinhood?
Every broker. It's totally bogus, the odds are stacked up worse than a casino, and casinos let you gamble for free...even give you free drinks lol. Regardless, if it was a flat rate you would only have to be mediocre to cover the cost. It's a total racket...no excuses for charging that much in fees. We need to get away from brokers and move to a peer to peer system....or have a flat fee. The options game is totally rigged as it is. Why do traders just accept getting goosed like this?
The difference in fees between buying the bid (credit) and offer is $4 notional. $592 v $596 on 4K contracts.
most give you the platform, data and news for free. only way to make a living in this “trading” business is scale up the size, if you don’t know that already.