New Day Trader looking for best Platform...

Quote from EconomicHitMan:

You are right about options possessing different characteristics. I know their basic concept, but I do not know them nearly enough to dare trade them. The formulas remind of college Calculus. Sometimes that scares me away haha

I've heard of the iron condor strategy for options, but you have me kind of lost there.
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One of the best books for learning options is "Option Volatility & Pricing" by Sheldon Natenberg. I highly recommend this book. To me and many others, this is the "bible" of options. It'll teach you everything you need to know about options and option strategies.

When looking for a broker, make sure to ask about their options. For example, back when I started trading, I opened an account with Scottrade. When I learned about options, I couldn't use many strategies as Scottrade didn't allow selling naked calls. Selling naked calls can be very dangerous and Scottrade was just protecting it's clients from making stupid moves. While that's fine for the beginning trader, it limits what the experienced trader can do. By not allowing naked calls, they also stopped many option strategies. That's when I finally left Scottrade and opened an IB account.
 
Quote from Traderham:

One of the best books for learning options is "Option Volatility & Pricing" by Sheldon Natenberg. I highly recommend this book. To me and many others, this is the "bible" of options. It'll teach you everything you need to know about options and option strategies.

When looking for a broker, make sure to ask about their options. For example, back when I started trading, I opened an account with Scottrade. When I learned about options, I couldn't use many strategies as Scottrade didn't allow selling naked calls. Selling naked calls can be very dangerous and Scottrade was just protecting it's clients from making stupid moves. While that's fine for the beginning trader, it limits what the experienced trader can do. By not allowing naked calls, they also stopped many option strategies. That's when I finally left Scottrade and opened an IB account.
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I was actually looking into that book. But, I was leaning towards Options as a Strategic investment. I thought that was the "Bible" for options. Now I'm confused. I don't want to have to read more than one book on the same topic with the same basic material. So now the question is Options as a Strategic Investment or Option Volatility & Pricing?
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

You might also want to check out Schwab's Street Smart Pro platform. Their fees are not as low as IB or Lightspeed, but you get a very high quality charting plus Lev II package for free, if you do minimal volume. While splitting your funds might be an issue, it is also a very good idea in my experience not to have all your eggs in one basket in terms of brokers.

I think the issue of fees tends to get overlooked. For a retail trader, paying for a charting app, plus several RT exchange fees can add up over the years. If you can avoid it, you're ahead of the game.
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Agreed 100%

Schwab's Street Smart Pro platform is FREE (with a minimual amount of quarterly trading) and offers direct-access order routing. The charts are good, and the platform is very stable. In fact, SSPro even held up well during the "Flash Crash".

Schwab also uses it own infrastructure for it's data-feed to and from the exchanges. This means that they do not contract out for their "quotes" to a third-party. Furthermore, their feed was designed by the same guy that dealt with the incredible demands that were placed on Cybertrader back in the heavy day-trading days about a decade ago in Austin, Texas. At one point back then, Cybertrader was dealing with more demand for bandwidth than Dell Computer Corp., the University of Texas, AND the Capital of Texas COMBINED!!!

Moreover, if you are located on the West Coast or the Southwest, you will enjoy a very quick trace-route with minimal "hops" given that the Schwab servers are based in Phoenix.

Definitely something to think about.
:)
 
I live in NYC so I'll stick with IB , servers are located in CT , my data is very fast , but trust me kids daytrading stocks and options is very stupid.
 
Their fees and margin are far too high. If you use margin it always seems a certainty to use IB as your broker.

Quote from Landis82:

Agreed 100%

Schwab's Street Smart Pro platform is FREE (with a minimual amount of quarterly trading) and offers direct-access order routing. The charts are good, and the platform is very stable. In fact, SSPro even held up well during the "Flash Crash".

Schwab also uses it own infrastructure for it's data-feed to and from the exchanges. This means that they do not contract out for their "quotes" to a third-party. Furthermore, their feed was designed by the same guy that dealt with the incredible demands that were placed on Cybertrader back in the heavy day-trading days about a decade ago in Austin, Texas. At one point back then, Cybertrader was dealing with more demand for bandwidth than Dell Computer Corp., the University of Texas, AND the Capital of Texas COMBINED!!!

Moreover, if you are located on the West Coast or the Southwest, you will enjoy a very quick trace-route with minimal "hops" given that the Schwab servers are based in Phoenix.

Definitely something to think about.
:)
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I'm opening up an IB account. Just curious, if it's stupid why would you do it?

Quote from tickmagnet:

I live in NYC so I'll stick with IB , servers are located in CT , my data is very fast , but trust me kids daytrading stocks and options is very stupid.
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You kidding? IB's margin is around 1.69% , that's some cheap money my friend, next to TOS I would put Optionsexpress for options traders.
 
What do you mean am I kidding....I agree with you...I said if you use margin then it's an easy choice to use IB because their margin is multiples lower than anyone else


QUOTE]Quote from tickmagnet:

You kidding? IB's margin is around 1.69% , that's some cheap money my friend, next to TOS I would put Optionsexpress for options traders. [/QUOTE]
 
You have a dilemma my friend. The problem is that the best platform does not reside with the best broker. Interactive Brokers have the best rates for trading and nobody comes near them in terms of interest charged on margin accounts. But they don't offer much by way of technical analysis, back testing and/or strategy optimization. For that you would have to go to TradeStation. They have the best software but their trading fees are close to IB. The don't compare when it come to margin interest though. Their platform can run you $90 to $160 per month depending on the bell and whistles. If you trade over $5,000 share per month the platform and bells and whistles are free. Their software, classes and training videos are good.

You can use third party software with IB but good software will run from $300 to a couple of thousand a month.

Let me know what you decide and how you make out.

Sam :)
 
I'd suggest you check out Billion Operating System. I'm pretty sure that can be very useful for your trading purposes. They have an easily to use interface; it's not free (Free trading software's do NOT WORK for FREE), it has a great back-test engine, etc. There is a learning curve at the beginning, but it has a great tech support and info on their web page for support.
 
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