Questrade’s looking for your multi-leg ideas

Q

QuestradeCanada

ET Sponsor
Hi Elite Trader community, my name is David and I work for Questrade.
For those of you not familiar with us, we’re Canada’s fastest-growing online brokerage.

Questrade recently introduced multi-leg option trading into our platforms. While we’ve been busy creating help and reference material, we wanted your input on where we should go next.

First, for newer option traders, we’re creating a series of capsule videos to assist them understanding various option strategies:
• Covered call
• Married put
• Collar
• Bull vertical call
• Bear vertical call

For the more experienced option traders here in the Elite Trader community, we want to know where you think Questrade should go from here. What are the key multi-leg option research and trading tools you need or would look for in a broker?

Do you frequently use:
• Option volatility charts
• Back-testing software
• Screeners to identify technical patterns on options
• Advanced order functionality for multi-leg orders (i.e., conditional orders based on the underlying security), or
• Would you like an ability to view all open multi-leg orders placed by other clients at Questrade?

We’re also exploring the option of adding basket and bracket orders for stocks and options trading. Do you use these often in your trading? How critical are they to your success?

We’re here to listen to your ideas, so tell us - what research and trading tools are you looking for in a broker?

David
Questrade, Inc.
 
I think you need to reduce the cost first. People with small orders won't be able to execute multi-legged options, as the cost is prohibitive.

Simple example: If I want to do an iron condor on questrade, assuming I'm a small account, it's going to cost me more than the potential profit of the position, for most stocks, for a single contract...
 
Wow welcome to the early 2000's

I am Canadian and have been trading spreads for years so I know how backward Canadian Brokers are but I am happy to see that some are trying...

If I was rude (sometimes I am but not on purpose), I would say: open a demo account with ThinkorSwim and do EXACTLY what they do, that would be the ideal solution... If TD is too greedy to offer the same advantages/commissions to it's Canadian clients than it does to it's American ones, then they have it coming IMO...

You guys should REALLY talk to Tom Sosnoff, he built ToS and would give you great pointers... And he is fighting to "democratize" option trading and has been on the record shooting down Canadian brokers for their complacency...

Other than that, I say you find yourself at a crossroad...
As Canadians, we currently have the worst of both worlds when it comes to trading options:

1) If we trade actively (like me), our only real choice is Interactive Brokers. Their commissions are easily the best in Canada for options and they allow multi-legs. The thing is that they do not offer registered accounts, do not have choice of Canadian funds, bonds etc... and their platform in general sucks for options trading.

2) We go with the Canadian banks, they do not allow multi-legs and their commissions are obsene. They also have no knowledge whatsoever on actual option trading. I used to be an option broker for one of them so I know first hand how bad they are.

So that means you are sitting right in the middle... The question you need to ask yourself is: what client group are we going to target? I am assuming execution will be good and that remains to be seen.

If you choose group 1, then you don't need to be worried about videos and stuff like that, you need to put your ressources in 2 things: TECHNOLOGY & PRICING. You need to have a technology that is better than IB, the reference in that field is TOS. If technology is sub-par, then pricing becomes your weapon of choice. TOS charges more than IB yet on this forum you will find more love for TOS because the user experience is so much better... Most of us have a serious problem with ticket charges thought so that might be a problem.

If you choose group 2, then you might find that getting clients to move will be difficult. In that case education is useful, and you will have to go head-on with the banks, I am guessing you have no problem with that. The risk you run is that these clients will not have the knowledge and get burned really fast, if that happens they will not be "repeat" customers.

other video suggestions:

Implied volatility
The greeks
Undefined vs defined risk
Probability of success vs. return
Time Decay
Registered accounts strategies
Reducing cost basis
The importance of liquidity
The role of market makers (retail clients think they are the bad guys)
Calculating price ranges from Implied Vol.
Standard deviations and their role in trading
 
First nice to see a canadian broker actually looking for customer input. I'm an active futures and index option trader in canada, and agree completely with Heiasafari. He's got it 100%.

You want to tempt us away from IB? Offer a ToS like platform with IB like commissions. Get rid of ticket charges, i'll pay a bit more per contract than IB if you had no ticket charges and a good platform, especially if you add good backtesting like Optionvue or Optionet explorer. Make sure we can trade futures options as well as stock and index since we can't get PM up here SPAN margin is all we have.

Key in any option trading platform is graphing and volatility modelling. IB sucks at it, ToS is excellent. I use IB for executing and ToS for graphing and modelling.

Want a great idea of what we're looking for? Check out livevol pro for a good platform with a modern interface. Put in ToS features like contingent orders and graphing, combine it with Livevol interface and volatility analysis and come close to IB commissions and you've just built the best option trading platform going and you'd probably get most of the Canadian business.

Simply put, Interactive Brokers is the only game in town for a serious option trader at the moment in Canada, with ToS a good alternative if you are willing to pay ticket charges and higher commissions. The guys that are going to generate hundreds of contracts a month don't want or need hand holding, we want good executions and a good platform with cheap commissions.

Problem is can it be done profitably in Canada where most people think an option is what you can add into your large Timmies? That's up to you guys at Questrade, but you asked :)
 
Your prices for options are too high. Your videos add nothing to the free material that is all over the internet.

...so, other than your own greed, why do you exist????
 
Quote from oldnemesis:

Your prices for options are too high. Your videos add nothing to the free material that is all over the internet.

...so, other than your own greed, why do you exist????
More...

Nice, and extremely intelligent contribution.

Why do any brokerages exist except to make a profit? You think some are charities? If a company is going to take the time to solicit feedback from existing or potential customers to help improve a product, the least you can do is contribute something constructive or not bother posting at all.
 
'...contribute something constructive or not bother posting at all'

I'm sorry....should I have asked your permission to post here????


The tradition of this board is to discourage commercial posters who are trying to trump up business.

But you wouldn't know that...
 
Quote from tbaylx:

No need to ask for permission..just try and post something intelligent and that contributes to a thread.
More...

Nice points,

I am also a big fan of optionnet explorer. I would love to see a broker offer it or something similar.

In general I would also be willing to pay 1.25 per contract no questions asked for a technology that is decent without ticket charge. I would dump IB in a heartbeat if that was available to us. I do not know if this is realistic though considering the overall small market in Canada.

Also I would suggest questrade not to waste time with Canadian options, liquidity blows and the Montreal exchange is a joke. No need to spend money in that department.
 
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