PGAmbrosio

Congrats @krisbee and @rasar I've always enjoyed your posts. I haven't been posting as much but came here to do at least this much!

I started SteadyOptions with Tastyworks but gave Tradier + Tradehawk a try and I really like it. It comes out to about $100/month including all commissions but not (exchange?) fees. I believe the fills are the same. As far as ONE, I also have a subscription but I don't use it as much for SteadyOptions. It is a great tool but as far as trade execution you are going to want Tradier + Tradehawk.

Congrats on almost one year! @Djtux is a valuable member here and provides a great service which only continues to improve. Well worth it for SteadyOptions style trades. Not a paid endorsement, but I like to support good work .

@akito I can't imagine trading through the Tradier website on your phone. I suppose that it has made you better in mentally visualizing the trades? Come to think of it that is always a viable option as well, but I am not very comfortable doing so. Practice makes perfect?

I prefer to never have to use a mobile app. That may involve closing trades early or missing trades completely if I won't have access to my computer. I am OK with that. That being said, I have used the TastyWorks app and it's pretty good. They try to make it mimic the desktop client as much as possible.

Shame on you if you weren't already following @Yowster! Congrats to this and to strengthening an already great SO product.

In the ULTA trade thread, there were screenshots from Interactive Brokers of tracking the calendar prices with a chart. Can you do this in other platforms?

Just wanted to give my initial impressions of Tradier + Tradehawk after two weeks. I am liking the Tradehawk platform so far. I'm doing only SO trades in here which has consisted of hedged straddles and iron butterflies. Once you get the hang of entering orders, it becomes a fairly simple task. I was using TastyWorks (TW) and TOS and really, placing orders is not a big deal. Sure there are little things you may like about one platform or another but no deal-breakers here. The biggest thing for me has been the Order Stager. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything like this in TW; TOS I am not sure...but having a list of trades you are looking at with your target price vs the current price, has been a game changer for me. It's help me keep an eye on prices/trades/ideas I otherwise would have forgot about and helps with getting a good entry price. The other feature I was mainly interested in was some sort of risk graph profiling which is here in the "What-If" tab. But as more I've got comfortable with these trades, I find myself looking at risk graph less. Eventually, I hope to use ONE for that type analysis. There are a lot of other features going on and some good quality-of-life things you would expect from a trading platform. Main thing is it's working FOR ME and there are still a lot of things I need to check out. As far as Tradier, I don't think I would want to trade on just their web interface which is why I am using Tradehawk. To me this means I won't be trading via mobile. If I feel like a trade I want to place might need immediate attention down the line, I'll place it on TW. Tradier fills seem to be fine, though I have had no luck with the recent BKNG calendars. All that being said, while $59/month (on top of the $40 flat fee for Tradier) might seem steep, I do think Tradehawk+Tradier is a solid platform that will take most of the trading volume from my TW account. It is also a plus that their team (Lex) is constantly taking in feedback and working to improve the platform.

I would argue that nothing is a MUST outside of a platform/interface to place orders. Just from reading the forums I know there are some that do not use ONE or look at RV charts that can be found on VolatilityHQ/Art of Trading. That being said, those are probably two of the more important tools IMHO. CMLViz looks pretty interesting as far as trade ideas. Finally, I've been "test driving" TradeHawk as an interface for Tradier and I've found the order stager to be a very useful tool. Basically, it lists trades you might want to trade in the future with the current price...very helpful in watching straddle prices for entry. I've been trading with TastyWorks and I'm not aware they have something that can do this.

@mrw02536 I was rereading some of the Tradier posts, and still have come to the same conclusions about platforms. Tradehawk, Trend (stripped down) and ONE are the platforms I'm seeing. ONE seems to have limited trade execution for the time being. Let me know if you come across anything promising, just funded my Tradier account with a small amount and gonna test it out soon.

@mrw02536 what third party discounts are you referring to?

The TOS platform is really good but their commission are expensive. I used TOS a lot when I first started trading options and I got used to using their "Analyze" tab, maybe relied on it too much. I am now using Tastyworks and while I think TOS is still much better, TW is not bad and they have rolled out some good features. The now have an Analysis feature which is decent (but I still think it plots calendar risk graph different/wrong). They also have a usable mobile app for iOS and Android. I'm also in the process of setting up a Tradier account and plan to try out ONE and Tradehawk. After a month of SteadyOptions, I just couldn't ignore the $40/mo for unlimited options trading. But I'd also want some type of platform for trade execution and analysis which would tack on another $30-60/mo. Still not bad depending on your volume.

I was approved for level 3 options trading with Tradier which says covered calls, buy calls and puts and option spreads. Will I have any issues trading the SO hedged straddle and the rest of the SO trades?

@Djtux I was aware of that last column, which is why I asked. The scanner is a valuable tool for me and I like use it quite often. Also, GREAT work on the art, really, it is much better than the blank page icon!

@Djtux just wanted to ask, around what time your scanner data gets updated with the latest EOD data? Also, do you have any plans for a favicon =D? Thanks in advance and great stuff on volatilityHQ.

@Yowster @greenspan76 It sounds like Tradelog might be more of a luxury than necessity now? Just wanted to get your thoughts as I am trading options regularly now and would like to do things right from the start rather than play catch-up at tax time.

@craigsmith keep us posted, I am interested to get more views on Trend.

Thanks for the info @craigsmith. From my research, the popular platforms to use with Tradier are Tradehawk $59/mo OptionNET Explorer $52-62/mo (135 GBP quarterly, 450 GBP annually) Trend $29.99/mo

@mrw02536 are you trading with Tradier solely through their web platform?

Can anyone comment on the cons of Tradier? It seems like a no-brainer given their commission structure versus the competition. At the moment I am with Tastyworks. As far as platform needs, I pretty much would like a web and mobile interface for managing orders when I am away from my PC. I don't currently use any option analysis platforms but many have stressed the necessity of using one (Tradehawk, ONE, etc) especially when dealing with trade adjustments.