Xfanman

In my opinion having accounts at both ToS and IB, TWS is easier for me to use for options trading than ToS. It doesn't have the ease and depth of analysis that ToS does but for getting into and out of trades efficiently I have no issues with TWS. It IS a different beast though and will require some time to acclimate to it.

$10,000 for US Customers.

Ok I found the answer to my question and this IS possible. If anyone else cares to know how to accomplish this here is how to do it --> You create a basic order after you establish a position to close your option position with a Market, not Limit order. THEN, you attach a Conditional Order to it that uses Price and the underlying Stock to trigger the Market order when this condition is met. This allows you to trigger your stop based on the underlying price instead of trying to calculate what the option will be worth at a certain price level. Since I use LOD often for my stops, at least on an entry, this is much quicker (and more accurate for my purposes) for me to set up than just throwing a 10 or 20% stop loss on it. This may be an answer without a question, but thought I'd share it just in case anyone else has ever wondered about it and hadn't figured it out.

Does anyone know if I can tie my Stop Order to the underlying stock price in TWS instead of as a % or $ value? In other words, if I buy a contract on stock XYZ when the stock is at $100 and I want to sell my contract if the stock drops below $95, this is much easier to set a stop on as opposed to calculating the Delta of the option I own given a % decrease of the stock and the sliding Delta of the option. You can do this with Options House if I remember correctly but I don't see that as an option in IB.

Working Again!

CBOE is down

Same here Kim, the chart seems to be working but not the mid indicator.

Excellent, thanks Kim. It was hidden and I missed it until I expanded it. I like how they even show the rolling 5 day window with the trades available each day!

Since my account with IB has been beaten down below 25k I have to be careful of getting hit with the PDT rules until I can add funds or build it back above the 25k limit. I've looked everywhere I can think of but haven't found anything obvious that tells me where I am with my day trades for the 5 day business cycle. Is there anywhere in TWS that tracks this for me or do I just need to do it manually? I'm afraid I'll forget about a trade earlier in the week and end up getting my account locked down. Thanks much...Scott

The Android version of IB's mobile platform was not able to trade spreads as recently as a month or two ago. One member on here was testing a beta release that I believe incorporated the same functionality as the iPhone/iPad versions but I don't know if this has been implemented yet (I use iOS personally). You should be able to download it and check it out as a demo if you're interested.

Thanks Kim.

Kim mid is around .34 credit at the moment and I hadn't gotten in this trade yet. With VIX in the 13's is this still in good shape? Thanks -- Scott

Because I'm tagged as a PDT and when you drop below 25k in Equity you can't trade on Margin any longer unless you add funds or have your account reset (but still can't PDT with under 25k).

Yeah looked like I could have been filled around .35 except the RUT drop today put my account under 25k so now I'm locked out of margin trades until I deposit more $ or RUT goes back up