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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Exacctnt who wrote (29718)	9/18/1999 11:41:00 AM
From: Jill	Respond to of 74651

Thanx a lot...Jill (eom)

To: Exacctnt who wrote (29718)	9/18/1999 11:54:00 AM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Exaccnt, Bill, Jill, Your commissions are way too high on such speculative options!! You are being charged on the normal commissions rates for options trades---such $25 plus $1/per contract (when the option value is under $1 as in this case). In such a scenario, if you wanted to buy 320 contracts at 1/16th--total trade is $2000 but your commission is $345 OR 17.2% of your total trade!!! Would you pay $17,200 commission on a $100,000 stock trade? Of course not. In other words, you are behind as soon as you take a speculative options position. I guess due to the speculative nature of your trade, it can still be justified. On such a trade of buying 320 contracts at 1/16th--total trade equal to $2000, i pay only $45 in commissions even when putting the trade through an individual. This is the maximum as long as you keep your purchase/sale under $2000 during the whole day on that particular option. However, if i bought $2001 in the same trade(or over more than one trade), i would be paying about $345 on the same trade, with the same online broker. The stock trading commissions are generally higher in Canada and so are the commissions on options. However, i did find one which caps the commission rate on trades under $2000 just like most on-line brokerages do on trades in penny stocks. Such a commission schedule could be with a big brokerage or an online brokerage. You just have to look around. In Canada, i have found only one---Bank of Montreal Investorline. I don't know if they have any US affiliations----might want to try Harris Bank (assuming Bank of Montreal still owns it) if they offer online trading. Maybe just open a trading account with Bank of Montreal in Canada. Now if the competition among the options exchanges heating up, i plan to daytrade speculative options if the opportunity arises. BTW--the online rates vs. call a broker are not all that different in Canada on options trades. There may be a 10 to 20% discount.