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Since nobody's responded, I take it nobody's tried them? How about Lightspeed Trading? Their Direct Market Access is $0.60/contract ($1/min) w/no ticket charges. But, it looks like there's $18/month in required market data fees and they require $25K min initial funding for access to that platform.. I've applied for an IB account earlier tonight. I guess I'll get to see how I like/dislike them once funding's completed.

Well, F is a very low dollar stock, so it might not be easy/possible to make profits due to commissions. GM is a lower dollar stock than AN. I haven't looked into detail as to how big the price moves are of GM around/after sales #s are announced. There are plenty of other auto companies and suppliers like NSANY, TM, HMC and suppliers like MGA, DNA and LEA (more at http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/333_cl_all.html), but I haven't looked carefully at whether their stocks exhibit the same behavior. If you see that they do, please let us know.

Those two links on Trade2win are only tutorials/overviews in Adobe Flash format. Yep. If you're asking this question, you might find the TOS platform daunting. I did for a few weeks when I made the switch to TOS. Prior to that, I only knew about web-based trading on the TD Ameritrade web site. I still probably only know how to use about 5% of TOS but at least I'm able to buy and sell stocks, options, use some of the studies in Prophet Charts, use watchlists and a few other features here/there.

Is it appropriate to start a discussion about the Thinkorswim platform? I'm still an options amateur and only know the basics of Thinkorswim. I can't believe that by luck (reading a former coworker's post on another board) that I just learned about TOS' OnDemand feature. For those who don't know what it is, I learned about it from the links at http://www.trade2win...ml#post1103380. I just now started poking around and feel so stupid for not knowing about it until now. Am I the only one here on TOS that doesn't know about it? For those who don't, *DO* check it out, seriously. I'm guessing Kim has known about this for awhile. I'd only known about Analyze > Thinkback and thought the amount of data there was impressive... It's a little pokey to jump around in time and there's some stuff that's not complete (e.g. wish it had Prophet charts working since I don't know their regular charts very well), but still, it seems amazing. If this tool turns out to be useful as it appears, I think I will always have an account w/TOS unless this feature falls into disrepair/is way too buggy.

I've been looking at the chart of Autonation and it seems like the stock tends to either have a big move or a big trading range right around or after monthly auto sales are released. US auto sales are always released at the beginning of each month. Sometimes it's the first day of the month but it's seems usually within 1-3 business days of the first day of the month. One can get an idea by looking at http://www.autoblog.com/category/by-the-numbers/. One can look up sales for most automakers by Googling for [automaker] reports sales [month] [year] e.g. Toyota reports sales june 2012. Is there a possibly a play here based on price movement but not rising IV?

Out of curiosity, how does IB's platform compare to TOS? Other than web-based trading (mainly familiar w/TD AM and Fidelity), the only platform I'm familiar with is TOS. For me, I can do the basics w/TOS but the app overall is pretty daunting (well, it was scarier when I started). I probably only know how to use 5% of TOS and am only familiar w/a tiny % of studies. Part of the problem for me is that I'm an options and technical analysis amateur. Using software is no problem. I put together my own PCs, can do some light programming, started w/PCs with DOS 2.0 in 1983, and used to test software (on Windows, Mac and mobile devices) for a living. I like TOS a lot for the things I do and could never go back to using TD AM's web UI for trading options, viewing charts, drawing lines on charts, zooming in on charts, etc.

To elaborate on my earlier response, w/my TOS account, here are the only two choices I get for my IRA. It is by definition only a cash account. It can't be margin. Tier 1: Covered call writing Cash-secured put writing Tier 2: Covered call writing Cash-secured put writing Purchase of calls and puts There's no tier 3. For regular accounts, they have choices of cash or margin accounts. For cash accounts, it's just the above 2 tiers. For margin accounts, there's a 3rd tier: tier 3 (advanced). It allows: Covered call writing Purchase of calls and puts Trading qualified spreads Uncovered call and put writing

It depends on what sort of options trading your brokerage allows in an IRA. It's generally far more limited since AFAIK, IRA accounts can't be margin accounts.

I too am wondering about Lightspeed. As for "people who trade a lot so they can get access to the professional platform", what do you mean by that? From http://www.lightspeed.com/?page_id=5061&from=5091, it looks like one just has to initially fund with $25K to get access. But, it looks like there's $18/month in required data fees. I've been with Datek since 1997. Through a bunch of buyouts, mergers, etc. that Datek account has now become TD Ameritrade. I just started w/options last year. As for "If one is dealing in 1, 2 or 3 contracts", yep, almost all my trades are very small numbers of contracts, usually 1-3. It's unusual for me to do >5 per order. If I'm selling a single pretty far OTM put that might yield say $0.10/share, there's no way I can make $ if I get charged $10.74 just to enter, vs. $2.95 or $1.25. My breakeven point on other larger dollar amount orders is much worse when charged $10.74 vs. $1.25. What if I need to pay 2x (once to enter, once to exit)? I sometimes do covered calls on some stocks I own. At $10.74 to enter, I can't go very far OTM or can't make ANY profit at all. The same idea applies to strangles or straddles when dealing w/a small # of contracts. I'm not surprised that at http://online.barron...eTabs_article=1, TD Ameritrade got a 1.0 for costs in the table on the left side. TOS is down right now (looks like they're in the midst of a server software upgrade) otherwise I could give you some numerical examples. I think you should explore other brokerages or possibly negotiate to lower commissions as you're otherwise throwing your money away. I have no experience with them and am not sure how they currently handle multi-legged trades (or not), but take a look at http://eoption.com/c...ions_fees.html. Also look at IB that Kim and others advocate. Kim's also made a comment about commissions at http://seekingalpha....#39;s��probably made some other comments about gains being eaten up by commissions. Also, in his example in the 1st post in this thread, he pays $2.80 to roundtrip. With TD AM (assuming they only charge 1 ticket fee for all legs), it'd be $21.48 to roundtrip. With the commissions I was able to switch to, it'd be $5. Read the rest of his post...

So, anyone have any feedback on MB Trading? On the latter note, I was able to negotiate w/TOS to get my commissions down to $1.25/contract, thanks to some advice I got online, from a friend and a former coworker. One feature I really do like on TOS (and TD AM) is the short position nickel (or less) buy-back for no commission policy.

Did anyone buy strangles or straddles on healthcare stocks, hoping for an IV rise prior to the decision by the Supremes? I took a look at http://www.optionistics.com/ on stocks like UNH, ESRX, WLP, AET, HUM and CI and it seems most of them already (except ESRX) have seen a spike in IV vs. historical volatility. So, I'm guessing it's probably too late to buy before the Supremes make their decision known. Maybe someone could trade on the IV crush that might happen afterward, but I'm a bit too chicken to try that, in case those stocks make big moves. edit: I found some other possible plays at http://www.zacks.com...in-the-balance and http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=fbad2fea-0d2f-4146-9239-d98f13f3e519.

^^^ I see, I tend to mostly sell way OTM puts (not much premium collected) or do covered calls (not very close to ATM). I often pick prices between the bid and ask and often have to make adjustments (cancel, then replace w/a new order). TOS and TD AM also have this, which I like and use all the time: I'm also a little concerned about the bust/adjustment fees (http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=otherFees). On TD AM, I've had some erroneous trades go through long ago, which were canceled. I received notification of "ORDER FILLED IN ERROR". It's very rare and wasn't my fault. They were (stock) limit orders I'd placed. It almost looks like with IB I could be on the hook for $250-500, if that happens.

As I mentioned on SeekingAlpha, I'm not a fan of them charging cancel/modify fees. Most of my options trading currently aren't spreads. Also, their fee schedule overall is daunting. Also, there's what I hear about their customer service, or lack of. Maybe I will get around to trying them.

How about MB Trading? Thanks to the Barron's article, I discovered their very low commissions of $0.95/contract (http://www.mbtrading.com/commissions.aspx?page=Options)? I haven't had a chance to dig thru the rest of their fees or look for comparisons but I did find http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=217517 "In my opinion, switching to another broker from thinkorswim would feel for you like going from a Mercedes to a Nissan. I left thinkorswim a year ago for MB Trading, thought I will save a few pennies On trading fees but pretty fast realized its not wort It. I think your reasons may be important to you but especially as an options trader I would recommend not moving." Heh.... I'm no Mercedes fan and used to own two Nissans. I'm currently grandfathered into Thinkorswim's old commissions (http://web.archive.org/web/20110308111401/https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/myAccounts/displayRates.tos) which is $2.95/contract. For the small trades I do (usually 1-5 contracts), it's a lot better than TD AM's normal ripoff rates.