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MIke, This is a subtle but well known issue (and discussed in previous posts). SPX is cash settled and Tradier doesn't provide margin relief for the time spread (they assume by default you'll forget to close the short option by expiration and thus could have a margin issue if it was ITM and you're short on cash). You can get around this by using SPY instead. Other brokers (like TD or IB) seem not to care about this. Tim

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."