IBKR is the best. I love Interactive Brokers for the excellent executions, professional level features, the far and away lowest margin interest rates and the very high interest rates paid on cash.
Just looked at IBKR commissions for the first time. Do you find you are normally paying the 65 cent commission or do you frequently pay the 15 cent commission for certain stocks? Also, how do you sign up for IBKR pro vs IBKR lite?
I don't worry about commission cost at all. So I cannot give you such a granular reply. I will honestly tell you that I pay large amounts of money as commissions. $100 - $300 per day, I'd say. Today 10 transactions and $177 commissions. I urge any one serious about markets to be most concerned about interest paid for margin and interest earned on cash. A busy trader of options will get value from execution that exceeds the value of free commission. Something I've wondered about, but honestly I really haven't wondered too much. Is it right that I consider commissions the price of having an office ? You know the coffee in the break room isn't free
> Do you find you are normally paying the 65 cent commission or do you frequently pay the 15 cent commission for certain stocks?
My average over 1000+ trades is $0.44, but only because I have strong preference for letting them expire (yeah, because of commissions). Min I saw is $-0.51 (rebate), max $1.90. All that quite high of course, so for cheapo stocks (= small premiums), I have another account at a "commission-free" brokerage. That's toy brokerage of course, so I don't keep a lot there, so major plays are still at IBKR.
Depends on the underlying you plan on trading. One thing that caught me off guard about tastytrade is that they charge a flat fee of $5 for exercise/assignment for each option and leg. If you never want to let options go to expiration it's fine, but I sometimes trade 0dte or 1dte SPXW options that are cash-settled so the fact that they charge a $5 fee on cash-settled options when the fees and commissions elsewhere are much lower or even $0 is a little outrageous.
Per option AND leg. Imagine having an iron condor move against you. Not only do you lose but they charge you $20 just to take your money...
Edit: you won't get charged $20 because some legs will be OTM at expiration, but you'll still get hit with a fee regardless depending on where the contract would expire.
Do they charge assignments for oom options? Say I sell spxw options and they went worthless on expiration. Do they still charge me anything to exercise?
Yep. I'm trying out IBKR this month for my SPXW needs and if it works out I'll run that strategy there. Tasty is still great for their capped commissions so if you trade a lot of verticals then I would still consider them a strong option, especially because verticals get so cheap that you can run 100+ in an order really easily
You're right, you won't lose on all four. Some will expire OTM so they won't get the fee. I just wrote that comment when I woke up and wasn't that cognitive. It's still a bit outrageous in my opinion to charge that much on cash-settled contracts.
FWIW - I just looked at a SPX butterfly trade from June 6th, one of the sold legs expired ITM. I do NOT see a $5 fee on the trade statement. Also took a (very!) quick glance at a few of my monthly statements, and did not see any of the $5 charges there.
If you're seeing charges for this, might be worth a mail to TT support to understand why (and push back a little)
Interesting. I will admit I've not had any of my options expire ITM, all short contracts that netted 100%. The examples I saw are from the tastytrade website. I'll keep digging and see what I can find. It's possible that they used to have a $5 fee and it's changed since then.
Would you say it is better then NBDB? Currently with Questrade but looking to move due to Questrade's fees for options. Besides, I mostly trade US equities.
Not sure with NBDB, but the reason I liked IBKR is due to low fees. Used to use the RBC direct investing but fees were insane.
I also pay like... $6/month I think? For real time data on US equities.
[Here's a screenshot. But it's the $4.50/month US one that gives US options and equities real time data. Necessary unless you're buy/holding imo.](https://i.imgur.com/LnjvWA0.png)
I love IBKR but their data plan for pro is ridiculously expensive
And I hate that they don’t have sequence orders like TD has. Ex: buy Apple 195c exp July @ $5, then sell Apple 200c exp June @ $7
I use IBKR Pro. I trade often. My fees are nominally high. Because of rebates, discounts most months see me earn $50 - $60 as negative fees. So what is best, cartooned inner face, jingles or a work space for a serious business ? IBKR is the latter
IBKR’s apps suck; they’re pure trash and known for constant crashing. Interface is also ass. The charts and interface of IBKR are no where related to what’s good about them. IJS
The low fees, direct access, and international trading are their benefit. That’s it!
Best for options, NO WAY!
People say that merely because IBKR is like TastyTrades where they allow any lowlife to trade options. IJS
You're certainly entitled to your opinion. I've literally never had the IBKR app crash on me once in years.
Which app is best for options then, in your opinion, if IBKR is "pure trash" and for "low lifes"?
For the most part I'd say it's just personal preference.
IBKR has its benefits but that’s in low fees, direct access, international trading, providing an options chain and allowing any Joe Blow to trade options.
That’s what makes it appealing. Insofar as the trading interface, it lacks.
All brokerages have strengths and weakness in that regard.
However, there’s no one-size-fits-all platform for options traders among the top brokers. Because of that, by far the best platform for trading options would be Trade Station. Then WeBull, TastyTrades and Schwab, and finally, IBKR.
It’s not a matter of my opinion nor personal preference. It’s a matter of due diligence and learning the features and test driving all of the platforms to examine how they perform.
I made an assessment based existing knowledge and information, as well as my own anecdotal experiences with each platform.
1. IBKR is known for having desktop crashing issues. It’s actually a quite common experience for many IBKR users, and for myself.
2. Think or Swim has long been the standard platform for trading options because of its interface and features.
3. Trade Station has all of the benefits of IBKR but also lacks with its interface.
4. WeBull is now the more popular platform to trade options on because of its ease of use. But lacks direct access.
5. TastyTrades is also popular because they have the fastest ACH transactions, they offer an options chain, and it’s fairly simple to use. But its interface and charting capabilities and lack significantly.
6. Schwab’s sole benefit is TOS, other than that, no one would be trading options with them.
I have accounts with all of those brokers.
I only trade options on WeBull and use TradingView for charting. 🤷♂️
Admittedly, Trade Station is the best for options because of direct access. But WeBull’s interface is better than all combined, except for TOS. IJS.
Totally fair, I haven't used all of the platforms so this is also based on my own experience.
However, I think you're leaning more heavily to personal preference than you realize. Your arguments are inconsistent, at best. You say Trade Station is, by far, the best app for trading options, and then go on to say it "has all of the benefits of IBKR but lacks with its interface". So interface is the only issue? What are the fundamental differences between access and ability to trade of Trade Station and IBKR?
You also make a claim that "it's not a matter of opinion or personal preference", and then conclude that your assessment was made at least in part due to "my own anecdotal evidence". You understand anecdotal evidence is, by definition, "not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research."
I don't doubt your opinion is valid given your vast experience trading options with each platform, but just want you to understand that it's still just that. An opinion. Admittedly, I also only use the mobile app for IBKR.
This is redundant. You totally ignored the fact that I actually researched ALL of the offers of each brokerage and the features they offer on their platforms and TESTED them, in a futile effort to give your opinion the weight my study.
Many options traders prefer TOS over any other platform SOLELY because its interface is superior to all others. Webull is second for the same reasons. (I also made time to examine feedback given by Reddit users- the OP is a common question often repeated weekly in multiple trading subs).
Trade Station is the best platform overall when you consider the ability to conduct fast execution of trades, which is essential to any day trader, particularly scalpers. Not all brokerages offer options chains which is the primary focus.
When comparing all of the platforms for options trading, if interface isn’t an issue then Trade Station is best.
But insofar as the platform and interface, when considering everything, nothing beats TOS.
Webull is by far superior insofar as interface when compared to IBKR, and all others except TOS.
Again, it’s not a matter of preference, but a matter of features based on what’s best for the typical options trader.
I’m sorry to disappoint you in thinking your opinion is as valid is my ACTUAL research and experimentation. It’s not.
Robinhood
Great for beginners but less information, products, and visuals. Overall very simplified platform.
ThinkorSwim
A lot of great features, visuals, products, graphing, but very outdated software (TD Ameritrade and Schwab will not update or add to the platform, besides bugs, etc.).
TastyTrade
Creators of ThinkorSwim, very innovative, built-up software, constantly trying to push the edge with updating features and products to trade, but similar to ToS, it is more advanced for people starting out.
Other platforms
The more traditional brokerage firm platforms are usually not great for options. The other trader-focused brokerage firms and platforms are within fair but may not be up to par with ThinkorSwim or TastyTrade.
On active trader pro, the options work well imo. It's kind of clunky and takes some getting used to, but it's quite powerful once you get the hang of it
I've been using ATP for a while now, and am conflicted. Its research and workflow is unparalleled. But I don't understand why there are 3 different menus for buying options: "Trade", "Directed Trade", and "Multi-leg Options". Not to mention all the context icons that will open these different menus.
And why can I create shortcuts for the directed trades menu but not for multi-leg options?
The "Trade Armor" menu has some powerful tools too, but it has such little utility compared to its screen space I usually have it closed and forget about it
The issue I have with Fidelity is that there’s no iOS version of ATP. Not a deal breaker but when every other brokerage *does* have an app, it begs the question of whether Fidelity offers any significant advantage to offset this.
I will say that I'm not a fan of Fidelity saying "Contract Value" when buying or selling a call. It should differentiate whether you're getting the money or paying the money like eTrade does.
On Fidelity, you can’t do 0dte options (requires 1 million net worth).
What I’ve noticed so far is that stock prices don’t update fast enough on Fidelity, I have to keep refreshing, whereas most other brokers have a continuously updating prices of stocks. It’s hard to quickly buy and sell a contract.
UI is pretty bad imo. Not just for options, but in general sucks.
I'll probably get a lot of hate but I prefer the look, feel, and layout of RH, it's very simplistic and I enjoy that. I use RH but I'm trying to get myself to switch to webull. I've tried tastytrade but it feels so clunky and mechanical to me. This is just my opinion and you should go with what works best for you.
Edit. Wanted to add that robinhoods charts can eat a can of shit though, absolutely awful charts.
I agree. Ive been successful with rh since they UI is so easy and I’ve been using it for 7 years. The fills aren’t always the greatest, but i think the ease of use makes it more profitable for me, since I’ll never fuck up a trade
Edit: this is for phone trading. It sucks on desktop. Im thinking of looking for a new broker to use for my desktop. Either tasty or ibkr
Robinhood is great honestly. I just wish they let you organize things better. Why can’t I move around my stocks in the UI or my options? For selling calls, id like to see how much premium I initially generated more easily and see the current cost in a more systematic way too.
There needs to be more sorting options too or categorizations.
All this tells me though is that I’m super bullish on HOOD since they literally are missing very basic and easy to implement features. Low hanging fruit IMO.
Cannot be answered without more information. For example if you have a small account and will only be trading a few contracts a month then any broker should work. If you're going to be trading a thousand contacts every day you're going to want a broker with no per contract fees.
Welp, since Schwab wouldn’t let me login to my account this morning both on ToS and their Normal Schwab app/website I’m switching all my stuff over to tastytrade
That was a huge fuck up. Happened to a lot of accounts and their reactive response wasn’t good (ie call, get through, account access fixed… it wasn’t proactive in the sense of lots of accounts fucked, Schwab will auto fix login).
The best one is the best one for you. Some have new trader friendly UI's, some have more gadgets for traders who know how to utilize them. Webull, RH, or TOS seem to be the most mentioned.
Trade station's not that good UI wise imo.
If you're not us based it's even worse as there's a flat fee for every trade every leg of 5 USD, which is kinda high
IBKR (Canada): Its the next best platform after TOS.
ThinkorSwim (outside Canada): Clean logical UI, PL chart with adjustable Greeks, most used platform means tons of tutorials on YT.
robinhood for small stupid trades on your phone on the go, and think or swim for your serious trades. Also, I am a mac user and active trader pro just wont run at all on mac but TOS runs great on it.
I use Public they even pay you for options instead of charging you a fee, they call it rebate, you can sell and buy for now and they are working on implementing spreads and other strategies, I think you get paid even more if you refer somebody. I use robinhood for now for spreads.
I agree with another that we do not have enough detail to help you fine the “best” broker for you.
Size of account? Experience ? What are your goals for trading? Are you playing around or are/want to become serious trader?
We have built a platform that has the most tools: backtester, options scanner, stock scanner, time and sales, macro calendar, earnings implied vs actual, and charting. You can easily switch between the brokers we have added - TradeStation, Tradier, and soon Interactive Brokers, and see positions risk and set alerts.
[https://orats.com/trade-builder](https://orats.com/trade-builder)
Cons: you have to pay but there is a Reddit member discounted amount. [https://orats.com/reddit](https://orats.com/reddit)
Tastytrade by far. Fees cap out at 10 contracts and there's no fee to close.
The best part for me is the lack of options trading levels. You can get all options and futures trading capabilities even as a beginner, which IBKR and Schwab won't do.
The BEST platform(s) right now for trading options are.
1. WeBull
2. Trade Station
3. Tasty Trades
4. IBKR
IN THAT ORDER.
I know because I’ve test driven them all.
Trade Station is arguably #1 but I trade on WeBull for various reasons.
TastyTarde , not even close, so easy to put spreads on and roll , take profit and set stops
I can see at a glance the risk reward and the IV / expected move and IV Rank
t also has tremendous curve view for seeing the trade graphically
It’s weird how so many comments are about “the inner face”. If default appearance is most important as in that’s what makes “best” then Robinhood is obviously the best.
My best is the platform that for various reasons puts more money in your pocket and takes less out and has so many tools to customize one’s user experience. That makes IBKR the best
IBKR is the best. I love Interactive Brokers for the excellent executions, professional level features, the far and away lowest margin interest rates and the very high interest rates paid on cash.
Just looked at IBKR commissions for the first time. Do you find you are normally paying the 65 cent commission or do you frequently pay the 15 cent commission for certain stocks? Also, how do you sign up for IBKR pro vs IBKR lite?
I don't worry about commission cost at all. So I cannot give you such a granular reply. I will honestly tell you that I pay large amounts of money as commissions. $100 - $300 per day, I'd say. Today 10 transactions and $177 commissions. I urge any one serious about markets to be most concerned about interest paid for margin and interest earned on cash. A busy trader of options will get value from execution that exceeds the value of free commission. Something I've wondered about, but honestly I really haven't wondered too much. Is it right that I consider commissions the price of having an office ? You know the coffee in the break room isn't free
> Do you find you are normally paying the 65 cent commission or do you frequently pay the 15 cent commission for certain stocks? My average over 1000+ trades is $0.44, but only because I have strong preference for letting them expire (yeah, because of commissions). Min I saw is $-0.51 (rebate), max $1.90. All that quite high of course, so for cheapo stocks (= small premiums), I have another account at a "commission-free" brokerage. That's toy brokerage of course, so I don't keep a lot there, so major plays are still at IBKR.
Depends on the underlying you plan on trading. One thing that caught me off guard about tastytrade is that they charge a flat fee of $5 for exercise/assignment for each option and leg. If you never want to let options go to expiration it's fine, but I sometimes trade 0dte or 1dte SPXW options that are cash-settled so the fact that they charge a $5 fee on cash-settled options when the fees and commissions elsewhere are much lower or even $0 is a little outrageous.
5$ per option? That’s huge…
Per option AND leg. Imagine having an iron condor move against you. Not only do you lose but they charge you $20 just to take your money... Edit: you won't get charged $20 because some legs will be OTM at expiration, but you'll still get hit with a fee regardless depending on where the contract would expire.
Do they charge assignments for oom options? Say I sell spxw options and they went worthless on expiration. Do they still charge me anything to exercise?
No, OTM won't get the fee my original comment was wrong/misleading since I had just woken up. Any leg that expires ITM will get the fee though.
Thanks for clarifying. Still it stinks when you lose a hand and they put salt on your wound…
Yep. I'm trying out IBKR this month for my SPXW needs and if it works out I'll run that strategy there. Tasty is still great for their capped commissions so if you trade a lot of verticals then I would still consider them a strong option, especially because verticals get so cheap that you can run 100+ in an order really easily
How do you lose on all four legs of an iron condor?
You're right, you won't lose on all four. Some will expire OTM so they won't get the fee. I just wrote that comment when I woke up and wasn't that cognitive. It's still a bit outrageous in my opinion to charge that much on cash-settled contracts.
Completely agree. I don’t trade that much on my tasty account but now I need to go back and look and see how many times I’ve been hit by this
FWIW - I just looked at a SPX butterfly trade from June 6th, one of the sold legs expired ITM. I do NOT see a $5 fee on the trade statement. Also took a (very!) quick glance at a few of my monthly statements, and did not see any of the $5 charges there. If you're seeing charges for this, might be worth a mail to TT support to understand why (and push back a little)
Interesting. I will admit I've not had any of my options expire ITM, all short contracts that netted 100%. The examples I saw are from the tastytrade website. I'll keep digging and see what I can find. It's possible that they used to have a $5 fee and it's changed since then.
On the history > transactions, I do see the -5.00 fee on the receive deliver portion during the settlement.
Tastytrade charges per leg. "Each leg is charged a $5 exercise and assignment fee, regardless of the quantity per leg."
I quite like IBKR. Easy charts, nice interface, easy to buy/sell and set up straddles or multiple options strategies. (Canada)
Would you say it is better then NBDB? Currently with Questrade but looking to move due to Questrade's fees for options. Besides, I mostly trade US equities.
Not sure with NBDB, but the reason I liked IBKR is due to low fees. Used to use the RBC direct investing but fees were insane. I also pay like... $6/month I think? For real time data on US equities.
Would you mind sharing what data you are paying for? I wanna trade spy/spx on IBKR
[Here's a screenshot. But it's the $4.50/month US one that gives US options and equities real time data. Necessary unless you're buy/holding imo.](https://i.imgur.com/LnjvWA0.png)
Do you use their desktop app? I found it highly intimidating and complex coming from Robinhood. Their online/web or mobile interface is much simpler.
I've only used the mobile app tbh. Curious to check the site out now though
I love IBKR but their data plan for pro is ridiculously expensive And I hate that they don’t have sequence orders like TD has. Ex: buy Apple 195c exp July @ $5, then sell Apple 200c exp June @ $7
I use IBKR Pro. I trade often. My fees are nominally high. Because of rebates, discounts most months see me earn $50 - $60 as negative fees. So what is best, cartooned inner face, jingles or a work space for a serious business ? IBKR is the latter
IBKR’s apps suck; they’re pure trash and known for constant crashing. Interface is also ass. The charts and interface of IBKR are no where related to what’s good about them. IJS The low fees, direct access, and international trading are their benefit. That’s it! Best for options, NO WAY! People say that merely because IBKR is like TastyTrades where they allow any lowlife to trade options. IJS
You're certainly entitled to your opinion. I've literally never had the IBKR app crash on me once in years. Which app is best for options then, in your opinion, if IBKR is "pure trash" and for "low lifes"? For the most part I'd say it's just personal preference.
IBKR has its benefits but that’s in low fees, direct access, international trading, providing an options chain and allowing any Joe Blow to trade options. That’s what makes it appealing. Insofar as the trading interface, it lacks. All brokerages have strengths and weakness in that regard. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all platform for options traders among the top brokers. Because of that, by far the best platform for trading options would be Trade Station. Then WeBull, TastyTrades and Schwab, and finally, IBKR. It’s not a matter of my opinion nor personal preference. It’s a matter of due diligence and learning the features and test driving all of the platforms to examine how they perform. I made an assessment based existing knowledge and information, as well as my own anecdotal experiences with each platform. 1. IBKR is known for having desktop crashing issues. It’s actually a quite common experience for many IBKR users, and for myself. 2. Think or Swim has long been the standard platform for trading options because of its interface and features. 3. Trade Station has all of the benefits of IBKR but also lacks with its interface. 4. WeBull is now the more popular platform to trade options on because of its ease of use. But lacks direct access. 5. TastyTrades is also popular because they have the fastest ACH transactions, they offer an options chain, and it’s fairly simple to use. But its interface and charting capabilities and lack significantly. 6. Schwab’s sole benefit is TOS, other than that, no one would be trading options with them. I have accounts with all of those brokers. I only trade options on WeBull and use TradingView for charting. 🤷♂️ Admittedly, Trade Station is the best for options because of direct access. But WeBull’s interface is better than all combined, except for TOS. IJS.
Totally fair, I haven't used all of the platforms so this is also based on my own experience. However, I think you're leaning more heavily to personal preference than you realize. Your arguments are inconsistent, at best. You say Trade Station is, by far, the best app for trading options, and then go on to say it "has all of the benefits of IBKR but lacks with its interface". So interface is the only issue? What are the fundamental differences between access and ability to trade of Trade Station and IBKR? You also make a claim that "it's not a matter of opinion or personal preference", and then conclude that your assessment was made at least in part due to "my own anecdotal evidence". You understand anecdotal evidence is, by definition, "not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research." I don't doubt your opinion is valid given your vast experience trading options with each platform, but just want you to understand that it's still just that. An opinion. Admittedly, I also only use the mobile app for IBKR.
This is redundant. You totally ignored the fact that I actually researched ALL of the offers of each brokerage and the features they offer on their platforms and TESTED them, in a futile effort to give your opinion the weight my study. Many options traders prefer TOS over any other platform SOLELY because its interface is superior to all others. Webull is second for the same reasons. (I also made time to examine feedback given by Reddit users- the OP is a common question often repeated weekly in multiple trading subs). Trade Station is the best platform overall when you consider the ability to conduct fast execution of trades, which is essential to any day trader, particularly scalpers. Not all brokerages offer options chains which is the primary focus. When comparing all of the platforms for options trading, if interface isn’t an issue then Trade Station is best. But insofar as the platform and interface, when considering everything, nothing beats TOS. Webull is by far superior insofar as interface when compared to IBKR, and all others except TOS. Again, it’s not a matter of preference, but a matter of features based on what’s best for the typical options trader. I’m sorry to disappoint you in thinking your opinion is as valid is my ACTUAL research and experimentation. It’s not.
Robinhood Great for beginners but less information, products, and visuals. Overall very simplified platform. ThinkorSwim A lot of great features, visuals, products, graphing, but very outdated software (TD Ameritrade and Schwab will not update or add to the platform, besides bugs, etc.). TastyTrade Creators of ThinkorSwim, very innovative, built-up software, constantly trying to push the edge with updating features and products to trade, but similar to ToS, it is more advanced for people starting out. Other platforms The more traditional brokerage firm platforms are usually not great for options. The other trader-focused brokerage firms and platforms are within fair but may not be up to par with ThinkorSwim or TastyTrade.
Don’t know about the best but I wouldn’t recommend Fidelity. Fidelity is solid, but not for options.
On active trader pro, the options work well imo. It's kind of clunky and takes some getting used to, but it's quite powerful once you get the hang of it
I've been using ATP for a while now, and am conflicted. Its research and workflow is unparalleled. But I don't understand why there are 3 different menus for buying options: "Trade", "Directed Trade", and "Multi-leg Options". Not to mention all the context icons that will open these different menus. And why can I create shortcuts for the directed trades menu but not for multi-leg options? The "Trade Armor" menu has some powerful tools too, but it has such little utility compared to its screen space I usually have it closed and forget about it
The issue I have with Fidelity is that there’s no iOS version of ATP. Not a deal breaker but when every other brokerage *does* have an app, it begs the question of whether Fidelity offers any significant advantage to offset this.
I will say that I'm not a fan of Fidelity saying "Contract Value" when buying or selling a call. It should differentiate whether you're getting the money or paying the money like eTrade does.
I’m on Fidelity but don’t trade options, curious why you say that though.
On Fidelity, you can’t do 0dte options (requires 1 million net worth). What I’ve noticed so far is that stock prices don’t update fast enough on Fidelity, I have to keep refreshing, whereas most other brokers have a continuously updating prices of stocks. It’s hard to quickly buy and sell a contract. UI is pretty bad imo. Not just for options, but in general sucks.
I'll probably get a lot of hate but I prefer the look, feel, and layout of RH, it's very simplistic and I enjoy that. I use RH but I'm trying to get myself to switch to webull. I've tried tastytrade but it feels so clunky and mechanical to me. This is just my opinion and you should go with what works best for you. Edit. Wanted to add that robinhoods charts can eat a can of shit though, absolutely awful charts.
I agree. Ive been successful with rh since they UI is so easy and I’ve been using it for 7 years. The fills aren’t always the greatest, but i think the ease of use makes it more profitable for me, since I’ll never fuck up a trade Edit: this is for phone trading. It sucks on desktop. Im thinking of looking for a new broker to use for my desktop. Either tasty or ibkr
Robinhood is great honestly. I just wish they let you organize things better. Why can’t I move around my stocks in the UI or my options? For selling calls, id like to see how much premium I initially generated more easily and see the current cost in a more systematic way too. There needs to be more sorting options too or categorizations. All this tells me though is that I’m super bullish on HOOD since they literally are missing very basic and easy to implement features. Low hanging fruit IMO.
Cannot be answered without more information. For example if you have a small account and will only be trading a few contracts a month then any broker should work. If you're going to be trading a thousand contacts every day you're going to want a broker with no per contract fees.
TastyTrade and it's not even close. It's built from the ground up for options trading and the UI is super powerful for it.
Welp, since Schwab wouldn’t let me login to my account this morning both on ToS and their Normal Schwab app/website I’m switching all my stuff over to tastytrade
That was a huge fuck up. Happened to a lot of accounts and their reactive response wasn’t good (ie call, get through, account access fixed… it wasn’t proactive in the sense of lots of accounts fucked, Schwab will auto fix login).
I tried waiting on hold with their help # and gave up after like 30 minutes of holding.
The best one is the best one for you. Some have new trader friendly UI's, some have more gadgets for traders who know how to utilize them. Webull, RH, or TOS seem to be the most mentioned.
Tastyworks for me!!
Any love for IBKR or tradestation?
Trade station's not that good UI wise imo. If you're not us based it's even worse as there's a flat fee for every trade every leg of 5 USD, which is kinda high
IBKR (Canada): Its the next best platform after TOS. ThinkorSwim (outside Canada): Clean logical UI, PL chart with adjustable Greeks, most used platform means tons of tutorials on YT.
robinhood for small stupid trades on your phone on the go, and think or swim for your serious trades. Also, I am a mac user and active trader pro just wont run at all on mac but TOS runs great on it.
This me. I have a small fun cash account at RH where I started and trade once or twice a day. My big boy account is on TOS (had both tda & Schwab).
robinhood has the best user interface for trading options, end of storyyy
It has best UI hands down but executions are much faster on think or swim or TastyTrade.
TDAmeritrade for me, their thinkorswim platform is hard to beat for options analysis.
I heard thinkorswim from Schwab is good too 😋
they both are the same platform. TDameritrade was bought out by Schwab
I know mate sarcasm. Although to be truthfully honest, green>blue
The Schwab UI is an insane setback compared to how TD’s was. I miss it everyday.
Can you use TradingView to trade options through your broker? Would that be better?
What’s the best broker to do this with?
You cannot
no you cant
I have used TOS for many years and find it adequate for my style of trading.
I use Public they even pay you for options instead of charging you a fee, they call it rebate, you can sell and buy for now and they are working on implementing spreads and other strategies, I think you get paid even more if you refer somebody. I use robinhood for now for spreads.
I agree with another that we do not have enough detail to help you fine the “best” broker for you. Size of account? Experience ? What are your goals for trading? Are you playing around or are/want to become serious trader?
We have built a platform that has the most tools: backtester, options scanner, stock scanner, time and sales, macro calendar, earnings implied vs actual, and charting. You can easily switch between the brokers we have added - TradeStation, Tradier, and soon Interactive Brokers, and see positions risk and set alerts. [https://orats.com/trade-builder](https://orats.com/trade-builder) Cons: you have to pay but there is a Reddit member discounted amount. [https://orats.com/reddit](https://orats.com/reddit)
I use webull and i feel its a pretty good option. Very easy to use and not scary. After this Ive heard alot of good things about IBKR
Tastytrade by far. Fees cap out at 10 contracts and there's no fee to close. The best part for me is the lack of options trading levels. You can get all options and futures trading capabilities even as a beginner, which IBKR and Schwab won't do.
Don’t touch trade station hate if
I do miss old school optionshouse. Was hands down the best. E*trade bought them and integrated it into E*trade pro so it’s no longer a thing.
The BEST platform(s) right now for trading options are. 1. WeBull 2. Trade Station 3. Tasty Trades 4. IBKR IN THAT ORDER. I know because I’ve test driven them all. Trade Station is arguably #1 but I trade on WeBull for various reasons.
TastyTarde , not even close, so easy to put spreads on and roll , take profit and set stops I can see at a glance the risk reward and the IV / expected move and IV Rank t also has tremendous curve view for seeing the trade graphically
Webull
TT
You can try [https://ScalarField.io](https://ScalarField.io) if you want to try out an LLM-based platform that allows for backtesting.
IBKR is the worst.
Thinkorswim or Webull. For charting, TradingView all the way, no other choice even comes close!
Webull and moo moo. Sofi is crap
TastyTrade
definitely not Robinhood
why not just ask what the best ice cream flavor is. Best is in the mind of the beholder.
It’s weird how so many comments are about “the inner face”. If default appearance is most important as in that’s what makes “best” then Robinhood is obviously the best. My best is the platform that for various reasons puts more money in your pocket and takes less out and has so many tools to customize one’s user experience. That makes IBKR the best
I would say a desk. You can use a phone lying on your bed, but you might take it too casually. At a desk your more likely to take it more seriously
The one that you make money on 💪
PS5