Live Vol Core - Tradier Brokerage

[cuegis 683]

I searched to see if this topic had been discussed in a previous thread and it came back as "0 results found".

I didn't want to repeat a subject that was already covered.

Anyway, has anyone ever used, or is familiar with this software.."Live Vol Core"

You can either pay $79/month for it or, if you open an account with "Tradier Brokerage",  they give it to you for free.

It works with Interactive Brokers and TOS as the live data feed, plus a few others.

Even better, it has a very extensive historical , options, data base, allowing for tremendous scanning opportunities to search for high IV, unusual options activity etc.

I just wanted to hear , ideally, the experiences of SO members, who have used this.

Also, I just noticed there is a long list of software that is free if you have an account with this place.."Tradier Brokerage" and, among them is the "Option Net Explorer" software...for free.

I am a life long committed customer of Interactive Brokers so please do not get the impression that I am trying to encourage anyone to go to this brokerage.

I'm just thinking that it might be worth opening a very small, "token", account just so I can have all of these programs for free! 

The savings is quite large.

I keep re-editing this post as I learn more info.

Once again, I am not trying to plug this place but, I just checked their commissions and they charge .35 cents per option with no minimum "ticket charge".

That is half of  IB's  .75 cents. And, of course, TOS 's $1.50 commissions are totally prohibitive to the kind of multi-leg positions that we trade here.

Edited July 10, 2016 by cuegis

[pintodave 86]

Thanks for sharing... be curious to hear feedback about this broker. The only 3rd party software I've used is ONE and I really liked it. 

Looks like it is only free if you meet the following:

37+ equity trades per month
or
150+ options contracts and minimum of 20 tickets per month

 

Then it is 50% off of the $55 month fee if:

18–36 equity trades per month 
or
75–149 options contracts and minimum of 9–19 tickets per month

 

 

[cuegis 683]

OOPS! Sorry, I should have checked into this further before posting. My apologies.

But, at .35 cents per option, this might be a very viable place to make those trades.

I would like to hear more about them.

Investimonials says they have been around about 2-3 years and there are 2,  5 star reviews. Not enough to bring me over there but, the commissions might be.

 

Sorry again...this is exactly what they say about "options" commissions...

"Options $0.35 cents/contract - No ticket charge. $5 min. for single leg. $7 min. for multileg."

Edited July 10, 2016 by cuegis

[Kim 7,503]

Thanks for sharing. We are always looking for new information here, and encourage members to post and share. 

 

Most members here are using IB, for best combination of commissions, execution and platform. But .35/contract does sound attractive and might be worth checking. 

[Optrader 118]

Thanks for sharing

should be worth trying out

no minimum needed and .35 is cheapest.

the only other thing that need to check is tax if they can provide a ready turbotax import file or schedule d.

in ameritrade i get ready tax file with 1000 transactions imported by turbotax with no effort or cost

[cuegis 683]

It looks like one of the free software packages that they give you is this one...

Form8949.com

 

 a tax software program that calculates all of your trades into the IRS form 8949

[Optrader 118]

That sounds great. For small fee its worth using Form8949 when we have tons of transactions. I was approaching 2K limit on turbotax and was anyway looking for a easy to use website service to file a schedule D from multiple broker accounts using ESPP,options,shedule C etc . 

I also see that if you that many transactions, then optionnet explorer is free  . Wow what more can we ask for.

May be I am asking for a iphone app to just use it easily. Any options ? like the TOS mobile

[cuegis 683]

I know it sounds quite amazing.

Like I said, I have been a 20 year, very committed, InterActive Brokers customer.

To this day , I have not seen anyone better than them....mainly for the commissions, because we do so many multi legged trades, plus adjustments.

I have a TOS account, that I keep a small amount of money in, just so I can have access to some of the features of their platform, for information but, I would NEVER use them for my active, more aggressive, options trading. $1.50 per leg is "highway robbery" and it significantly reduces your probability of profit.

I have never considered using anyone other than IB for my active, options trading but, if this REALLY is .35 cents, and there isn't some other "catch" that I/we are not seeing, I might open an additional account there, first with a small amount of money, just to test it out.

Equally as important as the commissions, is the fact that I was just about to purchase Option Net Explorer and Live Vole Core software and it all comes free with an account here.

As well as many other software programs, like the tax program,and others that I was not even aware of.

If anyone has either used this brokerage, or is familiar with "Live Vol Core" for scanning/backtesting/screening features, please speak up!

Edited July 11, 2016 by cuegis

[thesnaggle 1]

Any updates on this? I have spent $5500 with TDA this year and lately it seems they are having trouble filling ATM straddles (and all my other spreads).

Started the ONE trial this weekend and am moving funds back to IB, but if Tradier is a viable outfit, I'll give it a try.

 

[mglaezer 6]

2 hours ago, thesnaggle said:

Any updates on this? I have spent $5500 with TDA this year and lately it seems they are having trouble filling ATM straddles (and all my other spreads).

Started the ONE trial this weekend and am moving funds back to IB, but if Tradier is a viable outfit, I'll give it a try.

 

I am evaluating Tradier now. The $40/mo flat rate for steadyoptions members is good. Paying $1.40 less per straddle (2 * 0.70) than with IB - translates to being able to pay for example 1.87 instead of 1.86 for the recent ORCL straddle and still match Kim's entry.

However it seems that I am unable to get those straddles anyway with Tradier, even overpaying 1-2c for them. Will try IB and Tradier side by side to check if I am not making that up.

Tradier's own web interface is ok to enter the trades but useless for monitoring. The list of disparate option legs becomes a mess pretty soon.
ONE's integration with Tradier is good, the worst thing is that after the trade is placed with Tradier I need to enter the real fill price if I changed it in the process of placing the order. They told me they are working on a tighter integration. But the rest is great.

I tried many tools listed on Tradier's site and some more, and found that for my taste ONE is the best among them.

The people I contacted in Tradier are very helpful, answering my emails the same day.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2016 by mglaezer

[cuegis 683]

4 minutes ago, mglaezer said:

I am evaluating Tradier now. The $40/mo flat rate for steadyoptions members is good. Paying $1.40 less per straddle (2 * 0.70) than with IB - translates to being able to pay for example 1.87 instead of 1.86 for the recent ORCL straddle and still match Kim's entry.

However it seems that I am unable to get those straddles anyway with Tradier, even overpaying 1-2c for them. Will try IB and Tradier side by side to check if I am not making that up.

Tradier's own web interface is ok to enter the trades but useless for monitoring. The list of disparate option legs becomes a mess pretty soon.
ONE's integration with Tradier is good, the worst thing is that after the trade is placed with Tradier I need to enter the real fill price if I changed it in the process of placing the order. They told me they are working on a tighter integration. But the rest is great.

I tried many tools listed on Tradier's site and some more, and found that for my taste ONE is the best among them.

The people I contacted in Tradier are very helpful, answering my emails the same day.

 

 

 

That is an excellent idea.....to compare IB and Tradier, in real-time to uncover what's what! With regard to fills and liquidity.

My instinct tells me that the best , and most reliable, fills will probably always come from IB.

There is no free lunch.

If you want TOS, for free, you really have to pay 1.50 commission.,

I have not personally tested Tradier but common sense tells me that unlimited trades are going to have to be paid for from one end or another.

With IB I KNOW what I'm getting.......and I have been with them for 20 years.

 

[sss 0]

I have been using tradier for some time now. Very happy with them. Customer service is also very good.  I would whole heartedly recommend them.

[ocr008 10]

Why you say tos. Is $1.50   Ib if you trade index like spx or rut you paying more than tos ib .70 +.44=$1.14 

iB 20 contracts =$22.50

Tos 20 contracts =$19

[thesnaggle 1]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 9:41 PM, cuegis said:

That is an excellent idea.....to compare IB and Tradier, in real-time to uncover what's what! With regard to fills and liquidity.

My instinct tells me that the best , and most reliable, fills will probably always come from IB.

There is no free lunch.

If you want TOS, for free, you really have to pay 1.50 commission.,

I have not personally tested Tradier but common sense tells me that unlimited trades are going to have to be paid for from one end or another.

With IB I KNOW what I'm getting.......and I have been with them for 20 years.

 

@mglaezer and @cuegis this is the crux of the biscuit, to quote Frank Zappa... Execution execution execution. Can I get filled? This is why I'm leaving TDA. I'm interested in how Tradier stacks up to IB.

Also: @cuegis I would really like to know what the difference is between ONE and Livevol... can you do some things with one and not the other? Would you recommend using them together?

 

Sorry for all the questions. Just really curious!

Edited December 12, 2016 by thesnaggle
Asking an additional question

[mglaezer 6]

On 12/10/2016 at 6:41 PM, cuegis said:

That is an excellent idea.....to compare IB and Tradier, in real-time to uncover what's what! With regard to fills and liquidity.

My instinct tells me that the best , and most reliable, fills will probably always come from IB.

There is no free lunch.

If you want TOS, for free, you really have to pay 1.50 commission.,

I have not personally tested Tradier but common sense tells me that unlimited trades are going to have to be paid for from one end or another.

With IB I KNOW what I'm getting.......and I have been with them for 20 years.

 

I put some preliminary observations in this thread:

https://steadyoptions.com/forums/forum/topic/3318-tradier-brokerage-special-offer/#comment-62192

 

[Noah Katz 90]

On 12/10/2016 at 6:30 PM, mglaezer said:

I am evaluating Tradier now. The $40/mo flat rate for steadyoptions members is good.

 

$40/mo is a screaming deal; in my first week with SO I've already paid $100's in commissions, and I'm getting better rates than IB from etrade, $6/ticket and .60/contract.

 

I'm surprised that I don't see more people switching, or more reporting about their experiences w/Tradier.

 

On 12/10/2016 at 6:30 PM, mglaezer said:

However it seems that I am unable to get those straddles anyway with Tradier, even overpaying 1-2c for them. Will try IB and Tradier side by side to check if I am not making that up.

Tradier's own web interface is ok to enter the trades but useless for monitoring. The list of disparate option legs becomes a mess pretty soon.

 

 

Any more results and Tradier's vs. others' fills?

 

Re monitoring trades, aren't the positions at least listed in alphabetical order, which would at least make 2-legged trades manageable?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Noah Katz

[mglaezer 6]

2 minutes ago, Noah Katz said:

Re monitoring trades, aren't the positions at least listed in alphabetical order, which would at least make 2-legged trades manageable?

They are in the alphabetic order, however I do not find it very manageable. They do not show the cost basis per spread or even per contract, so the constant mental math is inevitable. ONE is a good solution. Another solution is to program something custom using Tradier API.

[Noah Katz 90]

2 minutes ago, mglaezer said:

They do not show the cost basis per spread or even per contract, so the constant mental math is inevitable. ONE is a good solution.

 

That's pretty lame; I've never seen anywhere where a portfolio listing doesn't include that basic information.

 

Re ONE, didn't you say in the other thread that you have to manually keep Tradier and ONE prices in sync?

 

That's an unacceptable PITA to me.

 

I don't need any fancy analysis tools, as I'm going to stick to SO's posted trades for the forseeable future; do you know if any of the other platforms that Tradier offers will allow convenient monitoring of positions?

 

Thanks

[mglaezer 6]

2 hours ago, Noah Katz said:

 

That's pretty lame; I've never seen anywhere where a portfolio listing doesn't include that basic information.

 

Re ONE, didn't you say in the other thread that you have to manually keep Tradier and ONE prices in sync?

 

That's an unacceptable PITA to me.

 

I don't need any fancy analysis tools, as I'm going to stick to SO's posted trades for the forseeable future; do you know if any of the other platforms that Tradier offers will allow convenient monitoring of positions?

 

Thanks

It is their business model: provide API and attract developers to create tools or integrate existing trading tools with this brokerage.

Once the trade is started in ONE, it is possible to save the real fill price later on in ONE. So the inconvenience is only minor, one copy-paste.

I tried several other tools they list on their site and could not find anything as decent as ONE. It is possible that I missed something. In any case, it should be a matter of time till more good trading tools appear for Tradier.

Edited January 31, 2017 by mglaezer

[Noah Katz 90]

On 1/30/2017 at 7:44 PM, mglaezer said:

They do not show the cost basis per spread or even per contract, so the constant mental math is inevitable.

 

They do show the cost basis; I asked them about it and was sent a screenshot, and also one for a multi-legged option ticket.