Are You Paying Too Much To Your Broker?

IMO it's unfair you compare the costs stated here...At TOS i am paying $1.25 with no ticket fee.  This is slightly above the IB rate and TOS wins hands down on their platform, support, etc.  

$1.25 is still almost double than IB. And there is no assignment or exercise fee with IB. Better margin rates. Better margin for VIX trades. VIX trades are among our best trades, and TOS margin for those trades is absurd.

As for the platform, I'm very happy with IB platform. Based on our members feedback, IB fills are also consistently better than TOS too.

Don't believe me? Read Barron's survey. IB is #1 three years in a row, based on 8 parameters, not only cost.

You will overpay THOUSANDS of dollars in commissions every year with TOS. Bug if you are happy with them, who am I to convince you otherwise? After all, they charge what they charge only because people are ready to pay.

Ok let's look at the categories. IB VS TOS

Trading experience and technology 4.8 vs 4.2: honestly this one baffles me how IB can be on top. Their platform is horrible. I mean you can trade using it but to perform any meaningful analysis it's useless. Their charts suck!

Usability 4.5 vs 4.6. not sure exactly what this means but ok

Mobile 4.7 vs 4.7: not sure hoe IB is that high. I would give it a 4 tops.

Range of offerings. 3.8 vs 4.5: actually surprised on this one as I thought IB offered pretty much all the instruments.

Research 4.8 vs 4.9; ok

Portfolio analysis : 5.0 vs 4.7 : I actually agree on this, TD is lacking here

Customer service 4.6 vs 4.8: IB should be a 1 here, beyond incompetence

Costs 4.7 vs 1.7 ; this is the one that skews the rating. So even if IB is AT .75 and TOS at 1.25 that should put TOS rating at a minimum at 4.

With costs adjusted this would bring TOS much closer to IB and with the other categories scored more accurately for IB, a clear winner.

This is my unbiased assessment after using IB for 5 years and TOS for the past 3.

I agree regarding analysis. However, if you are an active trader, with the money you save on commissions you can buy a decent options analysis software. I'm using ONE - compared to ONE, both IB and TOS should get 1.

Also, don't forget that most clients don't pay 1.25 with TOS. I even tried to negotiate with them group discount for SO members - they lowest they were ready to go was 1.50, which is double compared to IB. Over time, this is HUGE. If you trade even 20k portoflio with SO, you save over $4k per year. For 5k portfolio, that's $10k in savings. Even if you pay 1.25, you still save around $7k/year with IB. Add better fills most of the time, better margin rates etc. - and the choice is pretty clear.

Speaking about customer service:

I opened an additional account with IB last week. The whole process has been completed within 3 days. I started the application on Tuesday, on Friday it was completed and on Monday I could start trading. Their sales rep actually called me twice to help with the process and make sure that they have all the necessary docs.

I opened 3 tickets recently, all of them have been resolved within 24 hours.

No customer service issues for me.

What is your opinion of Options House.  Stockbrokers.com rates them highly. Yet consumer reviews rates their CS poorly.    The commissions are $5 ticket charge and .50 contract charge.   This is more competitive than IB.    At TOS I am getting $7 ticket charge and $.65 option contract charge. I am thinking about switching to IB or Options House.

The reviews are not good as you mentioned - http://investimonials.com/brokers/reviews-optionshouse.aspx

Stockbrokers.com ranks IB pretty low, which to me makes them unreliable already. Somehow I trust Barron's more than Stockbrokers.com, and Barron's ranks IB #1.

Our members provide mixed feedback about Options House. Their commissions are better than IB only if you trade relatively big account.