Leaderboard

I like LVX but it took some time. It comes with little guidance on how to use it. Coming from TOS you will miss some of the features of the Analyze tab if you use it to test strategies and adjustments over time by locking the price on spreads. In LVX there is no "memory" of the intraday spread price so you'll have to jot it down or use another software package (even TOS if you still have it). You can get EOD prices on all options for backtesting however. There is a pseudo-ticket charge that comes about as a minimum charge of $1.50 per leg which is annoying for single contract orders. I'm agnostic on brokerage platforms, but here are my opinions: Main benefits of LiveVol is: 1) Lower commissions than IB with all the benefits of IB (you can even use TWS if you like), even better pricing available if you belong to certain education services. 2) Very lean and fast interface built on Adobe Air (compared to TOS, TWS, or Tradestation) 3) Charting of realized and implied volatility across multiple timeframes is second to none. 4) Near limitless search capabilities for order flow, IV, RV, term structure, etc, 5) Very good support through live chat right in the application (like TOS). Drawbacks I can think of: 1) need minimum of $35k to fund an account, 2) Can't chart option prices over time, very annoying (need to use other software) 3) The software side was just bought by the CBOE and the brokerage side went to Lightspeed (so far no change besides letterhead but not sure what the ramifications of this will be in the long run), 4) might not be able available in all countries as IB, 5) No mobile app, need to use TWS mobile for trading on your phone/tablet. Cheers, Tim