Today I had to call telephone customer support at Ally Invest to close out both spreads on an iron condor. One of the two spreads was composed of very cheap options for which the market was thin, so all four legs wouldn't close out online, but the trader I contacted at Ally telephone customer support searched around the exchanges until he could close all four legs out. So it occurred to me that I could not have done the same thing at Robinhood, since last time I checked they do not have telephone customer support. That's pretty scary, but I'm wondering whether I should be equally troubled by the fact that Ally Invest's online system couldn't close out both spreads in the iron condor so that the help of a live trader was necessary. Does anyone know whether this tends to be a problem with Ally Invest? Have you had this problem often with other brokers? Any insight would be appreciated.
Can I ask why you chose Ally over other brokerages offering approximately the same commission schedule? Do you know whether Ally offer orders participating in the opening and closing auctions?
%% IBKR [interactive Brokers]says have 2 brokers+ they are great broker, but known for NOT answering the phone.LOL Dont know robin hood, do know its hard to get a free lunch unless its @ church.
The difference between 50 cents per contract (Ally) and 65 cents per contract (Fidelity, where I do most of my trading) is significant to me. I trade spreads and condors for income, so I have to buy and sell large numbers of contracts. I do some of my online banking at Ally Bank, so when they started offering brokerage services with the lower commissions it made sense to try them out. But yesterday, after I had to involve a live trader in order to get a fill at Ally Invest, I made a nearly identical trade at Fidelity, and I had no trouble getting my fill online. The experience also made me worry about whether I'll do any more trading with Robinhood, as I said. Waiting to see whether I'll ever be unable to get a fill online with Robinhood, where there is no way to reach a live trader by phone, could be an expensive experiment, especially on a day like yesterday!
Yes, that's why I never traded with IBKR. I did a little customer support experiment with them and it did not go well. Robinhood at least is very responsive by email, although there is no phone support with them last time I checked.
Sorry, I forgot to answer your question about the opening and closing auctions, and the answer is that I do not know. Their toll free number is available online -- I don't know whether we're allowed to post phone numbers to businesses in this forum.
%% Their charts were wrong,wrong+wrong on volume, but pretty good on price.Good fills/price improvement ; but its hard to get burned on a limit order LOL