Equity Options Broker Comparison

[Joel Reymont]

Quote from RichardRimes:

I get .95 (20 contract min) no ticket charge.

Is that 20 contracts per ticket?

Is anyone getting IB rates with ToS with a monthly contract minimum?

 

[Opra]

Quote from RichardRimes:

I pretty much exclusively trade in an IRA with TOS as my broker. I get .95 (20 contract min) no ticket charge. They are fantastic to work with and I even had them call ME to assist in a complicated trade. It can be very tricky trading in an IRA. I was assigned on a spread which put me in an "illigal" position. They helped me work it out no.... sweat. I've been with them a year now and am VERY satisfied.

I cannot agree more here.

Try selling a credit spread in an IB IRA account and see its effect on the buying power of your account and do the same in TOS IRA account--you will see the difference.

TOS is a full-service (almost) broker at rock-bottom commission rate. You can call its trade deskk and ask its broker to leg a trade off of different exchanges, at the same rate. So it's the best overall.

IB's rate is the bar to measure agaisnt, but beside that, there is not much else, so you have to know what you are doing to trade there.

I have accounts with both firms for many years, regulars and IRA's (IRA's since TOS eliminated annual fee). One good thing about IB for options is, there's no assignment/exercise fees, so you can turn a calendar into a conversion/reversal with no extra cost if short leg is assigned.

To use emotive terms, I like IB and I love TOS.