OptionsHouse, OptionsThis and OptionsThat. So many options brokerage houses which means confusing choices for us all. Other than having OptionsHouse promotion codes (see below for them), how does this broker get you to remember them? How about $4.95 per stock trade to start?
Click Here to Sign up for an OptionsHouse AccountThe Offer Code is: 1000 and you may have to type the promotion code in to be eligible.
There are also other Optionshouse Promotions below, so check it out after you read the review.
Fees Come First
That’s not a typo. Over at OptionsHouse, stock trades are just $4.95 no matter what. When a company can make money with rates like this, it really makes you wonder how much money other premium stock brokers are making off of us. Recently, OptionsHouse updated its options commission structure. The trades are now $4.95 + $0.50 per contract. If you are one of those people who just want to buy yourself some protection, you are very happy with this change.
Other Fees?
Here’s some of the other fees of the options broker.
Exactly what I like to see. No maintenance fees, no minimum trade requirements, and if I ever want help, broker-assisted trades are $25.
OptionsHouse Interface
Upon looking into the account, I found that the interface is very much like the professional trading platforms of the higher end brokers for professional traders. Within the main screen, you can see an account summary, quote look up, order statuses, positions, and detailed information on particular securities.
Webinars and Seminars
I’ve begun to really love the education that these brokers provide and OptionsHouse is no exception. It’s obvious that the company’s expertise is in options trading because all the webinars are concentrated in that area but I expect it to expand to stock trading and other subjects in the future.
Don’t Underestimate Them
While many of you may not have heard about this brokerage firm, they seem to have their act together. In fact, Barron’s Online Broker Survey ranked them highly in trade experience, beating out the likes of thinkorswim, optionsXpress, E*Trade and Charles Schwab.
Conclusion
OptionsHouse really gets my blood flowing because of its extremely low trading fees. Is it SIPC insured? Check. Is there good word out there? Another check. Changing brokers is really a hassle though, but like others, they are willing to reimburse me for up to $100, which is enough to move from pretty much any institution. Hmm… decisions decisions decisions. As for you, there’s really no right answer, but I’d say that $3.95 stock trades is reason enough for you to at least give it a test run.
Click Here to Sign Up for an OptionsHouse Account
OptionsHouse Promotion Code
Here are the current promotions for this broker. When you sign up, type in the promo codes as shown below.
- Get 90 Commission Free Trades – Promo Code: FREE90 – Click for Details
- Free Live Seminars from Options Expert Traders
- Free Trial Trading Before You Commit Capital with Virtual Trades
- Transfer Your Assets from Your Current Broker and Get Up to $100 – Promo Code: ACAT100REFUND
- Wire Your Initial Funds and Get a $25 Credit – Promo Code: WIRE25REFUND
- OptionsHouse – Official Site
Who is OptionsHouse Anyway?
To be honest, one of the first reaction I had when someone told me about OptionsHouse was: “Who?” I then went to do a little research and here’s what I found out:
OptionsHouse is really OptionsHouse, LLC and is owned by PEAK6 Investments, L.P. The company’s headquarters is in Chicago, the home of the Chicago Board of Trade. The parent company have been in the options and derivative trading business for years, and is actually one of Chicago’s 101 best and brightest companies to work for.
Before you take the plunge though, make sure you read up on the issues other people are having before you sign up with them. A few love OptionsHouse, while other reviewers don’t. Take your whole test drive to get a realistic feel for how the broker will work for you, but take note of your peer’s experiences first.
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The options house review is really great. Options traders should read it and they can know something new points about trading. So I loved your article.
Looks like OptionsHouse and its selling my options, within 2 hours on expiration day, is about to be come to an end today. Its time to day trade options again in my ROTH IRA, that is a average of $3,500 in commission each weeks you guy will gain from me again. Cheers
Other than slow customer service, I’ve had no issues with OH until this new platform and phone app. On the phone app, ITM options aren’t highlighted and I can’t for the life of me sell anything once I’ve bought it. I get “This order plus similar order(s) in your account exceed the shares/contract in your position.”
I had no other orders on at the time. I ended up having to go back to the old platform to sell the options. I emailed them but got no response. Thinking of moving to IB or Trade Station once I can’t use the old platform/app any longer.
I agree with the comments on here about OptionsHouse. Since the merger they have gone way downhill. Customer service is crap, I waited over an hour both on the phone and live chat. On phone, the customer rep sounded like he was a pissed off high school student. They’ve also put my account on several liquidation only restrictions when, by law, they didn’t need to. They give me a timeline to meet a margin call then put me on restrictions before the deadline is hit. Don’t listen to all the BS paid reviews and affiliate link reviews. Go with Scottrade or Ameritrade.
It really saddens me to type this review. I loved the platform especially the screeners which helped me make money selling puts. The new platform is clearly being pushed on us by Etrade. It is NOT to benefit current Optionshouse clients. For example, the entire function to screen for volatility increases (and decreases) over many time ranges (I use a week generally or daily) are now gone. I have sent emails on this and have received zero response.
Also, under the performance tab, they now only let you view performance by symbol. They took away over 90% of the functionality of the tab. In particular, on the old platform, you could bundle performance by asset class and by type of option. They also had a great feature that allowed you to see P&L for all your trades. Gone now. Again, expressed concern but have not even received an email back saying they received mine.
Also, something as simple as your p&l is gone or at least I can
find it.
Lastly, Optionshouse had a fantastic “Analyze” tab that gave up to date probabilities of a trade being successful and break evens. The new platform has the tab but nothing appears when you click on it.
Fortunately, I only have a few positions open and all but 1 expires in June. I will definitely be moving my account.
Update – I did finally receive an email from Optionshouse. It was non-committal in regards to my concerns. I have moved more than half of my account out and have a couple of positions left that could take a while.
Is this place legit? I am new to trading. I have $12400.00and change. I am trying to withdraw the money. They are hitting me with nearly $2500.00 in fee’s to withdraw. Is that legal? Is that real? Or have I been scammed? Thank you, Mark W
Overall very unhappy. If you are with them on an extremely high volume day, their system will crash and you will not be able to get a hold of anyone. That happened about 18 months ago when news from China rocked the markets. Also, after paying them commissions over 4 years of trading, I took some money out and they cut my live feed when I was in a trade. I had no way to monitor my option position. They obviously have no concern for their client. Who does that?
I use OptionsXpress and have never had any problems. I fully recommend it.
Options house messed up a refunded ACHD transfer and in their “fixing” of my cash account they ERASED $106.80 in real money and have as of yet not returned it. In addition, their website is broken such that you cannot download statements and there is no online record of these transactions. I have screen captures of each step though showing the money was there before their fix and gone after. I have filed a complaint with the BBB and will be withdrawing all funds from this poorly run organization.
Ben
OptionsHouse charges Proprietary Index Option Product Fees of $0.53 on the S&P 500 Index and other indexes. I think you should add this amount to the $4.95 +$0.50/contract to your readers.
Also, they state: “For each exercise or assignment in a given position you will be charged $4.95”.
How many times the Exercises and Assignments is charged in a Multi Leg Spread?
Are options expiring out of the money considered to be assigned?
They have a good platform. However, their customer service is very poor. I stopped trading with them for this exact reason. I have never seen a more horrible customer service.
Their customer service agents have no idea about trading or their own platform. So if you can stand their customer service agetns and their ignorance, their platform is okay.
If you’ve read all these reviews and still have an account with OH, you only have yourself to blame.
I’ve had the most comical experiences with their customer service. It took a month and four separate requests to upgrade my options trading permissions. Each time a representative would say: “I have no idea why it hasn’t been processed. Be assured it will be processed in the next 48 hours.” After four times, I was finally told in a chat that the account was upgraded. I asked if I should’ve received a notification. No, they said. Is there anyway to see the level on the site? No they said. Apparently, the only way to know is to keep placing a spread order, and if you are not denied, then you have been approved! I kid you not.
I just jointed OH and did not receive a single email from them saying welcome to our service or anything. I tried the interface and think it’s extremely clunky and slow. Come-on… FLASH? It’s somewhat customizable but you’re still limited as to what you can do, and it’s NOT ergonomic at all. The charts suck which are difficult to use and they load slowly. On the charts, you can’t even use your mouse wheel for a smooth zoom. Even the enlargement feature is clunky as heck. The volume bars are in a different chart below and there’s no VWAP indicator. I just joined about 2 hrs ago and thinking of closing my account already. Seriously. The GUI is a let down. Sorry, I can’t stand it. Glad I didn’t fund my account. Should of stayed with trade king for all that matter. As a newbi, IB looks good right now…the web version; not the TWS yet.
Regarding the VWAP indicator. I just joined with IB and THEY DON’T have a true interday VWAP indicator EITHER!! WTF!
oh and the customer service. was on point they answered within a few minutes no problem
the question I had to ask was something i did wrong..
go long DIA and SPY options with options house
These reviews are the lulz.
Every body says the same thing and if it isn’t the same thing it is people with no sense.
There are a few comments that do make sense, are people with no complaints.
If you don’t understand every aspect of markets. then don’t trade if you do you’ll be gambling.
With this said, I’m a new customer going to Optionshouse to utilize the advanced trading techniques.
I shall see if any of these bad reviews are meaningful. But I doubt it.
I trade stocks with OH because of very low commission.
But the service is awful and I think they also steel your money if you trade options.
Trying to wire them a deposit – they are returning it second time, now because they invented it is from the third party.
But I understand that I am getting what I paid for.
I’m done with Optionshouse and their Bullshits:
Strike 1) Changing $9.95 flat rate —-> $8.50 + 0.15 per contract
Strike 2) Bad fill of about $0.02 on a $0.05 spread = OH idealistic commission $8.50 + $2.15+ per contract
Strike 3) It took nearly a week for OH responding to my buddy E-mail question.
Basically, my commission was increased to about 300% more with no significant trading improvement; what hurt the most was them taking that long to respond to my buddy E-mail, when they could’ve hire an extra customer representative (At one point, I’ve paid over $28,000 in commission in a calendar year)
“Optionshouse” should be “Stockshouse”
hi
options house started this program called lending program on brokerage and IRA account … does any body has any input in this program
Will appreciate to hear back
Thanks
I used to rave about optionshouse to friends and coworkers, after the merger at the beginning of this year, this company took a deep dive, from being amongst the best online broker to crap. Looks like a bunch of knowledgeable baby boomer took an early retirement, this place is probably run by a bunch of no common sense employees. This is not just my opinion, but a bunch of my friends also, who’re slowly looking for another brokerage firm.
OHouse has so many bad reviews. Cs is the worst I have ever dealt with. They seldom followup with email and if you happen to try to call them be ready to wait 45-hr if your lucky. While, their commissions are lower they well make up for it with the bid/ask fills. Fills are almost always lower, sometimes much lower than what other brokers have.
I’ve compared it and their fills are almost criminal. You end up paying more on the fills then you could ever save on the lower commissions. Avoid, them, pay alittle more elsewhere but your good fill prices will without a doubt offset the commissions. read the reviews posted by their real customers and not paid,compensated sites. Mobile app is a joke!
Which broker did you compare it with? With IB, I got better filled on market and limit order (most times) then OH filled. Going to miss OH trading platform though, I guess I could use them holding long term investment stocks.
Optionhouse , lousy platform, criminals running the brokerage firm.
Optionhouse is without doubt the worst broker to deal with!! They must pay for their reviews. Customer service is worthless. I have sent numerous emails to them trying to get acct information and general information. They never returns emails. I tired calling and was on hold almost an hour and finally gave up. Their mobile app is junk, just do a search on it. I chosen them because of the lower rates. Turns out hey route their orders in a manner that their fill share at le3ast several cents lower thus on one contract your paying 3-50cents and more for it. They do not fill orders instead stop them out. Ive compared their fills with other online live broker sites and seen the difference. They are nothing more than criminals dress up in suits. I would rather pay a standard $7 + $1.50 for other sites
because you will save money and you will have CS even if you need it only once a year. It would not surprise me to see them investigated and indicted for such.
I have been with Option House for 2 months. I was with Scottrade prior for 10 years.
I choose Option House because of their very low trading fees on options.
I have had NO problems with any trades or funding my account and the platform is very good.
All is very good with Option House, EXCEPT one little thing and I don’t hear Anyone ever speak about it.
The problem is that ALL of Option House numbers for options and your “Live Account Value” is based on “MARK” values.
This “Mark” value is a medium price between the Bid and Ask price.
So you NEVER know the EXACT amount of money that you made or TRUE VALUE (Dollars) of your account.
An option might say that you LOST $300 BUT the option has ZERO Volume, Never traded, not one contract that day.
I have called and emailed Option House about this issue and I am told that is how they have set-up their platform.
I have a HUGE PROBLEM with these Generic numbers that have NO TRUE VALVE to my account.
I KNOW that Scottrade does not have this accounting on their platform.
Can someone PLEASE comment on this situation.
Is it just ME and do other platforms also use the “Mark” accounting platform?
I am a very active option trader so FEES are a huge concern.
Any suggestions on a better broker with low fees?
Thank you
Optionhouse is without doubt the worst broker to deal with!! They must pay for their reviews. Customer service is worthless. I have sent numerous emails to them trying to get acct information and general information. They never returns emails. I tired calling and was on hold almost an hour and finally gave up. Their mobile app is junk, just do a search on it. I chose them originally because of the lower rates. Turns out hey route their orders in a manner that their fill share at least several cents lower thus on one contract your paying $3-5 and more for it. They do not fill orders instead stop them out. Ive compared their fills with other online live broker sites and seen the difference. They are nothing more than criminals dress up in suits. I would rather pay a standard $7 + $1.50 for other sites
because you will save money and you will have CS even if you need it only once a year. It would not surprise me to see them investigated and indicted for such.
AVOID OPTION HOUSE: CLOSE OUT ASAP and never return!!!
Go with another broker, maybe TOS, IBB? OH will kill cheat you on the Bid/ask fills. They hold back your order till it benefits them. All you have to do is read OptionsHouse’s SEC 606 order routing report to see that not one options order is sent directly to an exchange. Every options order is sold to a third party. OH could be called criminal, and i know that their CS is worthless.
***************
Bad glitch in their software, I open a limit order to sell my OTM options, when I log back on before lunch time, my limit order was cancelled and an order was open to sell at market price, which was lower then my limit order. The cancelled and open order happen at the same time, so it couldn’t be someone hacking my account.
Go with Interactive Brokers!! I had Options House for the last 3-4 years and put up with it because their options commissions were better than most until I found out about Interactive. I had close to 400K at one time including my IRA, but got tired of their locking my account or the proceeds. You bauy and sell something, they charge you for the buy right away but hold your money for three days for the sell side. I removed my IRA first and now trying to get the rst of my money. Now, they have “Liquidation only” restriction on my account. I had 10+K available last week and requested 5K, after two days they reversed and stopped my withdrawal. I called again today, the guy says you can withdraw $9,300 today. I explained that I had more available cash last week and they reversed my withdrawal, and he said he will check with the bank. The reason my account got to liquidation was the result of Zillow splitting and creating a new option series (basically 3 to 1 split), but their platform cannot calculate it so they assumed I needed to send more money placed a DT_margin call. I was not even aware of it until the second Day trade margin call hit a couple of weeks ago when they restricted my account to only closing positions. I cannot even roll over my options now. Not being able to get my available cash is the worst part. Unfortunately, I don’t want to sell everything before year end due to tax consequences so I have to wait until January… RUN WHEN YOU CAN; it may not be as easy later. Interactive is the cheapest option commissions I could find and you can do even single option at a time at usually less than a buck!! Someone let me know if there is a better deal out there.
Sounds like you need to see a lawyer. They obviously should have been able to calculate the split and you probably deserve compensation for that Day Trading Margin Call…. Horrid. PS – I am not a lawyer.
I read this site while I was with OH, as I had been for many years, and said “wow, I’m sure glad they don’t treat me that way, and I don’t have those problems,” until I did. Big time. I’d regale everybody with a whole litany of horrific experiences, but taking my time so that IIRC, some people in this thread can be as nasty as optionshouse (well, close, nobody’s as nasty as optionshouse) doesn’t sound like good fun to me, and there’s nothing in it for me.
All I can say if you read this thread and blame it on the users, scoff, and say “they wouldn’t do that to me,” total nonsense, they’re a ticking time bomb, so good luck with that.
If you think optionshouse reads anything like this, you could not be more wrong. They could not care less. Believe me, or don’t, good luck.
Don’t go through OH!!!!!! Me and two of my friends opened up an account 5days ago, upon trying to establish an ACH relation ship or link a checking account it’s asked for 2 micro deposits. We had no idea what that was and had to google it, on the site it did not explain what that was for… Upon figuring out what that was I waited for 2 deposites in my account a couple of days later, I punched those numbers in and still it doesn’t work… After three attempts its cancels the link. Now I have to wait for another deposite in my account which will take a total of about a week… We are gonna close all three accounts! Horrible customer service!!
Save yourself. DO NOT GO WITH OH!!!
Optionhouse is without doubt the worst broker to deal with!! They must pay for their reviews. Customer service is worthless. I have sent numerous emails to them trying to get acct information and general information. They never returns emails. I tired calling and was on hold almost an hour and finally gave up. Their mobile app is junk, just do a search on it. I chose them originally because of the lower rates. Turns out hey route their orders in a manner that their fill share at least several cents lower thus on one contract your paying $3-5 and more for it. They do not fill orders instead stop them out. Ive compared their fills with other online live broker sites and seen the difference. They are nothing more than criminals dress up in suits. I would rather pay a standard $7 + $1.50 for other sites
because you will save money and you will have CS even if you need it only once a year. It would not surprise me to see them investigated and indicted for such.
I have been with OH after tired with TK about 9mths now. I havent had any issues with trades and executions, but their CS SUCKS big time, which for me is far more important than saving 2$. Forgetting knowledgeable when one cant even get through to them. I have issues getting my trade conf and statements and CS told me straight up to leave if I want to. I am even more worried after reading some users experiences with taxes and so fort. I am closing my trades and moving my cash to TDA slowly. By the end of Aug my trades will expired and most likely be gone.
I am getting $1.50 per contract at TDA, I trade mostly options. (not recommending any thing just saying what i did). I even got the highest level options trading at TDA and can use Thinkorswim too. its a far better deal for me and may i say 24-7 CS.
after dealing with OH CS i am surprised they exist so long with so many options available to consumers. GL
It’s the worst trading house I ever encountered. They do not honor promotions and their trading platform is awful. Above all their customer service reps are arrogant, unhelpful and outright rude and that should be the prime reason not to sign up with OptionsHouse. They must change their entire customer service dept. Stay away from OptionsHouse.
On my virtual trading account, I entered a position and then set a stop about two dollars lower, Good Till Cancelled. The next morning, after market open, the stop order was filled at a price ~$8 lower than the lowest price the stock had hit based on the minute-by-minute view of the chart. I contacted customer service via livechat (~3pm on a Wednesday does seem to be the right time, I only had to wait 5-10 minutes), and was told rather curtly that “anything can happen in a paper trading account” and that the purpose of such an account is “for order entry practice only” (as opposed to getting comfortable using their system… hm).
So if you’re thinking about using their paper trading, just be aware that you should have no expectation of reliability. I can’t speak to their handling of actual funded accounts, though.
Rude customer service. They changed their fee structure with the trade monster platform. And a few other minor complaints. But one big one.
They consider me a professional trader (which I am absolutely not) simply because my trust contains a beneficiary that is not a relative. Regardless of that, I just got a notice that they will begin charging me $150/month for live data.
The problem is that my account did not have live data enabled before the merger w/ trade monster, and I never requested to enable live data (see above trust issue). Yet they enabled this feature and began charging me. When I called the representative kept going back to the fact that professional traders have to pay for live data and argued with me. I will give them credit that he did disable the live data and has “requested” his supervisor to review for refund. But changing to a $150 / month data fee w/o authorization and without it being requested not acceptable.
Overall a okay brokerage as long as you don’t have any strange circumstances. But for me I have had enough.
My only complaint so far is for the $75 transfer fee.
Save yourself and money! they will close out your positions and there is nothing you can do. Optionhouse is without doubt the worst broker to deal with!! They must pay for their reviews. Customer service is worthless. I have sent numerous emails to them trying to get acct information and general information. They never returns emails. I tired calling and was on hold almost an hour and finally gave up. Their mobile app is junk, just do a search on it. I chose them originally because of the lower rates. Turns out hey route their orders in a manner that their fill share at least several cents lower thus on one contract your paying $3-5 and more for it. They do not fill orders instead stop them out. Ive compared their fills with other online live broker sites and seen the difference. They are nothing more than criminals dress up in suits. I would rather pay a standard $7 + $1.50 for other sites
because you will save money and you will have CS even if you need it only once a year. It would not surprise me to see them investigated and indicted for such.
BEWARE optionshouse
Unlike all other brokers, they can sell your options any times at expiration date ANYTIME and charge 25 dollars commission
I was holding some contracts and got sell all at market price (even I set the limit price) 1 hours before closing.
I am closing account. Good luck.
Lia: We dont need your consent to manage risk at expiration
Lia: The fee will stand. I spoke to margins and they did confirm the action
Some bad reviews here.
I am a long time OH user and am completely satisfied. Yes customer service is slow but remember it is a discount broker so you can expect that. Once in 6 years I have experienced the platform being down and I mostly day trade. In the very beginning I had a lot of problems with the screen freezing but an upgrade in my equipment resolved it. The latest merger was seamless for me because as per their email notices leading up to it I spent some time learning what was going to happen and how to use the new platform. I would bet the people complaining about the merger never bothered to do their homework and found themselves locked out of their accounts. That is their own fault. I received at least a half dozen emails telling me what to do to get ready.
Their charts are the worst and they will admit it. Just part using a discount service. I use a different service for my charts.
Transferring funds is slow but they tell you the time to expect on the website.
For me OH works at a cheap price. The mobile app is great.
Didn’t OptionsHouse just changed its fee structure?
First of all I should say that customer service sucks and it usually takes 20 to 30 min to get answered your call. Trading specialists are very rude and in addition I need to explain the problem at least two times and sometimes they never understand the problem. Recently they put me on hold after 20 min wait and then again after 10 min they got back to me and said I see the problem and finally they said they can’t help.
Asked for supervisor or manager but never got back to me so far.
Sometimes the specialists hung the phone.
Horrible service and the system is slow as well.
In a nutshell the service is pathetic.
OptionsHouse has the most technologically challenged platform on the market. Often (like today) they have system problem and it is impossible to trade – when it’s time critical. And their “support” usually takes upwards of 45 minutes to answer and many of my friends report “curt” responses by the agents.
On weekends some stations (like mine) have an extra candle that exactly matches Friday’s candle and the displayed date is Saturday or Sunday. Really messes up studies. They quit responding to my tech support requests.
Don’t even bother open an account with this clowns…. they are cheap for a reason, they are down at least once a month, this is crucial when you cannot exit a losing trade or enter a potential winner. The stop loss feature does not work, customer service unreachable, try Ameritrade, yes, it is expensive but is worth it.
Horrible customer service and outdated data systems. After having a problem that I was unable to resolve with customer service for over a month I finally had to file a complaint with BBB just to get someone to kind of help me. I would rather pay the extra $2 per trade and go with a company that knows what they’re doing.
I’ve been with OH for years and never had they been so pathetic on the customer service as post merger with TradeMonster. I have 3 accounts on my own, and 2 for my wife, all with OH.
It’s almost a full time job to get a hold of them, no replies to emails, ridiculous live chat wait times, and things just keep getting messed up. My wife’s account transfer out of Scottrade was messed up, free trades promotion isn’t honored, open orders hang for days not getting filled. While I like the platform and low rates, customer service is the worst I’ve seen.
I’m researching an alternative, having just transferred from Scottrade to OH, I’m fed up with this nonsense.
I’m afraid I have to agree. I have 3 accounts here, and 4 with Scottrade. That is me and my wife, cash, IRA, and Roth IRA accounts. Scottrade is far better in everything except cost per trade. My trades on OH are grandfathered at $3 per trade, and I do trade a lot (14 trades today). But I am considering Zack’s as my Roth accounts broker, at $4.95 per trade. And that gives you access to some premium research for free. If it works out with those accounts, I will also move my IRA and cash accounts. FWIW, I found that recently using the online chat with OH got me best results… probably more accurate than the voice customer service too. They are overloaded now, so don’t blame the people you talk to, it is management’s fault. I got to like some of the OH people quite a lot back before they changed clearing houses and did the recent merger. Life has changed…
Tom
Please use caution with OH! Optionhouse is without doubt the worst broker to deal with!! They must pay for their reviews. Customer service is worthless. I have sent numerous emails to them trying to get acct information and general information. They never returns emails. I tired calling and was on hold almost an hour and finally gave up. Their mobile app is junk, just do a search on it. I chose them originally because of the lower rates. Turns out hey route their orders in a manner that their fill share at least several cents lower thus on one contract your paying $3-5 and more for it. They do not fill orders instead stop them out. Ive compared their fills with other online live broker sites and seen the difference. They are nothing more than criminals dress up in suits. I would rather pay a standard $7 + $1.50 for other sites
because you will save money and you will have CS even if you need it only once a year. It would not surprise me to see them investigated and indicted for such.
DON”T go to TradeKing. Their “live” tools are a joke, constantly hanging up, showing incorrect balances for my account and equity prices. In the middle of a trade the entire “TradeKing” Live site will freeze (happens on buys and sells). You are forced to close the site down, then re-open it and log back into it again. I’ve done too much weeping and gnashing of teeth on TradeKing. I was just about to go to….wait for it……..OptionsHouse. Not doing that now.
Optionshouse seems to have forgotten why small account holders trade options and has declared war on them. I opened a small account (approximately $3k max) about 3 years ago with them, and I have traded ONLY options. About 3 months ago, I was assigned an option trade that had gone against me, seriously depleting my small stake. I figured, tough, but that’s the life of a trader. This past week, however 2 winning trades were closed out by Optionshouse less than 4 hours before expiration. That was a bit much to take, so I filed a complaint with BBB. The response from Optionshouse in brief was: “you don’t have enough money in your account for us to suck up if we decide to assign you the options…and..we can do that if we feel like it; it’s in the fine print of the agreement you signed when you opened the account”. I am in the process of being an ex-customer. Below is their response to my BBB complaint in full. Read and advise yourself.
On March 6, 2015 at 12:22:59 p.m. CST, the day of weekly options expiration, our Risk Department took market action by liquidating your 2 BBY 2015 Mar 6 C @ 38.00 (Weekly) Call options at $1.61 and your 2 EA 2015 Mar 6 C @ 55.000 (Weekly) Call options at $1.50 and we were fully within our right to do so. We took market action in your account for the following reasons:
OptionsHouse denies that, as you state, “I have been arbitrarily closed out by OptionsHouse at very unfavorable terms”. The process by which we monitor our customer accounts for exercise and assignment risk was provided to you and was at all times available on our website. http://www.optionshouse.com/risk/expiration/
OptionsHouse had no idea where Best Buy Co., Inc. (“BBY”) and Electronic Arts Inc. (“EA”) might have closed on March 6, 2015. Based on volatility and other market factors, it could have easily finished in the money thus adding potential exercise risk in your cash account.
The policy as detailed on our website accurate. On the day of weekly or monthly options expiration in an effort to mitigate potential exercise and assignment risk OptionsHouse monitors and in certain cases takes appropriate market action to reduce risk.
Your total account value as of the close on March 5, 2015 (the day prior to expiration) was $677.65. Had your 2 BBY 2015 Mar 6 C @ 38.00 (Weekly) Call options and your 2 EA 2015 Mar 6 C @ 55.000 (Weekly) Call options finished in the money by more than $0.01 on March 6, 2015 all 4 contracts would have been auto-exercised by the Options Clearing Corporation (“OCC”) thus creating a $17,922.35 debit your account.
Simply stated, you did not have the cash value or securities equivalent value to cover the potential debit resulting from the auto exercise on your long options.
By signing your new account agreement on December 21, 2012, you acknowledged that you read and understood (emphasis added) the “Customer Agreement” and all account agreements, that governed your account. In a section titled “Option Exercise and Expiration,” the Customer Agreement discloses the following:
“When Customer owns an option that is about to expire “in the money,” OptionsHouse or Apex may, in its sole discretion or in accordance with the Rules and Regulations, and without notification to Customer, close out the option. OptionsHouse or Apex may take this action in order to prevent an exercise that would require the purchase or sale of the underlying security for which Customer does not have sufficient funds. This is in no way to be construed as an obligation on OptionsHouse’s or Apex’s part to sell or exercise such options on Customer’s behalf.”
Nothing to offend you, but it seems OH has every rights to cover their ass if market goes against you. You don’t have enough balance to fully cover your rightful market instinct. If it stays OTM, you gain a bit, if it goes ITM, OH has every responsibility to act on the trade agreement.
I do agree that OH customer service is the worst ever out there. But the fact that they closed out your options before expiration doesn’t mean they are worse brokerage. You’ll get what you pay for. I don’t even have the same benefits of user interface, chart analysis, and our holy grail “naked option writing” at Scottrade, let alone the base commission fee differences.
Option house reviews are unreal! CS sucks. Ive been on the phone several times waiting for up to a hour in the last month. Previous experience just as bad. . The live communication on site is just as bad. Emailed 2 times over a month ago and still no response. The merger has changed NOTHING! They were suppose to grandfather in my rates, they refuse to.
I did a ACH transfer , and my money has been in there for over 10 days and they will not allow a cash transfer out of for a small bit of it. No reason why? Account has been opened for 4 years. So, they are holding $$$$, paying no interest. Wall street Crooks!
Platform has no charting tools such as drawing capabilities. You can not changed trend lines, such as kind, just solid lines. You can not link the platform to other party software such as MW, TK and such.
Rates are lower than SOME brokers but overall lacking. Is it really worth a couple bucks per trade to deal with such?
I’m giving them money not the other way around! They worked for us, not we for them! If they were an employee they would have been fired by now. They MUST be PAYING for some good advertisement bad reviews because in reality they suck.
Is there a broker that does not have a god complex, that understands that WE keep them in business, not the other way around?
I am a long-time customer of Optionshouse, and I can’t get a response from them. No responses to email, chat, or telephone!!! This really sucks! I have accounts with them totaling over 1/2 $million, which I am about to transfer to a broker that is responsive to my needs. I already shifted that much to Scottrade, which is about 1000 times better in customer service. Cheap trades don’t help when they screw other things up badly! I can’t file my taxes because they screwed up my 1099-B. I would not tell anyone to use this outfit. It has gone from weak to horrible over the past couple of years.
Avoid online Trading. I’ve tried several, the most recent being optionshouse.com Needless to say after loosing 330 dollars trading I removed the last of my funds and bailed. Now I’ve got a tax statement for the year that says I made a profit and my Tax Attorney cannot make heads or tails of their so called “tax report”. There are no historic reports from last year, and no itemized place to go get the exact trades that my Tax man is asking for. Looks like I’ll be paying income tax on a LOSS… Go figure. I wont be back on optionshouse.
As I reviewed account history online, numerous charges showed up in the amount of $1401 with no recognizable explanation. The company does not mail statements. I tried to download statements on the website, but none are available after Oct 2014. The company has not mailed tax forms. These forms are not available on the website, which states there are technical difficulties. I called the customer service number and waited for 64 minutes without anyone answering the phone. Should I report the company to the SEC, FTC, and IRS?
I left Scottrade for Tradeking. Lower fee than Scottrade and service and info just as good. Nothing against Scottrade. Good luck
Stay away folks… stay FAR away. Worst customer service EVER! I opened an account a little over a month ago and cancelled already. It all started when I opened my account I deposited a sizable amount of money to start investing. I went to actually invest a few days later when it gave me an error stating my account was locked for trading. Not knowing what that meant exactly I contacted customer support via email (since I’m not in the US and I’m 12 hours out time-wise) and I got no response. I check my account the next day and all the money I deposited had been returned to my bank account with no explanation. I emailed again to try to figure out what’s going on. Again, no response. I check my account later that day and notice I have a margin call of $30. At this point I’m furious because I’m being charged for a service I didn’t even have the opportunity to use. I wrote a very angry email at that point and it seems the $30 charge was negated. But again, no response, explanation, apology, or anything! It was like I was talking to a brick wall and the brick wall basically wanted nothing to do with me or the business I provided. I’ve never seen a company care so little about its customers. I’m going to try ScottTrade instead I think even though the trades cost more. Anyone use them? Any other recommendations?
I got the same thing…. Run away!
Same issues I am seeing as well, I felt that I should run away asap, but since I have many accounts with this crappy brokerage firm, will slowly move out one by one to either Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. I have never seen such bad customer service in my last 20 years of experience. No courtesy, no apologies, they think they are providing services for free. Is there a place where I can complaint to SEC or FED or some agency where this brokerage firm can be really penalized for their bad service.
There is no way to talk to Manager or supervisor. I am not able to trade for last 3 days and they are not helping me either to fix the problem. All they say is the problem is on my side. How can it be on my side when I am not table launch the trading window during market hours and can launch after market hours and before market hours. I cannot launch on Windows 8.0, MacAir Yosemite osx, Iphone6+ app. They still say the problem is on my side, and asked me to try with different browsers. Later I tried with Firefox, IE and again cleared all the cache with my chrome, but all this didn’t help. For past 3 days I am seeing this problem and didn’t make any changes on my side. They refuse to look into further details and in fact Greg a specialist hung up the phone. Mike said sorry we cannot help and Nick said we open a ticket and get back to you, so far nothing has happened.
Is there a place where I can make serious complaint about this brokerage firm. This brokerage firm needs to grow up and learn how to deal with customers.
Pathetic…..
WORST customer service on Earth!! They will not answer calls (they put your call in eternal waiting) and will not respond to emails. DO NOT open an account here!!
I am just wondering once you start investing and opened an account with OptionHouse, do I need to file taxes or fill any documents of some sort?
The only paper work is you need to include your gain/loss along with your 1040.
I had a horrible experience with OH today, again. They closed out my weekly options way, way too early without my consent. If I was to close it the way I wanted it, which is about 10 to 20 minutes before the closing the market, I would have $10,000 more in my account. I am closing my account with OH completely. I am soooooo f*****g upset. I don’t want to say this cliche, but it is true-you get what you pay for. OptionHouse SUCKS. PEOPLE, GO TO OTHER BROKERAGE.
Well, it’s even worse than that. They are now charging $25 for closing you out of your position. They say this fee will soon be made explicit on their Web site, but for now they say they’re covered by the user agreement’s reference to fees “as they exist from time to time”. They say they reserve the right to close out long positions *any time on the day of expiration* if you have insufficient funds in your account to exercise that position, and they *will not accept* instructions not to exercise such positions. This effectively removes an entire trading day. If such a policy is legal, it shouldn’t be, and I’ll be passing along a complaint to the SEC. Perhaps a class action is in order.
Shane,
Every broker does virtually the same thing. Filing a lawsuit is just laughable.
It’s true every broker dealer will work against you if they can make a profit, and even worse they have algorithmic software that will study your trading habits and use it against you!
What makes you think that they did not pocket the $10k? A simple jungle of the books? Please don’t say a broker would never do that. They do the same with dividends on open options that the customer does not request. CROOKS!
This is by far the worst customer service I have ever seen. I have attempted calling, emailing, and live chatting, I have not been able to get through to anyone and cannot get a response. After funding my account I have been trying to to get through to someone to find out how long I must wait before I can withdraw some of the funds. As soon as I am able I will be withdrawing the entire amount and closing the account. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to deal with this pathetic level of service, but I suppose that’s the reason for slightly cheaper trades. <1 star
That’s because with the merger, a lot of people were too lazy to review the new platform and reset their password info if needed. These fools how play with real money but are too lazy to read one of several emails they were sent to prepare everyone have been clogging up customer service trying to get access to their accounts and get help using the new platform. I got thru to them very quickly at about 300pm last Wednesday. The person I spoke with told me this was the case.
And in your case you moron, that info is on the website. So consider yourself another idiot who doesn’t bother to find out the rules before sending money and is too lazy to look for himself
I did check the site, the only thing it says is that there may be a holding period, it does not state how long. I am also noticing how often you are posting on this forum which leads me to believe you belong to the customer service dept. in some way. If that is correct, then it’s another example of horrible customer service, and if it’s not correct then you are obviously just an asshole who has nothing better to do with his time.
Shane,
You are ignorant. I’m just a happy customer who finds fools like you to a blot upon society.
Well it looks like optionhouse finally screwed themselves this time. First by joining with trade monster. I had been trading their virtual account for about a year getting about 80 to 90 % profitable,,,but discovered all along that the quotes were delayed 20 minutes, so i’d use Yahoo finance real time quotes to make my trades, know that 20 minutes later i already know where the virtual account would be. I also started trading real time with them up till they joined and was doing ok. Then last week on about 2-4-15 was was in good money on ticker calls ( 3 – all calls ) had an accident that sent me to the emergency room. The next day I would have taken my profits,,,but being in the emergency room and not trading CMG took a nose dive. A few days later i returned to the trading site to find my paper trade accnt has lost about $40K , still leaving about $ 25K to work with. Knowing that in the past i could and have made up them kinds of losses,,,,I did not sell the calls. Sure enough CMG started back up and my calls started the recovery,,, even thru yesterday 2-12-15 . I was continually regaining my losses…but for some reasons now they have marked my account,,,FOR LIQUIDATION RESTRICTION-ONLY with no explination, I’ve e-mailed several times,,no replies back, voice called 2 or 3 times, been on hold every time with never a human to pickup, One time i called at breakfast, finished eating while on speaker hold, left on till lunch, still no answer, finally hung up. Now i guess i’ll go to TRADEKING.COM and open an account. I think that them merging with TradeMonster was a big mistake for them, i know it was for me.
The worst times to call any customer service is early in the week and early in the morning. Everyone calls then. When I call with a non-emergency I wait until Wednesday or Thursday afternoon after 2:00pm and never had a problem getting thru.
Also with the merger, customer service is getting crushed by people who didn’t take a little time to prepare for the change.
i guess i dont understand the rules. I bought some stock with cash, i am novice trader and this luckily was fun money. I then sold the stock for a loss. I bought some otc stock for cash and the next day i had a margin call, I dont understand what the margin call was for but by the time i got the email they had liquidated 150 shares charged me 25 dollar fee and 4.95 fee plus the loss of the stock at 109 dollars. i got freaked so i sold the other 350 shares which would have been a profit for the whole 500 shares but was a loss because of the margin call. my account value should have been 347 dollars but no, they took 300 dollars for what says a physical trading fee? what the hell? I have 37 dollars left in my cash account at 100 percent equity but it says i have no available funds to withdrawl. I dont understand and as i have said i am totally new at this but i did paper trade on their virtual account for a year and had no such issues. this was on optionshouse but buy the time my money got in to the account they had changed the platform to trademonster and i dont know what to do since they wont return my emails and i cant get through on the phone. HELP
I think you would agree that you are fairly clueless as to trading so all I can say is STOP TRADING IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!
Go to work and save some money to get a portfolio of at least $1,500
During that time go to the library and read everything they have on trading stocks. Try to include Jim Cramer’s 4 books.
As part of your education watch Jim Cramer on CNBC on “Mad Money”. Part of what he does is try and educate people how to trade. This should take at least 6 months if you are seriously trying to learn how to make money trading.
You need a good education or never trade. Just start a 401K if your employer has one, or go to your bank to open an IRA.
Last piece of advice; OTC stocks are for suckers. Gains are huge but you will mostly lose.
Horrible customer service. I have tried to get in touch with them by phone after I opened an account. I hung up after 1 hour waiting time for 3 times in the last 2 days. I have been on hold in the live chat for over 30 minutes now and still no response
DO NOT use these guys. They are devil and cold blooded people. I lost so much money because of them. I had 200 margin call for which I sent them ACH but they didn’t received it by due date because of holiday or whatever. I called and email them to ensure money sent. They went a head sold my position without letting me know. I lost $10 a share and they sold 100+ share at the lowest possible price for the day!
Stay away from these @$@@ also they are software is as junk as these people.
Another person who doesn’t bother to read the rules regarding margin that is clearly explained on the website. Now lets play the victim and blame someone else for you losing money through your own ignorance.
Thanks for the informative blog. Much of the information was very helpful
I’m thinking of going back to Options House because my trading has increased significantly both in trade size and frequency, and of course, I want to lower my trading costs, if at all possible. Does Options House facilitate FUTURES trades and do they have portfolio margin for larger accounts? I have been unable to find any info on these questions on any site. Thanks, rocky36
Hey I was thinking about opening with OptionsHouse. Can someone verify some things for me? I heard you can execute trades fast and daily with this brokerage. I heard OptionsHouse is very high tech and smooth you don’t need to refresh the page to watch the market numbers fluctuate like with other brokerages. Also I really really really like the trade price for sure, $3.75, and the brokerage assist fee is $4.75. Is this all true?
I just want to make fast money and fast trades, I’m not a holder, not my style. This brokerage sounds right for me. I need a brokerage that performs well. OptionsHouse sounds like all they want to do is get down to business and trade, I like the sounds of this brokerage.
I use TD trade and they’re a great brokerage but the $10.00 trading fees are murdering my profit returns. I never bothered to use their brokerage assistance, $50.00 like are you serious. $10.00 dollars to enter the market and another $10.00 to exit, so insane. My fees alone probably make up for %80 of my losses. TD trade fees are hard to come back from. I’m just not a holder, I got to trade quick.
hi,
I am with OH for the past 5 months. I never had a Single issue with them trading stocks(i dont trade options because I am a newbee).
Commission is very attractive compared to other platforms especially those in Singapore . trade executions really fast. Quotes are live streaming, so dont require manual updates.
Do not use OptionsHouse. I sent them a check which did not get there for over a week. I stopped payment on it after such a long time and then closed my account without ever funding. Now I am constantly receiving margin call notices for an account which was never funded. I have never used margins. Of course, I can not get into the closed account to find out what they are calling me on. It has been over a week since the margin call started. Who knows when the harassment will end?
You obviously did not bother to find out how long it takes for them to clear a check. If you bothered to ask them they would have told you it takes longer than a week. As for the margin calls, me thinks there is more to the story then you are telling. Grow up.
Their application process is flawed. If uploading a scanned file, it must be less than 10MB which is not possible if all contract documents are submitted per their instructions. The promotion code is not readily available, but when found links to a a different application process screen advertizing 150 free trades. The location of this company is Chicago, which speaks volumes.
OptionsHouse may have special weapons to protect your account and others don’t. But I doubt it.
Compared to TDAmeriTrade, ActiveBrokers, SogoTrade and all the big bank online login process. You have been protected by another layer of security checking such as image which is harder to be break than just password.
The OptionsHouse account will keep open even after you click logout button (using fireFox browser). You can try this: open you account with FireFox, click logout button you are out. Then click go back button or type Alt key + left arrow key, all your secret are exposed.
I like OptionsHouse especially their old version even with the security concern. I wish OptionsHouse will read this and improve their security.
I received the following email from OptionsHouse today. This is their response to several of my complaints to them about the poor service of the account. My last complaint was about my inquiry about transferring the account out of OptionsHouse (they could not handle my needs anyway), in which I asked them if there are any charges for PARTIAL transfers out and received a response that “Our clearing firm can reject the partial account transfer if the assets are a significant portion of the account and you are trying to avoid the $50 outgoing account transfer fee.”. I have more complaints about them, but I understand that I am a demanding customer and that an average client may not find my concerns to be a big deal. Anyway, here is what you should expect if you complain a lot about 1) Incorrect Cost Basis after transferring the account TO OptionsHouse from another brokerage firm, 2) inadequate security related to electronic communication causing sensitive information is being sent via unencrypted email, 3) OH’s non responding to letters sent via USPS first class mail, 4) OH’s unwillingness to service customers who have difficulties communicating via phone.
On 4/30/2014 11:10 AM, OH – Account Management wrote:
>
> Dear ———- ————–,
>
>
>
> After a review of your account and associated correspondence, OptionsHouse has determined that we will be unable to service your accounts going forward. Please make arrangements to transfer your account out of OptionsHouse within thirty (30) calendar days. Failure to transfer your account in 30 days may result in the account balance being disbursed via check to the address on file.
>
>
>
> There are a few different ways to transfer assets out of your OptionsHouse account:
>
> Full Account Transfer to another Brokerage Firm – known as an ACAT transfer
> This allows you to transfer your account and positions to another brokerage firm
> To do this, you will need to open an account at the brokerage firm of your choice and complete the appropriate account transfer document provided by the new brokerage firm.
> Wire Transfer
> You may wire settled cash out of your OptionsHouse account.
> This may be requested in the OptionsHouse Trading Platform à Manage Accounts à Transfer Funds à select wire transfer.
> Make sure to have the routing number and account number available for the account you are wiring funds to
> Check Request
> You may request a check (in the amount of your settled cash) be mailed to you
> This may be done in the OptionsHouse Trading Platform à Manage Accounts à Transfer Funds à Select Check Request
> ACH
> You may request the settled cash in your account be transferred via ACH
> This may be requested in the OptionsHouse Trading Platform à Manage Accounts à Transfer Funds à select Outgoing ACH
>
>
>
> Please call OptionsHouse Customer Service at 877-653-2500 with any questions.
>
>
>
> Account Management
>
> cid:image001.png@01CBD40B.B4138CE0
>
> 141 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 800
>
> Chicago, IL 60604
>
> 877-653-2500
>
> http://www.optionshouse.com
>
>
>
> Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. In addition, electronic trading poses unique risk to investors. System response and access times may vary due to market conditions, system performance and other factors. OptionsHouse provides neither investment nor tax advice. Refer to Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options | Risk Statements and Disclosures | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions, copies of which can also be obtained by contacting our Customer Service Department at customerservice@optionshouse.com.
> © 2006-14 OptionsHouse, LLC All rights reserved. Member of FINRA, SIPC. kl
>
>
> See http://www.peak6.com/email_disclaimer/ for terms and conditions related to this email
It’s amazing how many people never bother to read the information provided on how they do business and then complain because they don’t get their own way. Pathetic. But they do have weak customer service.
Are ACH transfers free at OH? Also do you need a minimum account amount?
Summary rule changes, without bothering to give customers advance notice, seems to be normal behavior for this company…utterly disrespectful to paying customers. I have a small cash account which I use to test trading ideas in real live trading. The account minimums were raised without any warning whatsoever. I reached a rep to inquire why trades I had been placing were no longer going through, the attitude was -“Yeah, the rules are different now, deal with it”. I have not had any other problems with them, but from reading this blog, I’m practically decided on moving my account. I may just been lucky till now.
I had this happen to me as well. The process is a little confusing. If I recall correctly the account numbers I used to send money to BMO were not correct and my money was just sitting at BMO with no way to direct it properly until I gave them the correct account number. Call them again and ask about the account number you gave and I bet you get a resolution. The instructions OH gives on how to send money is a confusing and OH customer service people are very limited in their knowledge and were no help to me. All I remember is it was the account numbers were messed up in my case.
DONT BOTHER WITH THEM! THEY ARE DOING SOME UNDERHANDED STUFF THAT WILL LEAD TO THE FAILURE OF THEIR BUSINESS!
I mailed a $1000 check to the BMO Harris Bank address that was intended to add funds to my new optionsHouse account. Instead, that address was intended for wiring (it was the wrong address). After much digging, calling, and talking to my bank: We found that there is a specific page on the Optionshouse website that says that if you make this mistake, there is a $30 nonrefundeable fee to get the money transferred to my OptionsHouse account. The check was cleared and cashed by BMO Harris Bank 2 months ago on February 2014. My latest contact with optionsHouse said that they have yet to find anything and will keep their eyes peeled for anything in the future. This seemed like they were under the impression the check was still being mailed or processed. I called in telling them that this check was cashed 2 months ago and they said they would look into it. My contact BMO Harris Bank over the phone has mainly been responded with directions to contact optionsHouse to sort the issue and previous earlier contact with optionsHouse has been the same way in that they tell me to talk to BMO Harris Bank. Any attempt to look into it from either organization ends in “Sorry, we can’t find anything. Try contacting the other party. They may have more info”. The check had the recipient “Optionshouse” so only they could cash it. My banker said something similar has happened many times and he never had so many problems. He recommended to not associate with them again as they are doing something underhanded. All possibly information on the check was provided and “nothing was found”
Minus $1000. The money is gone.
I totally agree with your first sentence with all CAPITAL. OPTIONS HOUSE SUCKS BIG TIME. It was a very, very bad experience for me to open an account with them. I am keeping mine with TD Ameritrade from now on.
Hi,
Can people from China also open an account to trade stock and options? If yes, what are needed to apply for an account?
Thanks,
-Leo
If i was you i will not use broker such as optionsHouse, just because they suck, you can try etrade. I can type chinese if you need more help.
Are you sober. From your message I don’t think you have ever traded.
A possible representative (which is likely the case attacking communication skill) has given me a prospective on whether I should open an account. Instead of attacking communication skill give the guy a contact for customer service. I will stay at Scottrade for now. But if they take much longer merging the regular broker with their options broker I will be moving on.
Options first account is POWERED by option house and DON’T hold your breath I’ve been with them for 8-10 years and it AIN’T gonna happen, options first will be in KC forever, look at the above website close its identical to Scottrades, I’d use their other platform but it’s about useless for options trailing stop NO SUCH ANIMAL I only do puts and call or I’d use think or swim. There’s not too much out there I’ve researched them all it’s sad.
Just a satisfied user.
and hey pal, read your post again and tell me you weren’t high as a kite when you wrote it. I stand by my assessment
hi
I have been with Options house for some time now I must tell you that their platform is messed up statrs with and ACAT and when you sign up with DRIP ..things go wrong and cost basis get messed upo big time.
I have seen in almost two decades that you pay more commission but it is worth it
Option house platform sucks big time and customer service is full of shot no body whats going on with them …
I will certainly not advice any one to open account with Options house
If you bothered to read the instructions on the website you would have found that they take several days to process a wire. Much longer than you would expect. I believe an ACH wire transfer takes 7-10 days. They are playing the float.
Don’t bother with them. I spent two days trying to wire money to them and kept getting hit with fees when it got bounced back. My bank called them to clarify issues of why the wire wasn’t going thru and was on hold for 32 minutes before someone picked up. The optionhouse person couldn’t hear very well and just hung up. We tried again.. but then I said forget it and walked out of the bank. I will swallow the fees of the bad wires..
IF I can’t get my money in there.. how will I Ever get it out!! And how rude not to call my bank back after hanging up..
DO NOT WASTE UR TIME OR YOUR LIFE. I OPENED a Fidelity account in 5 minutes that afternoon and they forwarded me the 20K without a wire.
Optionshouse used to be great for ultra cheap rates. Their new rates aren’t that cheap and their margin department is awful. For example, I bought a stock on margin and two days later they issued a margin call despite the fact that the stock was up from where I bought it. I was at greater than 50% equity but still got a margin call. It turns out they changed the margin requirement to 100% on that stock. I called the margin department and they did not help me any. I feel like they moved the goal post on me for allowing me to buy on margin one day and then two days later changing the margin requirements to 100%. This makes no sense and is bad for traders. Since they elevated their rates, the inconvenience of their margin department policies are not worth the hassle. I would rather pay a few more dollars per commission and work with a decent common sense margin department. I am closing my account and moving to another brokerage. Also, their after hours trading is horrible. They only allow after hours trades for on hour instead of the whole after hours session. Avoid the hassle of Optionshouse.
How do I view the level 2 screen in optionshouse? I have a margin account and I am trying to learn trading shares.
OH doesn’t have a Level II screen as it’s not needed for option trading. In my opinion OH is for experienced traders who want to trade options and don’t need hand holding and education. If you are looking to trade stocks I suggest you use a different broker and pay the little extra commission and get all the extra features.
Did you have your order as a limit order? What time did you put your order in? It’s not going to fill if it’s above that price and you have a limit order.
I trade stocks regularly with OH and found when my order doesn’t execute the way I want, it’s really because of something I did incorrectly. OH is able to pull up when you put your order in and what you did exactly, so you can call them up and they will review with you what happened, if it was truly an error on their part or your part and what can be done to avoid those errors.
100% of the time it was something on my end that I did incorrectly, which is like 2-3x in the past year total. I’ve never had a problem with getting filled whether it be a regular equity with good volume or even on over the counter stocks, when I do these.
I’m guessing your order wasn’t “canceled” per se, except when you put your order in, you probably put it in to be for the “Day” and once the “Day” is over, since your order wasn’t filled, it automatically cancels. You do not get notifications for this, rather you do get notifications if your order is filled. They may have a setting that you can set in your account that you can have cancels or orders that weren’t filled sent to your email, but I think you would have to set that yourself, if that option is available. I don’t know if you can do that or not.
I have found repeatedly when the conditions for my order is met, then my trade is automatically executed without fail. I’ve not had any issues, but I am careful about how my orders are placed, as I do some advanced ordering sequences. You should call OH and have them go over that trade with you.
Frankly, I dont like Optionhouse for stock trading. Yesterday, I ordered stocks for ONTX at 8.28 but they did not fill up my order and did not give me the reason or any email notification for cancelling my order. Today I had to buy ONTX stocks at 8.96 instead of 8.28.
Assuming you put your order in correctly, check the 1 minute chart. Watching a lvel2 screen also can help you adjust your order price. Bet it gapped past you or was moving fast. It happens.
Hi,
I have read a lot of this thread because I was looking for cheaper trading rates. Currently I am with OptionsXpress and have been with them for several years. OptionsXpress charge me $6.95 per trade, but I know Options House charge $4.75 per trade, but reading the thread I think I will stick with OptionsXpress to avoid any problems. At least with OptionsXpress I have never had any problems with regard to customer service, their platform is very user friendly, research and education is very good, trade execution is fast. Overall I have been very happy with them. I managed to get the trading rate down from around $15 per trade to the new value of $6.95, becuase I am an active trader. This is the minimum they will go down to. So, if anyone is looking to change brokers then its worth taking a look at OptionsXpress. I hope OptionsXpress looks at this positive comment from me, and maybe they will reduce my rate down further LOL 🙂
AVOID OPTION HOUSE: CLOSE OUT ASAP and never return!!!
Go with another broker, maybe TOS, IBB? OH will kill cheat you on the Bid/ask fills. They hold back your order till it benefits them. All you have to do is read OptionsHouse’s SEC 606 order routing report to see that not one options order is sent directly to an exchange. Every options order is sold to a third party. OH could be called criminal, and i know that their CS is worthless.
Don’t water your time or money on cheap trade offers for OptionHosue. Whatever they discount your fees for they will make up in overcharging you a the bid/ask fills. 100 free trades means nothing if they end up charging you $3.00 more for fills. Crooks and cheats in my opinion!!!!
What broker would you recommend? Why?
For any one out there who may be interested, I’ve been trading with TOS (TD Ameritrade) and OptionsHouse side by side, meaning I am placing the same trades on both (paper money of course, but with real time data), same contract size, same order price, same everything. About a month later, my TOS account is considerably larger, even though the commissions are larger as well. Why? The answer is in the fill price. For example right now I just closed a NOV WDC 60/62.5 vertical call spread, in TOS, I closed it at 0.41, my order is still sitting at OH, I even increased it at 0.45, still no fill 10 minutes later. Of course if I put it at the ask price they want, they it’ll fill immediately, by then I would be giving away to the market, and OH, way more than what I am giving to TD Ameritrade in commissions.
In my opinion, there is really no point in reduced commissions if I cannot have a good price when I am trading. Fill price is everything, it is the only thing we can actually control. If you place 2-5 trades a month, then OptionsHouse may be a good choice, otherwise specially if you are an active trader, really makes no sense. I hope this will help anyone out there.
Thanks Alex. This is great info comparing to TDA, I’ve got an idle account there and started using OH due to the hyped “ease of use”. Your post explains why I always have to sacrifice more $ in my bids just to get a fill. Bumping up your bid by only 2-cents per share makes a single lot trade more competitive at TDA than at OH. I’m also annoyed with OH for sending meaningless “trade confirmations” which say useless words like “something just happened in a trade, but we won’t tell you what, but if you log into your account you might be able to spend hours scouring everywhere and then MAYBE find out what we’re talking about”. When a trade you’ve been waiting to close happens, you want to be notified, where “notified” means you want to know which out of several pending trades just filled or sold. This means OH leaves you to scan all your trade history to see what’s been going on. VERY LOW QUALITY SERVICE by Options House IMHO. This non-confirmation so called “trade confirmation” is extremely annoying. Oh, but they’ll mail you a real trade confirmation for only an extra $2.50 charge, so they do have the ability to do it, they just want to bait-and-switch you by taking back the imaginary benefit of their so-called “discount $4.95 trade” pricing.
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