I'm looking to do some options trading, but due to the strategy I'm planning to use, my needs regarding brokers are somewhat unusual.
-I am planning on focusing on severely out-of-the-money contracts, hence low premiums (think $1 per contract at the high end). Therefore, I'll be buying/selling a lot of contracts (unless they're more than the usual 100 shares per contract), so I need someone with a low per-contract cost, at least for low-premium contracts, or else who handles larger contracts (though I'm not sure how available those would be). Due to the low movement of contracts far from market price, it's also necessary that any per-trade price be per-order, even if it's filled a part at a time.
-I am planning on doing mostly multi-leg (i.e. more than two) spreads, so a substantial per-leg cost will substantially eat into my profits.
-I am using a fundamentals-heavy long-term strategy; as a result, speed of execution and availability of tools and market information are not a significant factor.
-I am planning on starting with a fairly small amount (probably coming out to a few hundred per quarter), probably increasing if this goes well, so anything with a sizable minimum amount is a no-go for the time being.
So, with those requirements, I'm looking for suggestions. The best I've found on my own is choicetrade, with $5 per trade (not per leg) and 15 cents per contract, but I'm hoping I can do better if I can get the recommendations of people more experienced. Thanks.
-I am planning on focusing on severely out-of-the-money contracts, hence low premiums (think $1 per contract at the high end). Therefore, I'll be buying/selling a lot of contracts (unless they're more than the usual 100 shares per contract), so I need someone with a low per-contract cost, at least for low-premium contracts, or else who handles larger contracts (though I'm not sure how available those would be). Due to the low movement of contracts far from market price, it's also necessary that any per-trade price be per-order, even if it's filled a part at a time.
-I am planning on doing mostly multi-leg (i.e. more than two) spreads, so a substantial per-leg cost will substantially eat into my profits.
-I am using a fundamentals-heavy long-term strategy; as a result, speed of execution and availability of tools and market information are not a significant factor.
-I am planning on starting with a fairly small amount (probably coming out to a few hundred per quarter), probably increasing if this goes well, so anything with a sizable minimum amount is a no-go for the time being.
So, with those requirements, I'm looking for suggestions. The best I've found on my own is choicetrade, with $5 per trade (not per leg) and 15 cents per contract, but I'm hoping I can do better if I can get the recommendations of people more experienced. Thanks.
