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On 7/11/2017 at 10:19 AM, SBatch said:

Here is a quick update on Tradier while using the TradeHawk platform.  Tradier execution continues to be as good as OptionsXpress was for me (and they have very good execution).  The TradeHawk platform is very good.  There are some things that need tweaking but they are ridiculously responsive (see email below).  I will mention that you do need to have a large monitor (or multiples which is a compatible configuration) to work with this platform.  All windows are found on the main "Command Center" page, rather than multiple pages or tabs.  This takes up a lot of screen real estate.  They can all be detached or maximized, but there are times where you will want to work with multiple windows simultaneously which is most easily done from the Command Center.  I will continue to make suggestions to the developer to improve the platform and as mentioned above here is an example of that thus far:

Hi Scott,

Looks like many of your suggested changes have been added to version 1.0.12.  I'm messing around with them now.  
 
1. For Cost basis of position, there is a button up top of the Risk Portfolio that allows a toggle between cost per contract/share and total position cost.  Also, a current VALUE column has been added.
2. If you choose a confirmation box before a trade, when you go to modify an order from the Order page, a box will appear confirming your changes.
3.  Mid point for spreads not there yet...give us a bit on that one.
4. For stock traders, auto exit order is available now.
 
Let me of any questions.
 
Thanks,
 
Lex
 
  Kevin "Lex" Luthringshausen
  OptionEyes, LLC
  M: 312.343.5273

 

I did a quick search and may have missed it, but did you do an ACAT transfer from IB to Tradier? How long did it take? 

I see you had some issues with cost basis, did you find out if the information tracked properly across the transfer?

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1 minute ago, Sirion said:

I did a quick search and may have missed it, but did you do an ACAT transfer from IB to Tradier? How long did it take? 

I see you had some issues with cost basis, did you find out if the information tracked properly across the transfer?

I think you may have seen a different member with issues regarding the transfer.  I was actually with OptionsXpress not IB.  I did do an ACAT and it took about 5 business days.  All information was properly transferred from OX to Tradier in my case.

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A friend is considering moving over to Interactive Brokers, but is having a difficult time decoding the if-then-else statements describing their commissions.  Can someone who regularly trades SPX and RUT options please let me know how much they're actually paying for those two instruments? 

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58 minutes ago, ChadK said:

A friend is considering moving over to Interactive Brokers, but is having a difficult time decoding the if-then-else statements describing their commissions.  Can someone who regularly trades SPX and RUT options please let me know how much they're actually paying for those two instruments? 

I think I average under a 1.00 for RUT and about 1.20 for SPX 

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Thanks for the replies.  Seems difficult to beat the $0.75 comms and ~$0.025 fees that he and I are getting at TOS.  But of course comms aren't everything, if better fills can be had because IB isn't getting paid for their order flow like TOS is.

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12 minutes ago, ChadK said:

Thanks for the replies.  Seems difficult to beat the $0.75 comms and ~$0.025 fees that he and I are getting at TOS.  But of course comms aren't everything, if better fills can be had because IB isn't getting paid for their order flow like TOS is.

IB absolutely gets paid for their order flow.  They simply like to mislead customers by stating that "IB does not sell order flow to another broker."  This of course is a distinction without a difference because they route directly to the exchange that pays them for the order flow so there is no other broker in between, meaning their rebate is even larger than those who use a wholesaler.  This is from their most recent quarterly order routing report:

"Payment for Orders: IB receives payments for certain orders in varying amounts from U.S. options exchanges, specialists and/or market makers pursuant to the mandatory marketing fee programs that have been adopted by the exchanges and approved by the SEC. If multiple exchanges are quoting at the NBBO for an option order and IB has discretion as to where to send the order or a portion of it, IB  generally will “break the tie” by sending the order to an exchange where it will receive the most payment for the order, or to an exchange designated by a firm from whom IB will receive the most payment at that market."

Edited by SBatch

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Keep in mind also that for regular stock options anyway,  the price changes if you are adding or subtracting liquidity.  Not sure on the mechanics ( probably related to what Batch mentions above)  but I quite often get greatly discounted commissions and have even had a credit, believe it or not.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, ChadK said:

 

Thanks for the clarification.

But like someone said earlier there are many times I get a credit for some trades making it difficult to compare apples to apples but i do believe overall I am better off commissions wise with IB than at TOS, I have an account at TOS as well and I do think my fills are better on IB.

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Hi SBatch, 

Thanks for clarifying IB's stance, 

I believe this means if you use Direct order to route your orders, then they won't use this discretion to SMART route your order depending on the best payment they can receive (but still has to be the NBBO)? 

My biggest issue with options trading is not necessarily the broker's routing but figuring out the true mid price - sometimes, the mid for a spread is distorted because "Joe 1-lot" has already bid up the price for one of the legs; I wish options software could look at the whole entire volatility smile of a options series across a single expiration, smooth out the outliers and create true mids for your spreads, 

But that would be too fair for the market-makers (which until recently IB was with TimberHill before they sold it to Two Sigma), so I won't hold out my breath, 

Thanks,
Paul

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14 minutes ago, PaulCao said:

Hi SBatch, 

Thanks for clarifying IB's stance, 

I believe this means if you use Direct order to route your orders, then they won't use this discretion to SMART route your order depending on the best payment they can receive (but still has to be the NBBO)? 

My biggest issue with options trading is not necessarily the broker's routing but figuring out the true mid price - sometimes, the mid for a spread is distorted because "Joe 1-lot" has already bid up the price for one of the legs; I wish options software could look at the whole entire volatility smile of a options series across a single expiration, smooth out the outliers and create true mids for your spreads, 

But that would be too fair for the market-makers (which until recently IB was with TimberHill before they sold it to Two Sigma), so I won't hold out my breath, 

Thanks,
Paul

I was a market maker in options for many years,on several commodities, and stock exchanges (AMEX).

I traded with Timber Hill.

As for your desire to be able to see the "real" mid, or what market makers on the floor would call "fair value", everybody came to work everyday with "value sheets".

They were either provided by whoever you worked for, or if worked for yourself, there were programs that you could buy that you could run every night and print out for the next day.

Since all of the floors are now long gone, and there are no longer "those" kind of "organic"market makers, I still think that there are a few options software companies around that can create the equivalent of those "value sheets".....or just have it right on your computer.

This way, you can know the fair value of each option depending upon what you set for your IV and where the price is, then work off that.

I know "Option Vue" still has something like this but, they are way too expensive.

Maybe ivolatility.com might have an affordable version. I'm pretty sure they do.

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On 7/26/2017 at 3:32 PM, ChadK said:

Thanks for the replies.  Seems difficult to beat the $0.75 comms and ~$0.025 fees that he and I are getting at TOS.  But of course comms aren't everything, if better fills can be had because IB isn't getting paid for their order flow like TOS is.

I trade SteadyCondors in both my IB and TOS accounts.  My commission structure on TOS is $1.00/contract, and that consistently works out better than IB's fees for SPX & RUT.  On the last Steady Condors opening, here's what I paid at IB:

SPX:  $12.33 for 5 Verticals, $4.93 for 2 Verticals, $3.07 for 1 Vertical, and $1.44 for a single put.  $21.77 for 17 contracts or ~1.28/contract

RUT: $9.61 for 5 Verticals, $3.83 for 2 Verticals, $2.49 for 1 Vertical, and $1.24 for a single put.  $17.17 for 17 contracts or ~1.01/contract

 

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28 minutes ago, stewbd00 said:

I trade SteadyCondors in both my IB and TOS accounts.  My commission structure on TOS is $1.00/contract, and that consistently works out better than IB's fees for SPX & RUT.  On the last Steady Condors opening, here's what I paid at IB:

SPX:  $12.33 for 5 Verticals, $4.93 for 2 Verticals, $3.07 for 1 Vertical, and $1.44 for a single put.  $21.77 for 17 contracts or ~1.28/contract

RUT: $9.61 for 5 Verticals, $3.83 for 2 Verticals, $2.49 for 1 Vertical, and $1.24 for a single put.  $17.17 for 17 contracts or ~1.01/contract

 

 

Excellent data.  Thanks so much for the detail!  While commissions shouldn't be the deciding factor on which broker to use, it's important to know what you're in for, and IB's website is difficult to understand what the costs actually are.  As mentioned, we pay $0.75/contract at TOS, with an additional $0.02357/contract in fees, for about $0.773 all-inclusive.

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Has anyone who uses Tradier had any luck getting a break on the $40/month per account? I have 3 accounts, regular, traditional IRA, and Roth IRA. Generally my most active trading is done in my IRAs due to the tax sheltering, but I doubt it would be enough to pay $40/month for some of those accounts right now as I just don't hold enough positions in them. 

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41 minutes ago, stewbd00 said:

Thanks, @SBatch  I'm ready to give them a try after I spent $91 in commsissions rolling 20 VIX verticals earlier today with IB. 

Rolling the VIX contracts was painful..

However... most of the cost came from Exchange fees..  CBOE  charged me a 1$ in fee for each contract.. From what i understand, Tradier also passes exchange fees to the consumer.. If that is the case, then I am not sure how much there is to save... Can anyone with experience clarify this? 

Thanks

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@apsoccermd good point on additional fees for VIX....According to the Tradier website, there is a fee of somewhere between 0.18-0.60 per contract for VIX options.  Can anyone that is on the $40/month plan at Tradier tell us what they are actually charging for VIX, SPX & RUT fees?  It's a bit vague on what the actual price is for each product:

 

Are there any option contracts that have fees in addition to ORF and TAF?

Yes, there are currently 17 Index Options that have an additional per contract fee. These fees currently range from $0.18/contract - $0.60/contract but only apply on these symbols: DXL, EPX, HGX, MNX, MVR, OEX, OSX, RUT, SOX, SPX, SVO, UTY, VIX, XAU, XEO and XDE.

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44 minutes ago, stewbd00 said:

@apsoccermd good point on additional fees for VIX....According to the Tradier website, there is a fee of somewhere between 0.18-0.60 per contract for VIX options.  Can anyone that is on the $40/month plan at Tradier tell us what they are actually charging for VIX, SPX & RUT fees?  It's a bit vague on what the actual price is for each product:

 

Are there any option contracts that have fees in addition to ORF and TAF?

Yes, there are currently 17 Index Options that have an additional per contract fee. These fees currently range from $0.18/contract - $0.60/contract but only apply on these symbols: DXL, EPX, HGX, MNX, MVR, OEX, OSX, RUT, SOX, SPX, SVO, UTY, VIX, XAU, XEO and XDE.

They pass though the CBOE regulatory fee for VIX options of 0.41 per contract.  Add on the ~0.043 OCC fee that is added to everything and you'll end up paying about 0.45-0.46 in the end.  Cheapest I've seen.  

I can't remember the SPX or RUT fees as I quit trading them there long ago, but I do know SPX was higher than VIX.  I don't trade them anymore since they don't allow time spreads on cash settled options (at least in my relatively small account there), and their inability to provide margin relief for broken or unbalanced butterfly/condors.  

Tim

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Hey guys..I saw on one of the Topics (and I can't find it now) the mention of a broker who charged $45/mo for unlimited stocks and option trades...Seems like it was DYNO-something maybe?  After paying around $500 in fees to TD Ameritrade in 3 months I think I need to make a change...hard to make money when they are making all the money :)..

thanks for help..Chris

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On 8/15/2017 at 10:17 PM, XylanderV said:

Hey guys..I saw on one of the Topics (and I can't find it now) the mention of a broker who charged $45/mo for unlimited stocks and option trades...Seems like it was DYNO-something maybe?  After paying around $500 in fees to TD Ameritrade in 3 months I think I need to make a change...hard to make money when they are making all the money :)..

thanks for help..Chris

I have been working with Tradier on my new account... So here is the best deal so far i think options traders can get ( I am planning to do strictly options on this account).

$40/m - All you can trade options (SteadyOptions offer), don't forget , we pay exchange fees.. plus other fees , such as share assignment.. etc

$29/m -  Dynamic Trend Software package.. You have to contact  customer service  and ask for this offer.. 

 

This seems like the best deal , cost wise for options traders..

 

BTW... if anyone have experience and can comment on "Dynamic Trend" quality for options trading.. i would like  to here some feedback.. 

Edited by apsoccermd

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Im looking at tradier as well, im just worried about the mobile part. Some have mentioned that tradier supports mobile web page but I heard that the portfolio management from Tradier itself is horrible due to it splitting the combos after execution. So I cant really imagine doing it on a mobile phone, I do not feel like making mistakes when I get a trade alert from Kim.

 

Does anyone use Tradier and uses a good mobile platform? I know some platform are linked to tradier and have a mobile app. I have an android phone so some platforms do not support this for some reason.

Edited by Bull3t007

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Just a quick update on my experience with Tradier so far.  I started trading with them on 9/1, and order execution has been good so far.  One surprise that I didn't see discussed before is that they do not have live data for the RUT index, but they do have live data for SPX, NDX & VIX.  I'm using ONE to enter trades through Tradier, and I have to switch the data feed from Tradier to IB to get Greeks, IV and last pricing on the RUT index.  Not a big deal, but it is slightly annoying.  I contacted their support about this, and because of the cost associated with real-time RUT data, they currently have no plans on adding support for real-time RUT data.  Just something to be aware of if you do choose to use Tradier.

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I'll add my impression so far after about 6 weeks.  Fills have been ok although I would definitely give an edge to IB. My biggest annoyance with Tradier is that they do not allow any modifications to a partially filled order. They also do not allow you to change quantity on a spread order once you've submitted - price changes are allowed but not qty changes.

I spoke to them about the order modification limitations and they said it's a common complaint but they do intend to support at some point in the future. 

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1 minute ago, JRR said:

My biggest annoyance with Tradier is that they do not allow any modifications to a partially filled order. They also do not allow you to change quantity on a spread order once you've submitted - price changes are allowed but not qty changes.

 

 

Does anyone know if these limitations flow through to the Trend platform?

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14 minutes ago, Noah Katz said:

 

 

Does anyone know if these limitations flow through to the Trend platform?

A lot of things seem to be adding up to disqualify them.

There are certain, basic things that a trader should never even have to think about. They should just assume that everything is there, and it should be.

$40 a month is starting to look like "you get what you pay for!"

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24 minutes ago, Noah Katz said:

 

 

Does anyone know if these limitations flow through to the Trend platform?

Not sure about Trend, but LiveVol and Tradier;s own web based forms do not allow.

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4 hours ago, Noah Katz said:

Does anyone know if these limitations flow through to the Trend platform?

yes Trend has indeed these limitations, so :

  • not possible to change quantity once order is placed, but price can be changed though (as mentioned before by @JRR)
  • not possible to pause orders, you have to cancel and then replace order (quite annoying) 
Edited by 4REAL

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If I were to take a guess, I would say all of their platforms have the limitation. I think what is happening is Tradier passes on all exchange fees. So any modification to an order would actually be a cancelled order and opening a new order. So if the exchange charges a cancel order fee, Tradier is passing that along. 

 

IB doesn't have this issue because they don't pass on the cancel order fee. Most other brokers probably don't have the issue because they are charging so much, they just eat the fee.

 

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Does anyone know if Tradier charges a fee for cancelling an order or changing price (after order is placed) ? So far I did not see any fees for cancelling or changing orders,  But they might charge on monthly basis ?

Edited by 4REAL

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3 hours ago, JRR said:

No, they don't charge for cancel or cancel/replace.

My mistake, it was just a guess on my part because it's not stated anywhere on their website (and it seems like modifying an order shouldn't be a "feature").

 

I would love to have unlimited trades for 40 bucks a month, but I'm an active trader and it seems like it's just too cumbersome with any platform (I was going to use ONE). 

 

If anyone else is using this broker, I would love to hear more.

Edited by craigsmith
additional info

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TastyWorks also has that "limitation" that you can't change the quantity while editing a live order. Perhaps all brokers that use apex clearing has this "limitation"? Regardless, I personally don't see this as a big issue. Cancel and replace works well.

I would love to sign up with Tradier for their low fees, but the lack of a mobile app is a dealbreaker.

Edited by akito

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32 minutes ago, akito said:

TastyWorks also has that "limitation" that you can't change the quantity while editing a live order. Perhaps all brokers that use apex clearing has this "limitation"? Regardless, I personally don't see this as a big issue. Cancel and replace works well.

I would love to sign up with Tradier, but the lack of a mobile app is a dealbreaker.

IB just came out with a new , updated version, of their mobile app, about 2 months ago, and it is VERY good!

 

 

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The strangest thing just happened with a trade at IB.

I bought 1 call at $1.75, to test the market on something.

When I looked at the trade afterward, the commission was .34 cents

How does that happen?

 

I did it a 2nd time and it was .34 again!

Edited by cuegis

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Just now, cuegis said:

The strangest thing just happened with a trade at IB.

I bought 1 call at $1.75, to test the market on something.

When I looked at the trade afterward, the commission was .34 cents

How does that happen?

What do you mean ?

You are talking about rebates ?

Sometimes you could even get 0 commission or negative commissions (rare)

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Just now, cuegis said:

The strangest thing just happened with a trade at IB.

I bought 1 call at $1.75, to test the market on something.

When I looked at the trade afterward, the commission was .34 cents

How does that happen?

@cuegisIB commissions vary based on "contributing to market liquidity".   I've actually had trades were my commission was a credit - so I actually got a few cents for executing the trade instead of spending.   Overall, if you do a lot of trades your IB commissions will average in teh 0.75-0.79 range per contract.

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2 minutes ago, Yowster said:

@cuegisIB commissions vary based on "contributing to market liquidity".   I've actually had trades were my commission was a credit - so I actually got a few cents for executing the trade instead of spending.   Overall, if you do a lot of trades your IB commissions will average in teh 0.75-0.79 range per contract.

I do a LOT of trades everyday (several hundred) , plus I have been with them for 20 years.

A few weeks ago I asked if I could get some sort of discount on my commissions because of all of this....but they said they don't do that.

Honestly, I really don't micro-examine the rate I pay on every trade.

For some reason I just happened to check today because I wanted to see if there was anything negative about doing a 1 lot as opposed to a larger block.

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23 hours ago, Kim said:

Tasty Works gets decent reviews from our members. Just search the forum.

I trade on TastyWorks and ThinkOrSwim. Tastyworks is great for quickly and easily entering trades. Very intuitive interface. Commissions are just about as low as you can get. Lacks advanced features, however. 

If you are new to trading, I would actually recommend ThinkOrSwim. Although the interface is more complicated - it's not tough to learn the basics. But, crucially, the "Risk Profile" on the Analyze tab enables you to 'visualize' the trades - which will make the trades make a lot more sense. I think getting a grasp on this is necessary. Less necessary with more experience. You can call them to get a $1.00 per contract commission rate.

I just opened a Tradier account and placed some trades last week (using Trend). So far, so good. Will probably be moving my full margin account from Tasty. Will post a review after more trading.

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Does anyone have any screenshots of the default web-based interface for tradier? Does it have different pages for making a trade, watching your portfolio of positions, and viewing existing/past orders activity? Curious to see exactly how bare-bones it is.

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Not a screenshot, but each account has a Dashboard page w/this info:

 

Total Account Value     Funds Available (Trading)

A More Balances pulldown with 

Cash

Long Stock Value

Long Option Value

Short Option Value

Settled Cash

Sweep

Then position Info: 

 

 

 

 

Symbol  Quantity  Last  Change  Value  Cost Basis  Gain/Loss

 

Along w/the Dashboard page there's an Activity tab with trade history.

That's pretty much it.

 

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      What's the point to have low commissions if your execution sucks?

      Well, IB has one of the best executions in the industry, thanks to its "Smart Routing":
      Unlike smart routers from other online brokers, IB SmartRouting never routes and forgets about your order. It continuously evaluates fast changing market conditions and dynamically re-routes all or parts of your order seeking to achieve optimal execution and maximize your rebate. IB SmartRouting represents each leg of a spread order independently and submits each leg at the best possible venue. From my experience, and based on members feedback, this algorithm does indeed provide an advantage compared to most other brokers. However, members who used Tradier and tastyworks also reported pretty good results.
      Platform
      Having a good and intuitive platform is the third factor that you should consider.
      It should be stable, intuitive and offer fast way to place trades. IB platform requires some learning curve, and some users consider it outdated, but personally, I like it. I might be biased as I have been using for over 10 years now, but I believe the learning curve is well worth it.
      Many users praise TD Ameritrade (thinkorswim) platform for its expensive features, but their current commissions structure makes it terrible for active options traders. Unless you were grandfathered at their older rates, or can negotiate commissions under $1.00/contract with no ticket fee, I would avoid them.
      Other Considerations
      There are some other things that you should consider, such as:
      How is the Customer service? Unfortunately, IB has one of the worst customer services in the industry. Don't expect any hand holding, and don't expect any help in case you have some trading issue. Their philosophy is "our algorithm is always right, obviously you (the customer) did something wrong."  Does the broker charge extra for real time data and how much? How about assignment fee and exercise fee? IB charges ZERO for both, while some other brokers charge $15-20. What are the margin rates? IB has the lowest margin rates in the industry. What happens in case of margin call? IB has the strictest rules regarding margin rules. When you get a margin call (in case of assignment for example), they might liquidate your positions within minutes. It's an automated process, nothing you can do about it, so try not to get a margin call with IB. What about Global Markets? IB is rated #1 by Stockbrokers.com in the Best for International Traders category. It offers very wide range of international markets and products, and also accepts clients from all around the Globe. Many other brokers have limited exposure in terms of countries they accept clients from.  Conclusion
      In this article, I tried to offer some personal perspective on selecting an options broker. In my opinion, Interactive Brokers, tastyworks and Tradier offer the best combination of cost, execution and platform. 

      That doesn't mean there are no other good brokers. This conclusion is based on my personal experience and feedback from hundreds of members.
       
      Additional reading:
      Brokers And Commissions Trading and getting fills with Interactive Brokers Executing Orders in Interactive Brokers Tradier Brokerage Special Offer Tastyworks A New Brokerage Firm eOption Brokerage Special Offer
    • By cuegis
      Have all of the IB customers received the email last night (Mar 17) informing us that we have to change our data feed subscriptions by
      April 1, 2017, otherwise we are going to be defaulted to 20 minute delayed quotes? With each quote being a "snapshot" of a moment in time and no longer "streaming" info?
      I was not 100% sure what I needed to do but, I added a $4.50 package that appears to turn the delayed data back into real-time streaming data.
      I think that was the correct choice, but I just wanted to hear from others
    • By Crazy ayzo
      I'm looking for someone that is a power user of some of the following... Tradehawk with Tradier, Interactive Brokers, Optionnetexplorer ONE, CMLviz TradeMachine... and any other tools that you find particularly useful.   My schedule is fairly flexible.  I'm in the pacific time zone.
      If this is something that interests you either post here or PM me with an hourly rate.  It's ok if you only know some of the tools, I don't expect anyone to know them all.  I can pay via paypal.
      After I get a better handle on the tools, I'd also be interest in working with someone on strategy of non-directional trades.
       
      P.S.  I did get Kim's approval before making such an off-topic post.
    • By Kim
      The impact of commissions on your results can be astonishing.
       
      This excellent article by Business Insider is asking the right questions (and also answering some of them):
       
      When you pay commission fees for online stock trades, where does that money go? Do you get better execution by paying $9.99 to TD Ameritrade than by paying $1 to Interactive Brokers? How much better? Enough to justify the difference in price?
       
      Their conclusions:
      At least 17 million investors overpaying for online brokerage Only 12% of commission fee is used for trade execution at top brokerages Over $1.8 billion per year wasted on unused premium services Lets analyze one specific month, January 2015, and see how different commissions structure can impact the returns of our SteadyOptions model portfolio.
       
      SteadyOptions $10k model portfolio traded 228 contracts in January. If you paid $0.75/contract with no ticket fee, you spent $171 on commissions, which is 1.7% of your portfolio value. While not cheap, but considering the fact that we produced 20.7% ROI in January (12.4% return on the whole account assuming 10% allocation), it is completely reasonable.
       
      However, if you had a ticket fee of $8, in addition to $0.75/contract, you would pay $427 in commissions, more than double. In this case, your returns will be reduced by 4.3%.
       
      This will make HUGE difference in the long term. To see how huge, I went to pro-trading-profits.com, a third party website that tracks performance of 400+ newsletters. I clicked on SteadyOptions performance report and played with different parameters. Using the $0.75/contract with no ticket fee, a $10,000 portfolio would produce $35,693 gains since inception. Adding $8 ticket fee to each trade would reduce the gains to $23,869.
       
      The impact of the ticket fee is especially significant if you have relatively small account.
       
      Of course commissions is only part of the whole package. Other factors include tools, platform, customer service etc. Barron's publishes a comprehensive brokers review every year. Here is the last one. Interactive Brokers (IB) was ranked #1 by Barron's third year in a row. This is the broker I personally have been using for the last 7 years and I'm very happy.
       
      Barron's mention that "IB offers a lot more support to new clients, including individuals, especially those with larger accounts. Yes, using the word "support" in the same sentence as Interactive Brokers (without the modifier "dismal") is a change for us, but the firm has clearly made this a point of focus."
       
      Their conclusion:
       
      "Interactive Brokers continues to have extremely competitive pricing, and the lowest margin fees of any broker in our survey. You may incur some data fees, but the firm takes care of any options-exercise costs, which can generate unexpected fees at many other brokers."
       
      On the open section of our forum, we have couple very useful discussions about brokers:
       
      Brokers and commissions
      Interactive Brokers tips, tricks, webtrader etc.
       
      There is a consensus among our members that IB and TOS by TD Ameritrade offer the best combination of commissions, platform, and execution. If you decide to go with TOS, I highly recommend that you negotiate a commissions structure that does not include a ticket fee.
       
      Here are couple more good articles worth reading:
       
      The Truth Behind Broker Commissions - Learning Markets
      Comparison of online brokerages in the United States
      Relative Importance Of Options Brokerage Fees
       
      For Canadian traders, here is an excellent study on the commissions schemas offered by Canadian discount Brokers.
    • By Kim
      I tried to to buy 1 Apr SPX 1300 put and getting an error message that I have insufficient margin. The message indicates that the margin will increase by 53,985 (see attached image).

       

      I opened a ticket with IB. Their response was:

       

       

       

      I couldn't believe this, but the fact remains.
    • By Bschulz
      I'm opening an account at IB and wondering if there is a promotion code or partner code to use for SO members?
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