What option brokers do not alter your spreads? Only let you do so?

[darp]

I mostly use E-Trade Pro, great except if you have 5-10 different spreads on a stock, which I do fairly often, it will ignore how you bot them as a spread and do its own spreads. That happened today and spent over an hour trying to straighten it out, unsuccessfully.

So had 7 spreads (diagonals mostly and 2 verts) and added another trade and ended up with 2 spreads as was and 6 new spreads with different strikes, number of options and dates mixed up. They do this as their system internally does this matching to reduce margin, but this is stupid to force on the user, the can do in background. The user created the spreads as is because that is how the user wanted it. Me changing it is fine, but them doing so without asking is terrible.

So what brokers allow you to keep your groupings as is? I have Etrade, IB, TD already. Do not really want to use IB, lousy interface.

Thanks in advance.

 

[darp]

I mostly use E-Trade Pro, great except if you have 5-10 different spreads on a stock, which I do fairly often, it will ignore how you bot them as a spread and do its own spreads. That happened today and spent over an hour trying to straighten it out, unsuccessfully.

So had 7 spreads (diagonals mostly and 2 verts) and added another trade and ended up with 2 spreads as was and 6 new spreads with different strikes, number of options and dates mixed up. They do this as their system internally does this matching to reduce margin, but this is stupid to force on the user, the can do in background. The user created the spreads as is because that is how the user wanted it. Me changing it is fine, but them doing so without asking is terrible.

So what brokers allow you to keep your groupings as is? I have Etrade, IB, TD already. Do not really want to use IB, lousy interface.

Thanks in advance.

It gets worse, I went back to trying to straighten out the trades, and it did it again!!! Now have 2 calendars that were not there 10 mins ago, who knows what else Power Etrade fouled up. Impossible to freeze spreads as you want them.

 

[ZBZB]

have you used strategy builder within IB option trader?

 

[earth_imperator]

Make screenshots, and if you encounter a loss then tell them that it's their "smart" system to blame, and ask for compensation...

 

[newwurldmn]

I trade through etrade and have to keep track of it separately in excel.

I thought you’ve been trading for like 20 years. You haven’t encountered this before?

I mostly use E-Trade Pro, great except if you have 5-10 different spreads on a stock, which I do fairly often, it will ignore how you bot them as a spread and do its own spreads. That happened today and spent over an hour trying to straighten it out, unsuccessfully.

So had 7 spreads (diagonals mostly and 2 verts) and added another trade and ended up with 2 spreads as was and 6 new spreads with different strikes, number of options and dates mixed up. They do this as their system internally does this matching to reduce margin, but this is stupid to force on the user, the can do in background. The user created the spreads as is because that is how the user wanted it. Me changing it is fine, but them doing so without asking is terrible.

So what brokers allow you to keep your groupings as is? I have Etrade, IB, TD already. Do not really want to use IB, lousy interface.

Thanks in advance.

 

[darp]

Just had a very long call with TD and pretty good news. They do not allow you to reorder apreads later, but they do have a pairings by original orders that does lock, so will not get messed up. If you roll one leg it then breaks into 2 seperate legs. This is acceptable.

 

[darp]

have you used strategy builder within IB option trader?

I have not trarded options much at IB for years, so not sure. Normally bring up spread thing in workstation and it works. Think it does pair them. Your thoughts on it?

 

[destriero]

I mostly use E-Trade Pro, great except if you have 5-10 different spreads on a stock, which I do fairly often, it will ignore how you bot them as a spread and do its own spreads. That happened today and spent over an hour trying to straighten it out, unsuccessfully.

So had 7 spreads (diagonals mostly and 2 verts) and added another trade and ended up with 2 spreads as was and 6 new spreads with different strikes, number of options and dates mixed up. They do this as their system internally does this matching to reduce margin, but this is stupid to force on the user, the can do in background. The user created the spreads as is because that is how the user wanted it. Me changing it is fine, but them doing so without asking is terrible.

So what brokers allow you to keep your groupings as is? I have Etrade, IB, TD already. Do not really want to use IB, lousy interface.

Thanks in advance.

What's the difference between a put and a call?

Shares.

You can group positions into folders on TDA but you have to clear the "unallocated" folder before doing so, and then you can apportion as you wish. Default is unallocated -> open new folder -> transfer to folder.

But yeah, that's what your greeks are for. Do you think OMMs sat there tidying their positions into groups on a single ticker?

 

[TheDawn]

I mostly use E-Trade Pro, great except if you have 5-10 different spreads on a stock, which I do fairly often, it will ignore how you bot them as a spread and do its own spreads. That happened today and spent over an hour trying to straighten it out, unsuccessfully.

So had 7 spreads (diagonals mostly and 2 verts) and added another trade and ended up with 2 spreads as was and 6 new spreads with different strikes, number of options and dates mixed up. They do this as their system internally does this matching to reduce margin, but this is stupid to force on the user, the can do in background. The user created the spreads as is because that is how the user wanted it. Me changing it is fine, but them doing so without asking is terrible.

So what brokers allow you to keep your groupings as is? I have Etrade, IB, TD already. Do not really want to use IB, lousy interface.

Thanks in advance.

I trade with IB and it doesn't alter your spread and leave them as is even for their statements I find but you don't like them.

 

[darp]

I trade with IB and it doesn't alter your spread and leave them as is even for their statements I find but you don't like them.

Thanks.
Yes, they have bugs I told them about 20 years ago, still in the program.

You do not know what your option commisions will be, it varies trade to trade, and fills are terrible on stocks. Fidelity fills are so good that at market they often give you better than mid on stocks. IB generally gives you the worst price. IB is good at overseas markets, which I do trade.