looking for good options broker

Quote from erol:

why?

i do <10k
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It's your money so you can do whatever you want!!

I felt that money management is somewhat tougher with less than 10K account. Remember, you can easily lose 20-50% of trade lot with options and your max risk should not be more than 2% of portfolio. How will you do it?

Good luck.
 
I might go with TK. I can get approved for "level 1 " trading in just hrs. and the commission is cheaper than OptionsXpress, and others. I' wont be doing over 3 lots.

Most my trades will be hedges against my stock positions that i have in a different account.

Right now If I want to hedge I have to buy DXD ultrashort or SSO, which ties up much needed capital.

Here's my delima.

1. Does it make sense to have an options account to hedge stock positions which are in a totally seperate broker account?
--> I dont think so

2. I lack experience, but is that really a problem if all im doing is buying OTM calls/puts? If it is a problem, should I just forget a live account and paper trade options for a while...hell it took me 3yrs to "master" what I do now.

3. Right now my account is with scottrade, TK has cheaper commissions, AND i'll get approved for options which scottrade has denied me for several times. Should I just move over to TK?

thanks.
 
the thing is I like to talk to a person on a phone if Im doing a complicated order,or if Im excercising options. but yeah Ib is really good if your just trading, but if your doing complicated orders or anything that you want done that needs upstairs work you need a good person broker.


Quote from TraderSU:

I guess the broker selection depends on your account size and trading volume.

This is my recommendation

Less than 10K - stay away from options
10K to 40K - InteractiveBrokers
40K to 100K - InteractiveBrokers
100K+ - InteractiveBrokers

Sorry! but I don't believe in flat rate commission. There is always a catch!!

Per share/contract commission is great for scale-in and scale-out trading (a great strategy). Go IB with unbundled pricing; No one can beat that!

- SU
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Quote from cashmoney69:

OK. nevermind, TK got awefull reviews in the broker section. Might go with Zecco. Commission is similar.
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As I said if commission is your primary concern Think or Swim will give you TradeKing's commission rates AND gives you a great, FREE platform (not web based).
 
Quote from mahram:

the thing is I like to talk to a person on a phone if Im doing a complicated order,or if Im excercising options. but yeah Ib is really good if your just trading, but if your doing complicated orders or anything that you want done that needs upstairs work you need a good person broker.
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if you're doing size, I can introduce you to our size desk who quite often provide price improvement and nice liquidity.

if not, you can create or use a series of combo templates that are available when loading a contract. exercises are automated via the TWS. However, I will agree, if you do require lots of verbal communication with your broker then IB is probably not best for you.
 
Quote from cashmoney69:

OK. nevermind, TK got awefull reviews in the broker section. Might go with Zecco. Commission is similar.
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Surprising! Where did you get great reviews about Zecco?

Anyway, world will be a different place if everyone think alike. (think about everyone wearing red shirt, blue trousers and driving yellow car).

IB was my 5th broker and I never looked back. OH is also great and I guess hybrid approach discussed above will work great for most of people.

Regarding approvals, you may have to lie a bit when they ask about your trading experience with options. It's a classic chicken-egg problem.

With just level-1 approval, you won't be able to buy call/put/spreads (forgrt about selling naked). You can only sell Covered-CALL(buy stocks, sell CALLS - why not simply sell PUT). Pretty useless for what I do.

Also make sure that your broker provides you a nice paper-trading account. Great for learning options.

Mark's book (Options for Rookies) is one of the best book for option investors. make sure you have it on your shelf.

My 2-cents (and probably last post on this thread).

Thanks,
- Su
 
Quote from cashmoney69:

OK. nevermind, TK got awefull reviews in the broker section. Might go with Zecco. Commission is similar.
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TK is better than Zecco. Zecco is the worst of them all. They've been known for having system downtime, over 24 hours turn around on email to the support desk, longer hold times if you call them etc etc.. If you're deciding between the two then go with TK. I remember reading a couple TK broker reviews here on ET and at least a couple of them were a load of crap.
 
Quote from def:

if you're doing size, I can introduce you to our size desk who quite often provide price improvement and nice liquidity.
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I tried the size desk a few times for RUT orders. I note that my 'size' was at the bottom end of your range. 50 to 60 4-legged spreads.

Kevin was very helpful, but the quotes were a joke. Whoever gave those quotes was looking to pick me off at horrendous prices. Much worse than I could see as the current bid/ask. Am actually surprised that Kevin bothered to present those quotes.

The desk was unable to fill me any better than I could have done myself.

Maybe good for SPX, but very bad for RUT and I will never try them again.

Mark
 
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