ARS,
I happen to use Interactive Brokers for some options trading, though my account there is too small for CCs. For anyone who is not content with what they have, and especially if you want to trade small quantities, IB is an excellent options platform. Fees are $1.95 per contract. That will not impress you guys who trade hundreds of contracts, but for someone wanting to do onezees twozees, or even up to ten you can't beat it. Executions are self directed, and as good as you can get anywhere else unless you want to trade spreads for net credit or debit. IB does not work compound orders for you, but if you can do that yourself it's just fine. That's not an issue for anyone here unless you are doing buy-writes at a fixed net cost.
Loading an options chain into IB is not the easiest thing I've ever seen, but once you have things there on the screen placing orders at the exchange of your choosing is very easy; you can also let IB route orders for you, but they will not auto-route to an exchange that has turned off their auto-execution system. Recent changes in the IB software have added an options analyzer tool. I'm not sure it's anything like some of the more elaborate packages you can buy, but at least now you can get implied volatility displayed for each option you are considering. You can also get the greeks if you take the trouble to set the thing up right. It does the greeks calculations based on the prices of several strikes in your area of interest rather than a theoretical model.
I have no affiliation with IB, just an account there. IB is not perfect, but I can say that reliability is quite good, and for the kind of trading most of you are doing it's worth a look. And finally, at long last, IB has added account insurance beyond SIPC and now permits CCs as well as secured long puts and calls in an IRA.
Dan |
