akhouston

Any idea how to add YM, ES, NQ, RUT to the TradeHawk watchlist? Is any specific prefix like . or ^ required?

So that effectively means that no Steady Condors in IRA accounts, which sucks big time.

@Kim, what's are the known downsides / pitfalls of the Tradier's 40 bucks flat fee offer? How much worse the experience / fills / other stuff that we don't know about? With IB and multiple SO services I am out of several K in commissions, which with Tradier would've been 360 so far. Quite a difference, however this tread makes me think of the proverbial free lunch that is nowhere to be found

At which lvl?

Ok, I am confused... I thought ANY shorting, even non-naked, like a calendar spread, requires a margin account.

Do you know if requesting a margin IRA account is something that is done AFTER the account is open? Cause on that screen cash is greyed out and seem to be the only option.

Can you actually trade SO strategies? I see only Level 2 access, which is basically buying options, no shorts?

@Kim, long shot, but... Is it possible to negotiate with Tradier to include IRA accounts into this offer?

There's no cancelation fee with ib

There's no free lunch. With options trading, while cost is important, execution is everything.

@eudaimonia which software do you use to track trades / performance?

Install TeamViewer on both your home and work machine, run TWS on your home machine and connect to it from work.

When placing options order in IB TWS one can set brackets, i.e. attach profit taker or stop loss or both. I can only see how to set up conditional based on the option price itself. Does anyone know if I can set up a conditional order based on the underlyer, i.e. sell option at limit if underlyer price hits X? Thanks!

IB contract rate is .75 or 1.5 for spread (but same 2*.65 should be applicable for ticket + per contract pricing scheme). So in your case 100 simple contracts will be 75 on IB and 75 on TOS, while 100 spreads will be 150 on IB and 140 on TOS.

on the chart setting select "Virtual Security" and enter your formula there.

The easiest way is to prioritize eamil from a specific address (if you use gmail for example)

I too find IB a bit confusing, to say the least. However I set up the screen and adopted steps that allow to (almost) eliminate any confusion as far as sign of the operation and whether I need to buy or sell. I don't do it from strategy builder - that screen is somewhat inflexible, I do it the following way. First and foremost, definitely set up several tabs in the Monitor pane. One of those I use as a scratch tab, where I quickly build spreads, generate orders from them and discard. In that tab click on an empty row, enter symbol and select Combinations and then Option Combos (SMART) or Option Combos (Directed). In a Combo Selection window build your combo. As a matter of fact Calendar Combo is quite straightforward, you specify front and back months, put or call and strike - you are done. Vertical spreads are a bit more confusing, since they will only allow you to build it one way - for call you gotta guy lower and sell higher strike, for puts - all the way around. And that's exactly opposite to what you'd want to do when you are selling an iron condor; basically with this setup they are guiding you to build spreads to buy one Now next info screen shows you exactly what will happen, i.e. which leg is gonna sell and which is gonna be bought when you buy or sell added combo. I'd compare that with the screen Kim posts and that will tell you whether you buy or sell the combo. Now all you need to do in your scratch tab click on the added spread (make sure you click on the right row, since it adds spread, underlying symbol and each leg) and press small buy or sell button shown atop of the popup menu. That will populate your Order Entry window where you will need to set QTY and LMT PRC and submit your order. These are probably more steps than needed to quickly create a spread order, but at least it eliminates all the +/- confusion. PS: I also find it much easier to open an IC in 2 transactions, where I sell CPS and CCS separately. Since IB doesn't charge a ticket fee, the price is same, but you have much more flexibility in getting the right price.