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Anyone know of any brokers that would be suitable for commission intensive trades (i.e. Creating Alpha TLT trades) that accept Canadians?

None of their suggested brokers there seem to...

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On 4/24/2018 at 9:29 AM, Kim said:

image.png

Looking more closely into opening an account with IB. Are these selections still good for the SO trades we do? I don’t really understand the data subscriptions are charged with IB and not others..

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11 minutes ago, Kim said:

Yes, this is what I'm using.

What you have to look at is the overall cost. If TOS charges you 1.50/contract but data is free - you will save $10/month on data, but lose much more on commissions.

1.50/contract? Is that the real commission cost at TOS? I can certainly see why this would never work for SO. Perhaps there is a sliding scale for volume? 

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Anyone using tastyworks? I’m experiencing quote delays on the iOS app. I asked them and they have live quotes but doesn’t seem quotes are in real time comparing to I also have TOS, which is real time streaming.

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On 1/24/2019 at 5:44 PM, Kim said:

Yes, this is what I'm using.

What you have to look at is the overall cost. If TOS charges you 1.50/contract but data is free - you will save $10/month on data, but lose much more on commissions.

@Kim
Hello. No difference using 'US Equity and Options Add-On Streaming Bundle' for $4.50 in Quote Bundles section or AMEX+NASDAQ+NYSE+OPRA for the same $4.50 (taking waiver into account) in Level 1 NBBO Section?

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A couple of questions regarding IB:

1) Does IB charge an exchange fee of 0.35 - 0.45 in addition to the commission fee when trading SPX options?

2) Assuming one is trading a large volume, how low can one get the commission rate on equity options (either with an associated ticket fee or without one)?

Edited by Alan

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5 minutes ago, Alan said:

A couple of questions regarding IB:

1) Does IB charge an exchange fee of 0.35 - 0.45 in addition to the commission fee when trading SPX options?

2) Assuming one is trading a large volume, how low can one get the commission rate on equity options (either with an associated ticket fee or without one)?

IB passes along the exchange fees and to my knowledge does not negotiate commission rate. You can see the volume tiers on their websites. Lower rates start above 10k contracts per month, so quite large volume for a retail trader.

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Hi there, folks.

Have a question regarging IB 'smart route' algo. I'm surprised with comission differences depending on where my order was routed. Have a nice example with recent NKE straddle trades. So opening comission for +3 straddle -1 strangle was 3.6, 5.16 and 10.22! for the same quantity (last box in red).

image.png

 

I know the orders were executed via different exchanges:

image.png

 

Buy why there's so big difference between them? Does anybody encounter this? If yes, how would you fight it? Do not use smart route?

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@Dael This is totally normal with IB.    Your average over all these trades was $0.79 per contract, and that's what really matters.   When you compute commissions over an entire year, you should see a per contract average of 0.75 or less per contract (assuming you did a good volume of trades).

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7 hours ago, aldem said:

check out the news on Charles Schwab eliminating all commissions starting October 7

Based on what I get from this source...

https://www.investors.com/news/schwab-stock-dives-unveils-zero-fee-stock-trades-tdameritrade-etrade-ibkr-plunge/

...Schwab is dropping their per-trade fee, but will still be charging 0.65 per options contract traded.

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TD Ameritrade users benefit, too:

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) announced Tuesday evening the brokerage firm will eliminate commissions for its online exchange-listed stock, ETF and option trades, moving from $6.95 to $0, effective Thursday. Clients trading options will now pay 65 cents per contract with no exercise and assignment fees.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/td-ameritrade-joins-party-cuts-232459946.html

 

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Ally announced that they were going commissions free as of 10/9/2019, but they started doing this on my trades on 10/4/2019. Nice.

 

And I do mean no flat fee or per option fee. I was being charged 2.95 + .50/option.

Edited by g5harlan

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Hi All,

 

Im quite new to all this, 

Using SAXO Bank as the broker for now, they are charging me something like $2.08 per leg as per what i can understand and their fills seem to take ages, I see other users positing of fills at prices which I am working at as well and not getting filled.

I am currently subscribed to the OPRA Data and have no idea which exchange are the orders being routed to. Anyone have a similar experience with them?

Do let me know if Saxo is a worthwhile broker to continue with or switch to someone else, my account size for trading is USD 100K and I am only trading and learning as per SO advice. So the number of trades will be about 80% of what SO does monthly.

Any advise will be highly appreciated! 

Thanks! 

 

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Does anyone use robinhood?  I was looking at doing a trade on SPX that was posted and I’m not sure if you can do it on robinhood.  The zero fees are amazing, but if it is going to hold me back from taking full advantage of steady options, I will look into switching.

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2 minutes ago, nlesko1988 said:

Does anyone use robinhood?  I was looking at doing a trade on SPX that was posted and I’m not sure if you can do it on robinhood.  The zero fees are amazing, but if it is going to hold me back from taking full advantage of steady options, I will look into switching.

You cannot trade SPX on Robinhood. 

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I’m wondering if I will run into any other problems with robinhood as my broker?  Not sure of it is worth switching just for SPX trades, but if there are any other shortcomings of robinhood I would like to know before I dive on any deeper to options trading.

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@nlesko1988, with zero commissions you can use SPY to replicate SPX trades (just do 10 SPY lots for every 1 SPX lot). Even considering exchange and regulatory fees you'll probably pay less commissions for 10 SPY lots than using other broker that supports SPX and has higher commision rate (plus 0.60 exchange fee for SPX).

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3 minutes ago, nlesko1988 said:

I’m wondering if I will run into any other problems with robinhood as my broker?  Not sure of it is worth switching just for SPX trades, but if there are any other shortcomings of robinhood I would like to know before I dive on any deeper to options trading.

When you trade multi-leg options with Robinhood you will need to round up or down, I think in 5 cent increments. Other brokers allow you to place trades on the penny. 

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Just now, Stanislav said:

@nlesko1988, with zero commissions you can use SPY to replicate SPX trades (just do 10 SPY lots for every 1 SPX lot). Even considering exchange and regulatory fees you'll probably pay less commissions for 10 SPY lots than using other broker that supports SPX and has higher commision rate (plus 0.60 exchange fee for SPX).

This is an excellent idea. Do be aware, however, that SPX with a zero-commission broker is still likely to be cheaper than SPY with that same broker. Zero-commission SPY is definitely cheaper than commission + SPX exchange fee, though.

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1 minute ago, Stanislav said:

@nlesko1988, with zero commissions you can use SPY to replicate SPX trades (just do 10 SPY lots for every 1 SPX lot). Even considering exchange and regulatory fees you'll probably pay less commissions for 10 SPY lots than using other broker that supports SPX and has higher commision rate (plus 0.60 exchange fee for SPX).

SPX is european style, SPY is american. Something to keep in mind.

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1 minute ago, Djtux said:

SPX is european style, SPY is american. Something to keep in mind.

Also a good point. SPY has dividends, so there is an assignment risk not to mention an attendant price gap after that dividend is paid.

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Hello All,

 

I am a new member here with steadyoptions subscription and also somewhat new to option trading.

I have been reading through this forum to try and figure out if i am getting shafted using Fidelity online brokerage (0.63$ per contract + negligible fees) for option trading.

 

Reading the forum it seems most use IB, however many of the posts are from years gone by and i am wondering if the same reasoning still holds for trading options using IB.

 

Would it be a smart choice to switch to IB for someone who say has a $30k portfolio and follows the no more than 4-6 trades held at once with 10% allocation per trade ($3k). I follow mostly Kim's and Yowser's type trades.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited by slego

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Fidelity is the best now after making zero commission fee. U need to pay only 65 cents per option contract and no base fee. their interface fidelity active trader pro is pretty good compared to IB. no minimums , u earn 1% interest for cash after all expenses. nothing can beat fidelity right now.

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5 minutes ago, Vin said:

Fidelity is the best now after making zero commission fee. U need to pay only 65 cents per option contract and no base fee. their interface fidelity active trader pro is pretty good compared to IB. no minimums , u earn 1% interest for cash after all expenses. nothing can beat fidelity right now.

After eliminating the base fee, their commissions are now slightly lower than IB, still higher than tastyworks, and much higher than tradier. Fidelity was never among the best brokers for options traders. With the base fee, I would not even consider them. Without the base fee, they became more competitive, but why trade with someone who for years was charging the base fee, while IB and many others eliminated it years ago?

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12 minutes ago, Vin said:

Fidelity is the best now after making zero commission fee. U need to pay only 65 cents per option contract and no base fee. their interface fidelity active trader pro is pretty good compared to IB. no minimums , u earn 1% interest for cash after all expenses. nothing can beat fidelity right now.

Looks like a lot of brokers are finally improving their options commissions.   I think I recently read that Etrade is doing 50 cents per contract with no base fee.

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1 minute ago, Yowster said:

Looks like a lot of brokers are finally improving their options commissions.   I think I recently read that Etrade is doing 50 cents per contract with no base fee.

It's about time.

Personally I still prefer brokers who lead the commissions revolution and not those who are being forced to join the party. For years, brokers like TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade and others were robbing retail investors by charging $5-10 base fee. I just see no reason to enable them. It's time the retail investors punish those greedy brokers and switch to brokers like IB, tastyworks, Tradier, RobinHood etc.

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Right....I'm getting $0.40 per contract from e-trade, no ticket charge.    They have several platforms.   I use and like the one called Power E-trade which they got in their acquisition of Optionshouse.   It lost some features in the transition to e-trade but it's still pretty good.

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I have been using Tradier for about 6 months and while I like their flat fee structure I can never get the fills that I see other people getting with other brokers.

Even when I get an alert and trade within minutes it is always 2-5 cents more and when I go to sell it is always 2-5 cents less. just curious if anyone else is running into this?

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Same for myself using fidelity, the fees are not too bad but the fills are never as good, anything less than 4% gain for the forum is essentially a loss for me. Do you set market orders or limit? 

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I always use limit orders but it gets frustrating for me since I have a hard time getting the official fills so I start with a partial order at the official price and keep adjusting until I get filled and then put in another order at the official price to see if I can get the rest filled at a lower price.

I find that if I don't get any fills right away I have a hard time getting into a lot of trades that are good trades.

I kind of have a system worked out that kind of works for me but I am not happy with it. I am wondering if switching to IB would maybe be worth the effort??

 

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Yes with fidelity i tried limit orders for a week but that didnt really work out especially for multi leg purchases. On top of this we are always about 10 mins behind when the trade is placed and then tweeted, so that doesnt help either, and same for the closing. I dont know if i could improve anything into getting into trades, it really seems the ten minute lag and subsequent fill is what makes the difference for the trade to be a winning one. 

Edited by slego

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