Options Broker for Spreads
- Thread starter Max875
- Start date
A few years ago our firms position was short gamma (we got long about 75-85 big S&P futures down 30 pts. We were probably pushing our margin at the time, but when the clearing firm rep called in the morning to ask what we were going to do, I was the only one in the office at that time (partners got there later). Knowing that we would be buying in some of the downside vol that we were short , I said "Don' t worry Kevin, we're gonna buy some of the 1025 strike this morning to flatten that out." He replied "You're long futures down 30, you have to buy puts not calls." At 6:00 AM I was not going to get into the whole "A call's a put and a put's a call" thing. So I said, "Ok, I tell to buy the puts 
Vega
Vega
www.thinkorswim.com and the new www.tosliquidity.com are the top platforms available for this type of trading. PLUS the commissions are fully negotiable....
surf
surf
Quote from vega:
I have no experience directly with this firm, but here's a funny story about them. A few years back when I went through the membership process to get my seat on the "evil" CBOE, we had a number of guest speakers throughtout the weak. One was from Morgan Stanley, and she was telling us "Give us your best price the first time, that way we don't have to keep quoting stuff over and over." The reality, is that they NEVER ever hit a bid, or lifted an offer, so all she was doing was trying to ingrane into us that we need to trade for less edge -- yeah right.
Vega
One more funny thing about the chick from Morgan Stanley. She said,"You know, our institutional customers don't like to sell options priced under a dollar, so if there's something that you're only .80 or .90 bid for, try to bid a dollar, and then they'll probably sell them to you." People started looking around the room like, "Are you for real lady ??" I got this thing worth .78, I'm bidding .80, may pay .90 if the stock goes my way, and you want me to bid a buck just so your guy can dump 1000 on us ? It amazes me how some people assume that others have no brain.
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Sounds like she lied like a persian rug on ''give us the best price the first time''...
That Morgan Stanley lady might have mixed in some truth on that ''our institutional customers dont like to sell options priced under a dollar''
Good points around that point.
That's interesting, I recall them telling me (in a nutshell) they couldn't (or wouldn't) beat OX active trader rate ($12.95). What are you paying surfer?
With respect to spreads, they would be the better broker since their margin requirements are much better than OX's ultra-conservative 100K rule:
TOS does have a nice looking platform, reminds me of the screens you see on Star Trek.
Quote from signals:
That's interesting, I recall them telling me (in a nutshell) they couldn't (or wouldn't) beat OX active trader rate ($12.95). What are you paying surfer?
With respect to spreads, they would be the better broker since their margin requirements are much better than OX's ultra-conservative 100K rule:
TOS does have a nice looking platform, reminds me of the screens you see on Star Trek.
it depends on your size/volume as to how low they will go on commissions. yes, they by far, have the best margin requirements due to their intimate knowledge of the option market. TOS understands what you are talking about and the ramifications of each strategy, unlike the other brokers.
surfer