So I recently signed up for accounts at optionshouse.com (designed by traders at peak 6), and an account at thinkorswim.com. I am checking out the tools in the platform. They still do not offer the low commissions that IB offers but some of the tools are pretty cool. I may provide some screen shots of some of the tools that they have as I explore them. One feature in particular that I am looking forward to is thinkorswim provides a free streaming CNBC feed, which I was going to pay $99 a year to have on my computer. So that is nice.
Not sure I will ever be able to have just one platform. As it is hard to imagine a platform would have all the tools that I am looking for as well as the lowest commissions. But luckily all of the brokers offer their tools for free, regardless of whether you fund the account.
Also thinkorswim has classes on options that we may want to check out:
http://www.optionplanet.com/assembled/list.html . I think I am going to sign up for the level 1 class in San Diego on 2/5/10. And others and they open up. Let me know if you guys are interested.
So I have been exploring the ThinkorSwim platform. They have a lot of tools. I think that I will be able to replace 2 of the platforms that I pull up every morning with this one. so that will be nice to get some of the clutter off my sceens.
ReplyDeleteI would highly reccomend that you guys check this one out. I have checked out the optionshouse.com platform as well. The only tool that I like that they have is the probability calculator. I like this one over the one that trademonster uses as it all adds up to 100%.
Still have some exploring to do on the optionsxpress and IB platforms. But I did post about a neet feature in IB earlier today. So check that out.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteYou would probably like the thinkback tool in thinkorswim. You mentioned a while back that you tried to look back at position you closed to early to see if you left money on the table more often than not.
The cool thing about this tool is you enter in your position and you can see what the P&L was on any given day. It also graphs the P&L so you can just mouse over it to see how it fluctuated. You can also play what if scenarios, like if I opened 1 day earlier or waited 1 more day to close it.
And it has a pretty comprehensive list of company's and all their dividend information. As far as when it was declared, how much, the ex dividend date, etc.
These all among many other tools. It could take weeks to explore all this platform has to offer. It also has the ability to calculate probabilities. So It looks like I may be able to open a few less platforms to get all the information/tools that I am looking for.
I will keep you posted.
It will take me a while to get to it so I'll just let you keep me posted.
ReplyDeleteSo I got in contact with a thinkorswim representative on their commission structure. And come to find out they are very flexible with the commissions. They will match most commission rates. For traders that use interactive brokers they offer a flat $1.25 per contract to start. As you volume get larger they are willing to lower this commission rate. But you will need to be trading over 2500 contracts a month to negotiate a lower rate.
ReplyDeleteSo I did the analysis on how much I am paying on average at IB. It came out to about $1.10. I included any cancellation fees that IB passed down to me. So as of now it would be about $0.15 more per contract.
I am really going to consider switching in the near future as this will allow me to have only one platform open. I have been able to find all the tools I want in one platform and almost get the lowest commission rates. This is something I thought would never happen.
Just thought you guys might like to know.