Option Friendly Brokers
August 4th, 2009 
Genius Not all brokers are created equal.
In order to trade for a living or even trade profitably, you must have a good set of tools. One the tools that is essential is a good broker. With so many to choose from, there is no excuse for having a lousy broker.
As option sellers, we need to have an option friendly broker. This is a broker than either specializes in options, or considers option traders a very important customer base.
By using an option friendly broker you will get
- better commissions
- better margin requirements
- better prices on your orders
- better software/platforms to trade on
- better information
- and better education
How do you tell if your broker is an option friendly broker?
- If your broker advertises on national tv, it’s probably not an option friendly broker.
- If your broker is a household name ( they have their name on a stadium), they are probably not an option friendly broker.
- If your broker’s main sales pitch is how low their stock commissions are, they are probably not an option friendly broker.
So how do you find an option friendly broker?
- A broker with the word “option” in their name probably IS an option friendly broker.
- If your broker charges less than $2 for a single option or less than $30 for a dozen, they probably ARE an option friendly broker.
- If you can trade options from their own software, on the internet, or from your cell phone, you probably have an option friendly broker.
- If your broker puts on seminars and webinars teaching option strategies, you probably have an option friendly broker.
- If you can call their help desk and have them walk you through an iron condor trade, without them asking you what an iron condor is – you probably have an option friendly broker.
Finding a broker is not hard. Finding an good option broker is a little trickier. But if you ask option traders you will get many suggestions. Of if you join my site, I will show you which ones I think are the best.
Having a broker that is not option friendly, is like trading with one hand tied behind your back. Don’t do it.
Yes they have an intraday leverage check they use and will force liquidate anytime it’s exceeded, regardless of the fixed risk nature of spreads. It gets better, a friend of mine was going to start a hedge fund to trade the same plain vanilla index credit spread strategy with IB. He heard what happened to me and asked about what happened, now they won’t let him open his accounts with them after he caught onto their scheme.
I have been paper trading with TradeMonster for awhile any recomendations pro/cons? Any other brokerages? I want to autotrade. Thanks.
Pls read about tos at http://cheatedinvestor.com/.
I have been using Options House for the last couple of years and have found them to be nothing short of impeccable. Their platform is fantastic, they offer some of the cheapest fees around and have great customer service. Option Monster, as another person pointed out are also a very good choice.
The least option friendly broker is Fidelity, they make it so hard to be able to trade options that it is better to switch to a option friendly broker, and my choice is TRADE KING. Great service and no hassle! Highly recommend Trade King!
Dear Friends, I live in Athens Greece, being of greek nationality. Please inform me if it is possible to trade buying call options with you. Thanking you in anticipation, I remain yours, Dimos
Dimos,
You will just need a option broker that will allow you to do it.
I believe Interactive brokers is the most friendly when it comes to opening account outside the USA.
IB’s easy to open an account with because they are crooks. They will margin call you and liquidate your account anytime they see fit. If you have an option account there or anything on margin its a ticking time bomb. They wiped my options account clean, even though I had a fixed margin requirement and excess liquidity.
I trade options with Thinkorswim, I’ve been there for years and its a great platform, i’d look into that one. I’d sooner burn my money than open another IB account.
I have used Options Express for several years now. They are not the least expensive but no extra cost if you have them place the trade for you. Their customer service has always been very good.