Deron Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 I've been using TOS to trade options for 5 years, and pay $1.50/contract (with no ticket charge). I'm a brand new SO member, and after seeing all the chatter about high commissions, I sent TDA a message today asking them to cut my per contract rate, and stating if they won't I'll go to IB. I haven't heard back yet. Because I've used TOS (desktop and mobile) so much, I'm very comfortable with it. I've tried a little paper trading in IB, and so far, can't get comfortable with the platform. It doesn't seem user-friendly. Has anyone switched from TDA to IB, and if so, how much of a learning curve is there? Also, which IB platform is better - web or desktop? Thanks! Quote
Hany Posted April 25, 2017 Posted April 25, 2017 Hey Deron. I use both TOS and the mosaic interface in IB. The mosaic interface in IB is much more user friendly (in my opinion) than both TOS and IB's traditional platform. Are you using mosaic? Quote
Deron Posted April 26, 2017 Author Posted April 26, 2017 Hey Hany. I've just installed the TWS demo and found Mosaic. I'm going to play with it for a few days and see what happens. One thing that I use a lot on TOS is the Analyze tab. I haven't seen anything similar in TWS yet, but I'll keep looking. Thanks for the suggestion. Quote
Deron Posted April 27, 2017 Author Posted April 27, 2017 Sent TDA an e-mail and based on my expected monthly volume, convinced them to drop my commissions to $1.00 per contract with no other fees. Although I'm still above what I would pay with IB in most cases, I feel much better. It's always nice to send a simple e-mail and in exchange, stick some cash in your pocket! Quote
dergol Posted November 1, 2017 Posted November 1, 2017 I’m thinking of switching to the TastyWorks new platform. Their commissions are $1 per options contract to open and no charge to close. No other fees, base or otherwise. Only downer is that if u open an entity account (I.e., you’re trading under an LLC), they consider u a professional and charge you $120/month for real time quotes. Real time quotes are free for individual accounts. Either way, cost of making 15-20 option trades a month should be quite a bit lower than the rate I worked out with TOS. https://tastyworks.com/pricing.html Quote
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