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Which Broker Is The Best For Options Traders?
- Thread starter archon
- Start date
Quote from domestic:
.70 and done. no other fee's whatsoever for equity options. if you want future options, commissions vary, but are priced very low. really no competition considering all points.
I only have a limited number of trades with IB and may be wrong, but it seems that IB charges .70 per contract plus exchange fees. I have several trades in SPY for the same size where commissions vary by executing exchange. Also, from IB's site:
"Your total US options commissions include IB fees, that are tiered based on volume, plus exchange fees. "
Are you perhaps trading stocks on exchanges for which the exchange fee is $0, so it seems that the price is all in? Can others who have traded options on IB, particularly SPY chime in?
Thanks.
Quote from One:
I only have a limited number of trades with IB and may be wrong, but it seems that IB charges .70 per contract plus exchange fees. I have several trades in SPY for the same size where commissions vary by executing exchange. Also, from IB's site:
"Your total US options commissions include IB fees, that are tiered based on volume, plus exchange fees. "
Are you perhaps trading stocks on exchanges for which the exchange fee is $0, so it seems that the price is all in? Can others who have traded options on IB, particularly SPY chime in?
Thanks.
domestic is correct! (but if you trade just one contract, you will have to pay $1 (the minimum)). Also you can be charged or receive liquidity rebate/charge depending on exchange.
No change, except for better integration of Prophet charts into tos' desktop application.
I use both optionsxpress and IB.
Optionsxpress has THE BEST customer services bar none. On phone, instant chat, email, all of the cs rep was very knowledgable able to answer/resolve all my trading/technical questions without the need for any further escalation.
They will also work with you if you got into a margin call (happened to me once when i first started, the vp was on the phone/email talking with me even though i had such a small position only 10 contract at the time). We ended up closing out only 3 of my 10 contracts, then the underlying bounced right back and i was able to recover.
Optionsxpress also has the best online website trading, and mobile phone trading.
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IB on the other hand, has considerablely cheaper commission rate. They also have a good desktop platform that requires quite a bit of learning curve and support many many more products for trade than optionsxpress.
On the downside, their customer services is nonexistent, the cs there are completely clueless. Dont even bother try to ask them anything other than basics like i forgot my password type questions. Also their webtraders (online site) sucks, and mobile trader doesnt work for me(same login/pass/secureid, says login invalid on mobiletrader). I gave up trying after a month dealing with their tech support.
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If you are new, i would suggest start off with optionsxpress, once you got your feet wet and feel comfortable, then switch over to IB. I know if when i started playing with options and went directly to IB i would be wasting a lot more time and in a worse situation than going to optionsxpress.
But for the experienced traders, IB is better because of the low commission and flexibility.
Optionsxpress has THE BEST customer services bar none. On phone, instant chat, email, all of the cs rep was very knowledgable able to answer/resolve all my trading/technical questions without the need for any further escalation.
They will also work with you if you got into a margin call (happened to me once when i first started, the vp was on the phone/email talking with me even though i had such a small position only 10 contract at the time). We ended up closing out only 3 of my 10 contracts, then the underlying bounced right back and i was able to recover.
Optionsxpress also has the best online website trading, and mobile phone trading.
---------
IB on the other hand, has considerablely cheaper commission rate. They also have a good desktop platform that requires quite a bit of learning curve and support many many more products for trade than optionsxpress.
On the downside, their customer services is nonexistent, the cs there are completely clueless. Dont even bother try to ask them anything other than basics like i forgot my password type questions. Also their webtraders (online site) sucks, and mobile trader doesnt work for me(same login/pass/secureid, says login invalid on mobiletrader). I gave up trying after a month dealing with their tech support.
-------------
If you are new, i would suggest start off with optionsxpress, once you got your feet wet and feel comfortable, then switch over to IB. I know if when i started playing with options and went directly to IB i would be wasting a lot more time and in a worse situation than going to optionsxpress.
But for the experienced traders, IB is better because of the low commission and flexibility.
Quote from nlslax:
I didn't realize that TOS is owned by Investools.
Has anyone who has been there a while noticed any changes in the service? Any unsolicited offers? SPAM?
No spam or offers (of any kind.) Same great service and trading platform. Very good customer service. Big into communicating with their customers with their Wed. chats and chat archives. Only downside is that the platform is becoming more complex as time goes on and there's no user manual or online help for novices.
Rick C.
ToS customer (2 yrs)