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 $3.95 per stock trade to start?
Click Here to Sign up for an OptionsHouse Account and type in the promotion code FREE100 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 $3.95 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 to give you two options. Either $8.50 + $0.15 per contract or just $5 for 5 contracts. 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 still just $3.95.
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 100 Commission Free Trades – Promo Code: FREE100 – 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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I just moved my account to Ameritrade. I was attracted for all the same reasons as above, but after I opened an acct and made two naked short trades, these $5 and $7 fees started appearing every day, listed as ‘hard to short’ fees. I didn’t notice it for several months because it is so difficult to use their Website that you don’t know where to find your monthly statement without a mine lamp and a guide dog.
I ended up paying about $1000 over six months just to maintain a position. It was like paying to make a new position every single day!
So watch out for the small print, fellow traders, because what they don’t tell you in the ads will burn you.
Thanks guys–it’s DB.
Now that OpEx has occurred last Friday, I can say definitively that OptionsHouse’s first FORCED liquidation of half of my account cost me an ADDITIONAL $65,000 over the $54,000 I lost in under two and half months. Had they left the calls I bought alone, I would have sold them at 3:3o on Friday and made $65,000 on them!!! Instead I was forced to sell them for about $1200 dollars a month ago.. .THANKS SO MUCH, OptionsHouse!
And I WILL FIGHT IT. And not only did I send a long email in explanation to Jake Swartz–who requested it–and who acts all nice and kind on this board, but I had to send TWO emails and still received NO REPLY, which I never expected anyway.
I just got an email containing a recent post from SEAN P–and since I can’t find it here, I will re-post it, hoping he understands–but confident he will. ONCE BURNED by OptionsHOSUE, we instantly care about the community of others equally bearing singe marks…
“Author: Sean P
Comment:
I just moved my account to Ameritrade. I was attracted for all the same reasons as above, but after I opened an acct and made two naked short trades, these $5 and $7 fees started appearing every day, listed as ‘hard to short’ fees. I didn’t notice it for several months because it is so difficult to use their Website that you don’t know where to find your monthly statement without a mine lamp and a guide dog. I ended up paying about $1000 over six months just to maintain a position. It was like paying to make a new position every single day! So watch out for the small print, fellow traders, because what they don’t tell you in the ads will burn you.”
Frankly that turned my stomach to read, but I was so grateful to SeanP at the same time. I swear my money was just disappearing–and I can’t find any place on their horrid site to find daily activity except for trades–and FORCED liquidations of trades. But I am going to check and will not stop until I find the money trail.
Also does anyone know where to find a GAIN/LOSS accounting by year on that site? At least I have two years straight of HUGE CAPITAL (realized) losses…and double that in what they would call UNREALIZED loss….oh yippeee!
Thanks guys for the great comments and support. I will not stop until I get reparation and until I’m SURE there is no one left who hasn’t heard my story and yours–in time to stop them from taking a LEAP, shall we say, OVER A CLIFF of loss at OptionsHouse.
DB
DB,
Thank you for responding to my earlier reply. I passed along your information to our head of Customer Service and Trade and he did try to contact you earlier this week. After being unable to connect on the phone, we sent along an email to the address on file in an attempt to set up a time convenient for you to talk. Feel free to reply to me personally with the best number and time of day to reach you at jswartz [at] optionshouse [dot] com or simply respond to our email from earlier this week.
We look forward to speaking with you. Thanks.
Hi DB,
I am considering opening an account at OH but the stories like your scare me. I’d like to understand what happened to you and see how to avoid a similar fate.
Could you please explain step-by-step what you did to suffer that huge loss? I understand that you probably over-leveraged and OH forced you to close your position.
But what was your position to begin with?
Thanks
Mike,
First, three things tanked me:
1. I was too aggressive and only sold naked puts that SHOULD have done well, but the company is a GULF oil stock that got crushed after the oil spill–just when they were about to open their enormous new platform, and BOOM…And then the extended and unfair moratorium continued their decline. But I sold the puts then because they were supposed to be READY TO DRILL and bring up oil, but one catastrophe or delay after another…killed them again and the pps went way down instead of UP!
2. I still would have been FINE however, if heinous OptionsHOUSE would have afforded me the same three-day window to close positions after margin calls come–like the FEDS do. But OH often smelled blood and MADE ME CLOSE out on the MOST volatile days when my losses were tripled. AND I HAD NO MARGIN CALLS either, let us NOT FORGET. Their RISK DEPARTMENT charged in like ATTILA the HUN and sliced the last money I had to invest into shreds. WITH NO MERCY. I begged for one more day only because the volatility had soared on the DAYS THEY MADE ME BUY back my puts. Do you know what happens then? And even when I knew I had to buy back my puts for disgusting losses (knowing the put prices would normalize in day…which they did–even if the stock prices continued to slide) and started buying back my puts, GOOD OLD OH was DOING IT TOO and driving the prices higher–and I ended up dumping double the puts I had to. They wiped me out.
3. And even though the RISK barbarians said that the STOCK COULD keep declining and I would be in so much trouble, guess what? The stock IS a nightmare right now–was about $5.25 when I WAS FORCED out of my put positions–and the stock is now only about $1.50. And guess what? Those darn puts retained their value and held tight at the levels I sold them until just very recently. I would have had had ample opportunity to get out with no losses…without OH and its GESTAPO RISK department. DO NOT USE OptionsHOUSE. They will take your money and kick you to the curb!
Mike, I can’t answer you again or post here again–it’s just too upsetting for me. But I wanted to warn you…
DB
DB,
So, you were indeed over-leveraged. If you had enough cash in your account to buy the stock at the strike price OH would not force you to liquidate.
It’s that simple. You put them in a risky situation and they reacted to protect themselves as they should.
Sorry but you are the only one responsible for your mess.
I guess this would not apply to me as I never sell naked puts and never borrow on margin.
Thanks
Mike
I thought about switching from TD ameritrade. Opened an account with OptionsHouse, and I regret. The ach deposit took 6 days and customer service was no help. Additionally the tools on their website are pathetic. I am closing my account and will look for an alternative to Optionshouse or TD.
Tom, If TD Ameritrade is as crappy as TD Bank, steer clear. Scottrade is a better option.
Options House are crooks… They sold my shares without my knowledge. They sent a message to my message box about the transfer house not carrying foreign currency stocks anymore. They did not even bother to send out regular mail or email. Take your money and go somewhere else! I was in a buy and hold situation on these stocks. These guy are outright crooks! Go somewhere else! Or better yet buy silver and gold.
I have an account with scottrade but opened an account with OH. I dont trade options just reg….anyways it seems like the fill time is forever! This constantly happens and I will end up with a partial order fill. I will put in a sell order for a drop less and still wont get filled while its being sold for a higher price! In addition for penny stocks they round up the price so for example a order for .814 is not possible that remains .81 and anything above .815 is .82. Also a lot of the pennys come with a 1/2 cent charge per share, which makes the fee for the trade way more than 3.95!
Buying power and available cash to withdraw just suddenly turned to $0 for no reason! What the hell?! This is what got me Googling “problems with OptionsHouse.” I now have to wake up at 5:00 in the morning (Pacific standard time) to call customer service because I don’t want to miss opportunities once the market opens.
The fills are slow.
Their customer service isn’t that bad, they solve problems and some guys are even very helpful and friendly. Some of the guys’ tone isn’t so nice though, as they can be curt, but they still get the job done.
I think their daily/monthly/yearly gain/loss is wrong. Sometimes on a Saturday afternoon I’d have 2.88% gain for the month, and a few hours later it’d change to 2.13% for no reason.
The cost basis displayed on your main screen does not take into account the commissions paid.
I think for $3.95 per trade for stocks, it’s still cheaper to go with Interactive Brokers, granted that you’re not trading a ton of shares.
I am very displeased about my buying power and available cash to withdraw turned to $0 for no reason on a Sunday evening! It was all good and available just a few hours ago!
Just found this site… I am in OH customer and thought I would contribute.
I have not come close to any margin calls, so I cannot respond to their processes on this… but I am aware that their Compliance department is very strick… I would hope they do not break their own rules.
I have experienced some discrepancies with changes in the Daily/Weekly P&L and Account Value… The story I was given is an overnight/weekend alignment with their Clearing House… They did state that an update to their “system” is coming to address this issue… I am waiting. I am very comfortable with their trading platform and have grown to like it (their “Standard”.
I was going to move to TOS and even had them come off of their stated fees for me, but not enough to make the move. I continue considering IB because of what I have heard about their Fees and transaction fills, but their platform keeps me away.
I trade about 150-200 contracts a month… Credit Spreads, primarily in the RUT and NDX.
Been shopping around for a month now for an online broker, reading everything about every broker that I can find, because somewhere in my head I still think of these guys (brokers) as bankers. I have also talked to people that have used different platforms and I made a decision on which broker to use. Then it hit me. The market has a way of checking out what company is best. I started checking stock prices and reviews and guess what – etrade and OH didn’t make the cut.
Donny, how do you “check the stock price” of OH when it’s not publicly traded? It’s a wholly owned subsidiary of PEAK6 (a market maker at the Chicago Options Exchange) which is a privately held firm. This makes your comment totally puzzling to me!
Ferruccio,
What I did was look up comments from former employees. With PEAK6, and a couple others that were not public, what I did after reading the comments on this thread was look up the company’s business dealings and tried to find folks comments that worked for them. http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/PEAK6-Investments-Company-Reviews-E13323_P3.htm# is one place to look, and there are others, but generally this site seems to attract folks that do serious comment. NOW remember, most folks don’t go online when they are happy, so I expect a certain amount of negativity, but a lot of folks gave them good pros, but the cons seemed to be pretty consistent – A management that doesn’t listen due to a closed system of connected folks and that’s never a good business model. This just wasn’t a company that I felt safe brokering my money. Not saying anyone should care what I think, as this is just an opinion.
I am concerned about the slow withdrawals and they hold your money for 3 business days before you can trade with with. It has been over 72 hours since I made a withdrawal and the money is still not posted to my bank account. On that basis, I will not do business with Optionshouse.
Enyalid,
If you send your contact information to me directly at jswartz [at] optionshouse [dot] com, I would appreciate the opportunity to put you in touch with our Customer Service Manager and see if we can resolve your issue.
It’s nice to see Mr Jake Swartz reading through the posts. I hope the feedback leads to positive changes with the platform/website, policies, cutomer service, etc. As you can see, in this cyberworld, as customers like us shop, honest feedback from current and past users are a big part of how we select merchants
I’ve been using OptionsHouse for nearly 3 years. Yes, I do find the hold time on ACH transfers to be quite frustrating. When performing an ACH transfer from my Chase Checking account to OptionsHouse, the funds seem to always become available on the 4th business day. For example, if I initiate the ACH transfer on a Monday, the funds will be available on Friday. If I initiate the transfer on a Tuesday, the funds will be available on Monday after the weekend. If any banking holidays occur in the meantime, the date is extended by the number of holidays. This is much slower than I would like. When Penson (the former clearing firm) started to go ‘belly-up’ and OptionsHouse/Peak6 changed over to use their own clearing firm “Apex”, I had hoped that the transfer times would improve for ACH transfers. Sadly, this did not occur, and the transfer times have remained the same. On a positive note, the OptionsHouse website has been changed (at least on the “new” platform) so that it will tell you the date that the funds will be available when scheduling the transfer.
On the whole, I am fairly happy with OptionsHouse. The fee/commission schedule and margin rates are fantastic. I am grandfathered in to the $2.95 rate for equity and ETF trades. The system seems very responsive to me and I have no complaints about execution times or prices. I am a big fan of the “new” trading platform on OptionsHouse. It clearly shows my positions, my watch list, my orders, and information about my account info (account value, buying power, etc.)
There have been brief moments when the website has been down, but these occurrences are very few and far between. This has happened with every single online broker I have used, from time to time. Nothing is 100% perfect.
But on the whole, OptionsHouse is the best broker I’ve used for trading online. Yes, ACH transfers are slow. Is it a minor annoyance? Sure. But it is far from being a ‘deal-breaker’ for me. If I want to initiate a new position before a transfer has cleared, I just buy the shares on margin until the transfer of funds arrives. The margin interest rates are very low.
I actually find that the commission/fee schedule to be so low, that it almost seems too-good-to-be-true that I can make trades and have access to talk to someone on the phone for customer support on the rare occasion that I have a question!
hi Ryan, I just caught your comment. I just joined and was very upset when I was told my ACH funds would not be available for 4 days. This is a major problem with this brokerage. The whole reason we use online brokers is for speed of trades. I was using their site with my iPhone and found it very slow compared to using my current broker Scottrade. It took forever for their screens to load.
Is their app any good? thanks.
@ryan. you must not be much of a trader. slow transfer a “minor annoyance”? well you must not be trading many dollars because I want mine working and i don’t want OH to have the use of my funds for 3-4 days after they’ve been withdrawn from my account. furthermore, your $2.95 is a laugh when you do your research – I pay $.39 per 100 share block. also, I can trade from 2 a.m. et until 8 p.m. et. which really saved my butt on FB IPO
I’m not a trader at all. I’m an investor. My strategy is to just continue to accumulate shares of good quality companies that pay consistent dividends. I don’t generally use leverage, other than when I see an exceptionally good price for a company that I’ve had my eye on — and even in that case, I’ll continue to make regular deposits until I am no longer using margin. I am never in any kind of “cash crunch” when I need immediate access to my funds… and if I did, I could always do a wire transfer in an emergency. I don’t really care about extended hours trading, and I don’t invest in over-hyped companies like FaceBook which have ridiculous earnings multiples. OptionsHouse is a good fit for my investing strategy.
I have a major problem with OptionsHouse. I just signed up using ACH to transfer money and then I was told it will take 4 days to
be able to use the funds!! That is every time I transfer money, which is ridiculous…. This is a major flaw for someone like me who transfers cash from my savings account . Scottrade, my current brokerage, puts the funds in right away as a courtesy.
The customer service is not great either, they are not as professional and they give out conflicting info for new sign ups.
To be honest take your money somewhere else. Yes they do have a good customer service but transfers take up to 7 days! I open my account about 3 weeks ago and it just became eligible for trading! It took OH 6 days to establish a relationship with my financial institution. I’m glad a got out in time.
Stay away from these guys, they are not your friends. After awhile all kinds of unnamed extra charges start happening without notice or explanation. I switched to choicetrade and found them very honest and very fast…..And if they can fill you better than your market order you’ll get that price…..Not at OP. STAY AWAT!!!!
Barry, what kind of fees did you get charged? Were they disclosed in the account opening process or on the OH web sit. Thx
After reading all these reviews it seems that there is a reason they charge only $3.95. I currently have accounts w/ Etrade which I don’t like or use. Scottrade, which isn’t bad, but really isn’t for Traders, it’s for investors. TDameritrade is my favorite for trading Stocks because it’s got solid mobile Apps & it’s not a company you have to worry about going belly up like MFGlobal or PFGBest. I trade Options exclusively through OptionsExpress which is a subsidiary (I believe) of Charles Schwab. I’ve been relatively pleased w/OptionsExpress although they’re trading fee no matter how many contracts is a minimum of 14.95. However if you trade options a decent amount they’ll lower it to 12.95. They tack on an extra 1.50 per contract over the basic fee. Wish I’d read that when I’d bought 25 Contracts @ .05 cents. I ended up paying almost all my profit in Fees! Well you only do that once!
I am searching for a new broker as I find IB a pain to deal with.
My question is for those who have an active account with OH as I have not seen any comments about OH reporting.
Are their monthly statements…readable?
Are their end of year reports useable for taxes?
Are their 1099 reports useful?
Jim
I will not be using these guys. Too many issues. When you see fees so cheaply, there is always a reason or another way they nickel & dime you to death. I’ll stick to TD & Optionsexpress (Which is Schwab) Go to where it works.
You get what you pay for. I was lured by all the low fees and traded with them for a couple of years, but each and every transaction had hiccups. Their statements are useless, cost basis calculations were flawed for tax purpose, you name it. The biggest issue is when you want to transfer money. It takes 3+ days (yes, its on their website in fine print) for ACH transfers to clear. Compare that to 24 hrs with Fidelity. How do you think they recouple the low fees. Worse is their trade execution, someone needs to investigate this company and how they deal with customers. I am cutting them loose. Just stay away!!!
I am surprised no one has mentioned how they handle Vertical Spreads.
They treat them as two separate trades. Which really requires a ton of Option Buying power.
Example when you sell a vertical put spread with a $ 5 spread their platform does not look at the max risk as the $ 5 but looks at it as if you are selling a naked put.
I called them and they acknowledged the problem and said it is only a problem when placing a trade – that once the trade goes thru it deals with it properly.
But unless you have a large account – or trade only low priced options, maybe 1-2 contracts at a time – it does not allow the initial trade to go thru in the first place.
Am I the only one dealing with this isssue?
Other than that I really like the platform for doing directionals, (Charting is poor – but I have other platforms I use for charting)
I’ve been dealing with these guys for a couple of years. Went to them because of low stock commissions, but especially enjoy their very low options trading costs. Sometimes it’s a minute or two wait before I get to customer service, but I’ve found their people to be very cooperative and eager to help. I, too, trade mostly credit spreads, and have not had a single problem. I do agree with the writer who complained about values changing slightly on the weekends, due to “aligning with our custodian”. I’m always aware of my buying power, because the platform clearly states it, up to the minute. I don’t sell naked options or penny stocks due to the poor risk/reward ratio. My guess is that a lot of complainers who have written above are denying their own responsibility in trading and either didn’t look at or understand margin and other associated rules PRIOR to trading. And, no, I’m not a shill for OH. Just an ordinary, but very pleased, customer.
Wow, I’m transferring to TD now. Glad I haven’t transferred all my capital over yet. Terrible that the Phd was forced to sell positions like that.
I have a quick question that I think explains why OH commission’s are lower than competitors (which is OK) I just want to be sure I’m understanding this right. If I use stop-losses or limits with OH it looks like that will be called a “Good Till Cancelled” transaction and that I will incur a daily charge for that until the order(s) are executed. This is in contrast to other online brokerages who charge $7+ per trade however allow stop-losses with no additional charge. Am I understanding the business model correctly and if so, net/net OH appears to be comparable to other online brokerages from a commission fee structure if you utilize stop-losses and stop-limits regularly?
Please explain where that daily charge (how much?) is coming from? Is it spelled out on the OH site? I could not find it there.
I pulled this from the fee structure of the company’s website: “Good-Til-Cancelled (GTC) Orders that do not fill in their entirety and remain open will be subject to separate commission charges for each day’s transactions. Only one commission charge will be incurred if a GTC order is filled in multiple lots during the same day. Standard commission rates apply – plus any relevant per-contract charges.”
Perhaps I initially mis-read the fee structure, it looks like each execution of the GTC triggers a commission charge rather than a daily charge for having the GTC outstanding. Perhaps a better question is, what is the likelihood of getting “nickeled and dimed” by partial fill orders executing over several days to the commission advantage of the broker?
That’s a standard procedure for all brokers. Mark an order as All-Or-None and it will either fill entirely or won’t fill at all. This will help to avoid extra charges.
Client,
We do not charge any fees for unexecuted orders. If you were to place a GTC stop loss or limit order and the stock does not hit your price, no daily fee is assessed. Additionally, we do not charge any extra fees for trading different order types or duration. The only time you could see an additional fee is if the GTC order is filled over multiple days. For example, if the order was filled over two days, this would be treated as two separate orders and incur two separate commissions.
Let us know if you have any other questions or contact our Customer Service at (877)653-2500.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
I have a cash account at OH and am considering migrating to a margin account. After reading OH’s margin agreement I have concerns about the arbitration verbiage. I am not an attorney, but it appears to completely remove the ability to sue OH and depend on some arbitration decision.
I would appreciate comments from existing OH customers experiences with their margin practices.
Scott,
The arbitration language contained in our Margin Agreement is identical to the arbitration language contained in our Customer Agreement. This language is standard in all customer agreement documents in the brokerage industry and is consistent with the industry practice and FINRA requirement of resolving all disputes between customers and their brokerage firm through the arbitration process rather than through the courts. Please feel free to contact our Customer Service at (877)653-2500 if you have any more questions involving our Margin Agreement, we would be more than happy to discuss any concerns you may have.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
I have had an optionshouse account for 2+ years now and really love it. About six months ago I got a margin account with them and it was worked wonders in helping me make great gains. The customer service I’ve had with them has been second to none. They move my money around with a swiftness. I accidentally put myself into pattern-day-trader status by executing one too many trades in a 5-day period and was given to the option to reset my account back to normal margin-account. I make about 3-5 trades per week and the site has been well worth it with the lowest fees I have seen in the industry even the rate on the margin account. There is no extra fees for buying riskier securities like Scottrade. My only gripes – when selling short some stocks, I sometimes get a message that I need to call first to locate that particular security??? And the interface could be better. My buddy trades with Scottrade and the interface is second-to-none, but you need at least $25K to get I guess what they call a platinum account with that particular interface.
So i get this message when i try to short Facebook:
Order Messages
In order to locate this security before a short sale, you must contact our Trade Desk. Please contact the Trade Desk at 1-877-653-2500.
You must be kidding me. There are billions of shares out there. I know people shorting with other brokers and are not experiencing fees for daily holdings of FB shorts, nor are they receiving messages like this. What give F=Options House????
Bet your glad it didn’t let you short it on Nov 28th.
Optionshouse, what a joke. The option chain with spreads has not refreshed on its own in weeks. Rut, IWM, ect work. Have contacted them alot of times and we are aware of it but don’t know when it will be fxed, lol. I have three accounts when them but they don’t care. If you are looking to open an account do not use them.
To OptionsHouse…or anyone interested in answering my questions,
I am new to online investing and am considering becoming a “Swing Trader” type trader. I would only start out with buying and selling stocks since options seem very confusing to me at this point in time. Which brokerage firm do any of you out there recommend for a newbie like me? Also, what percentage does a trader have to make in order to realize a profit after brokerage fees AND Federal and State Taxes are taken into account? (I live in Oregon) For simplicity sake let’s assume brokerage fees are a flat $10.00 per trade. So, if I make $100.00 on a trade I would in reality only be making $80.00 after I bought the stock ($10.00 trade fee), then sold the same stock (10.00 trade fee) for a total of $100.00 profit minus $20.00 brokerage fees for a grand total of $80.00. Would I get taxed (Fed and State) on the $100.00 or the $80.00? Also, do brokerage firms keep track of your earnings and losses for tax purposes? And can you deduct the brokerage fees for tax purposes? Thank you for your answers.
AMFM,
OptionsHouse is a great broker for the new and advanced traders alike. We offer a comprehensive trading platform along with a stock commission price of only $3.95 per trade, among one of the lowest in the industry. We have ongoing educational webinars and other educational resources meant to help you gain a better understanding of the market and the opportunities that exist.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide tax advice, you would need to consult a tax advisor in regards to your questions about trading taxation. However, we do offer tools to report gains and losses for the tax year which are included free of charge on the trading platform. If you have any further questions regarding opening an account please call (877) 653-2500 for more detailed information.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
love optionshouse; lowest commissions, timely trades & very user friendly trading platform; your margin accounting is generous & straight forward; your order window is versatile; thanks & keep up the good work.
Don’t trade BB or other pink sheet stocks here!!!! Prices are the highest.
If I want to trade these elsewhere, the flat fee is all one has to pay. At Options House the flat fee plus a per share charge is applied. What a joke. I recently entered an order to by a BB stock at 50 cents. The cost OH wanted to charge me for one hundred shares was nearly as much as the cost of the shares themselves. OUTRAGEOUS!!! Schwaab doesn’t do this!!!!
Peekamoose,
Thanks for reaching out. To clarify, our penny stock fee applies to a very specific group of stocks and many clients are unaffected by the charge you are referring to. The only stocks that are assessed a surcharge commission are those with a share price under $2.00 AND do not have options available for the underlying symbol. This charge is disclosed on the order ticket prior to the purchase or sale of these types of shares. OptionsHouse in general does not focus on trading these potentially risky and illiquid stocks.
If you have any questions regarding this charge please call (877) 653-2500.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
Schwab doesn’t have any additional fees to buy BB stocks. Your fees cost more than the price of the stock sometimes. I don’t buy your reasoning. Other brokers don’t charge these fees. Why do you?? You are telling me these products are potentially risky and illiquid. So are many options that you deal in. Thank you. Now come up with the truth: We want to gouge your pocketbook somehow.
Peekamoose,
Our core business is centered on providing an edge to active options traders in the market. Our platform and tool set reflect our commitment to being the best value in the market for active options traders. Penny stock trading is not a focus of OptionsHouse as it stands now. As mentioned above, a very narrow subset of stocks is actually subject to this fee and is not a core part of our offering in the market.
If you have any questions feel free to call us at (877) 653-2500
Ok, I need to update everyone here on Optionshouse. They did what they said they would. Now the SPX updates work on their own, so thanks. I would recommend this broker if you want to save money on commissions. They fixed the problem.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback on OH. I almost had a bad experience but thankfully, I read enough of your experiences to know I need to avoid them.
I opened an account about 2 months ago but didn’t fund it. I called with a few questions on their pricing structure and was given a cold, rude response. That made me look for other reviews of the company, and I’m glad I did. The last thing I need to MY money in THEIR hands. It pains me to think how I would feel after being treated like that, had I already transfered my money.
So from reading 2009 reviews about their customer service, it seems that nothing has changed. Very Sad.
Thanks again everyone!
OptionsHouse is a great broker. I have traded over 87,000 options there over the past 1-2 years.
I think more people need to look at themselves and identify their own needs before blindly signing up with a broker and assuming that every broker will fulfill every one of their needs. In my opinion, many of the complainers on this board are beginners – and their complaints are due more to a lack of self-awareness rather than any shortcomings of OptionsHouse. If these people were to sign up with other broker they would probably have a complaint of a different kind. The people giving them high ratings seem like the more successful traders.
The hold on ACH’s is the only thing there which sticks out to me as something that is sub-par with OH compared to other brokers.
Yes, agree 100 percent with Think Trade
I just opened a new account and have discovered that OptionHouse uses a real time data provider OPRA discriminates (intentionally or not) against unmarried adults that have no children and deceased grandparents and parents. Here’s my story: I opened an account in my Revocable Living Trust (very simple and used for estate planning to avoid probate). The beneficiaries are two natural nieces (my sister’s children).
According to an email I received from Options House, they consider a professional investor which I am not simply because my nieces are not: ” person’s lineal ancestors (that is, parents, grandparents, etc.) and lineal descendants (that is, children,grandchildren, etc.), and the spouses (including surviving spouses) of that person’s lineal ancestors and lineal descendants. The term includes step and adoptive relationships.”
The professional account will cost me $100/month to see real time trades instead of the 20 minute delay and since hardly do much trading, it’s ridiculously expensive and puts me at a disadvantage when trading on 20 minute delayed trades.
If this is discrimination, I don’t know what is. My closest relatives are my siblings and their children. Really? So I can’t have a trust to avoid probate and use I think this is outrageous. Don’t you? I’ve had an account at Firsttrade for several years and did experience a similar problem. Go elsewhere for your discount brokerage and avoid this company just for the principle.
Richard,
Thanks for reaching out in regards to our policies around professional accounts. To clarify, OPRA (Options Price Reporting Authority) is the securities information processor for market data gathered from major options exchanges in the United States. OptionsHouse utilizes market data from OPRA. OptionsHouse has no control over the determination of professional vs. non-professional accounts in regard to OPRA quoting. The monthly fee, referred to in your post, is charged by such data providers for this type of account, an account they deem “professional”. Additionally, if an account receives data from OPRA, independent of what brokerage firm maintains the account, the OPRA subscriber agreement still defines professional vs. non-professional accounts. If you have any further questions or would like further clarification, please contact us at (877) 653-2500.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
But – I can’t open an account where I am subject to a $100/month fee for the bit of trading I do. I’ll keep my Firstrade account which is also a trust account but somehow it is not charging me this enormous fee.
DO NOT PUT YOUR MONEY HERE! I don’t know where to start with this online broker. The customer service here is awful. I have been a customer here for a couple of years and it has only gotten worse. I consider myself an active trader and make 20 trades per week. The brokers here are not properly trained or educated with margin trading, trading rules, order execution and options in general. They have EXCESSIVE hold times when you try to call in and talk to someone. I have tried a few times in the past week and was on hold for at least 30 minutes +. This is unacceptable and the manager who is in charge obviously does not care. I have tried to get a hold of this company and asked to speak to a supervisor and they always say that no one is available. They are in clear violation of rules. They also get payment for their order flow from the market makers and exchanges that they route their orders too. That is why many have previously said that their order execution is awful. I also have an account at ETrade and their orders route a lot quicker. OptionsHouse has a horrendous trading platform and is very outdated. Their charting is also horrible. I learned the hard way being here. Don’t waste your time with this company.
I just want to say that when you keep telling me to keep in mind that it’s a virtual platform, and not real, it is a reflection of your business. When I lose $2000 in virtual from bad platform that doesn’t match others info nor your own for that matter, it is a serious reflection of what to expect from doing business with you.
And to be put off while on a live chat and asked to call after trade day is bull. My time is money too. And I assume you are here to make money off of us and our trades. I would think you would put a little more effort into fostering better communications and rectifying problems in your virtual platform as that is where we learn to play with real money. I’m being really put off by what has happened and I can’t make your numbers add up. I asked a simple question and was told to call after hours.
Well, I guess $4 per trade at 30 trades a day isn’t good enough money for you high class traders. I wonder why you even provide this platform if we are such a burden to your business when I thought we were your business. So please tell me how you intend to rectify this and also how do you expect to garner more clientele, with customer service that blows you off and a virtual platform that you all say isn’t a reflection of the real one. Why isn’t it the same as the real one? I’m loosing confidence in you in virtual platform and your service department. Do you really think I want to put 60k in your hands? I think I’ll send this to others. Maybe you need a peer review.
I’ve been a customer of OptionsHouse for several years, and I’ve had no problems with them (other than 5 business day ACH holds which seem long to me.) I can’t even understand what Jacob is talking about in his complaint. So you’re saying you were using their virtual trading platform, and you’re complaining that it doesn’t behave exactly like their main trading platform? So what? Their virtual trading platform uses delayed quotes and it doesn’t use “real” market conditions because there are no actual fills on orders. It is all simulated. I’m not surprised that the OH support people don’t have time to deal with complaints of this nature.
As far as the margin calculations from OH, they seem to be done pretty much the same as with any other broker that I have used. Before trading on margin, you should make sure you THOROUGHLY understand what is involved, what can happen, etc. You are basically agreeing that at any time, any broker can close out your position WITHOUT notifying you, if they deem the position too risky for them (the broker). That is part of the margin agreement you signed. If you do not agree to it, perhaps you should be trading with a cash account instead.
As for the customer support with OH, I have never experienced an excessive wait-time in talking to someone on the phone or chatting with them via online-chat — certainly nowhere near a 30 minute wait. If you need a lot of hand-holding when investing, perhaps a full service broker would suit you better than an online discount broker.
Hi, I feel you need to see something from the point of view of the end consumer.
I represent the consumer, and I am looking for a online trading platform. Let’s say I sign up for optionshouse. It has great rates and a virtual platform to train on, I think I’ll give it a try. I log on, and it’s a little confusing but there’s videos and things to learn from. Ok I’ll fund my virtual account like I would a real account $60,000.00. I’m a day trader so I plan on multiple trades per day roughly $2,000.00 per month in commissions. I start trading allowing for the time delay for the unfunded account, and everything looks good. I’ve done my research and all is in order then bam, before market even opens my stock sells at my stop loss price. I wonder what happened? Look at the charts, figures my stop was .10 below the market and it sold? Hmm? I check other markets and nope, nothing in market even close to what it sold at? Maybe I did something wrong.
I’ll use online chat with customer service. “Please wait” for ten minutes… Hi, can I help you, give order # ask to check what happened. “please hold” 5 minutes “please hold” 5 minutes please call back after the trading day we can look at this, and remember it’s a virtual account. Ok so it is a virtual account granted I haven’t funded the account yet, but isn’t this really my 1st experience with your company? If the virtual is prone to this, then what about the real one?
And customer service pretty much blew me off. I guess a potential customer isn’t that important. 100 clients like me not much but consider a national audience. $2000 commission per month per person = $2,400,000 a year. I know small internet providers that seem to have better service skills. And the fact that your virtual platform, your best marketing tool, is problematic, I wonder how many clients you lose per year before they even fund an account because of their initial exposure to virtual and customer service staff?
From a business prospective I think the gains of setting up a separate company to handle your virtual reality and customer service for new accounts or prospects would greatly enhance your business. And I can’t imagine spending the money to fix the virtual exposure and customer service would be a waste of time. Or even a loss as to the potential revenue it would help manifest. Remember in sales it’s all about first impressions. The more you attract us, the more you help us gain confidence in the marketplace the more likely we will invest. I really think if you crunch the numbers you will see how many open new accounts, how many leave, how many contacted customer service, how many leave unfunded, and how many leave after funding.
I understand you know your business but your business needs better marketing and a dedicated staff to bring those new clients in. That’s something i don’t think your really paying attention to. I may be wrong but I think you can do better. And what would it really cost to fix your virtual platform? Remember this is a client service company and the virtual trading program is the bait on the hook. Crunch the numbers and good luck.
Regards, Jeff Barlow
@jacob: what you describe is typical for virtual trading platforms. I had exactly the same issue with tradeMONSTER – my stop got triggered at a price that was never traded.
They fixed it by enabling real time quotes. Maybe you should do the same with OH. Ask them to enable real time quotes on your paper account.
There is another popular glitch: before market opens enter an order to buy an option combo below bid price.
Chances are you may get a “fill” at that or better price when the first bid/ask becomes available.
I’ve seen $1 wide spreads being sold for $1.20 on tradeMONSTER paper trading platform while real bid/ask after the open was .80/.90
The solution is not to enter any orders in the after-hours and check the prices from the real time price source before finalizing the order.
Also, there is no exercise/assignment in virtual accounts. You may leave a short ITM option alone and it will expire worthless creating fake profits.
jacpb.. That you would have to ask them to put real time quotes in a virtual acct shere they are trying to attract customers is ridiculous. If they can’t think of this themselves, how else are they messing up.
THANKS MIKE I appreciate your insight. I’ll try again to trade tomorrow, but I’m probably going to be a bit leary about those kind of orders now regardless. I guess I’ll have to try it out with penny stocks before I go big. Thanks. I’ll ask if they can allow real time quotes. Appreciate the help.
Don’t waste your time trading here. You will be better off somewhere else. This company is horrible.
I just got off chat with customer service, and they were really nice. I’m sure the heat of the trading day effects them same as it does us. I know sometimes it’s hard to not be negative, but try to offer solutions if you can. We’re are all learning as we go in life, and I’m no exception. I get mad and spew and than think and try again. I’m very satisfied with the service dept in after hours, as they were very helpful. But I still feel like there could be some improvement made to the virtual platform as it is their best self marketing tool.
I don’t know why either, but I’ve tried a couple other virtual trading platforms. Seems it’s common that some features are limited. Actually, to me this makes sense. 1) if OH or any other brokerage allowed real time quotes on virtual, plus all the features, then what’s to stop a “potential” customer to use the system for free, but actually do the trades elsewhere? 2) Real time quotes take data stream space. Why burden the system and other users that are actually using the platform for trades?
Definitely from what I’ve seen though, the biggest thing they need to improve on is their charting software, and their interface. It’s not customizable and movable to allow you to access everything you want in the layout you need that works for you. It’s template based. Who the heck wants to work with that? They need more charting and indicator tools. It’s what you rely on most when day trading.
For me, I’ve had no issues with OH. Granted, I’ve only experienced online trading with 3 other companies (and only one other company in the last 8 years or so).
I do not trade penny stocks.
I can find my account activity (including commissions) with two clicks from the main trading window (Quick Launch / Account Activity).
I chop onions with a knife. My wife can let the 4-year-old grandchild chop them with a new-fangled contraption that makes it impossible to cut yourself. What’s the point? OH is like the knife — simple, effective, easy to use, but also dangerous if not used properly (but it’s not difficult to use a knife properly).
By the way, if I cut myself with the knife, I blame myself.
I haven’t had much interaction with customer service (and then it was mostly via live chat). The chat experience was fine, not fast but not slow — about what you’d expect. They provide a phone number to call for trade issues as the chat deal apparently isn’t intended for that.
OH isn’t for everybody. It’s right for me. I’m a reasonably experienced trader who has gotten into options. I have an account with a big-name brokerage, which I will keep. Most of my new monies will be placed in my OH account.
My advice to prospective OH customers is to try it. If you don’t like it, try another one. There are quite a few good ones from which to choose. Others on my short list were TradeMonster and Trade King — I evaluated about 10 brokers. I chose OH and have no regrets.
I finally retired after 30 years in the securities business. I owned (past tense) a securities broker dealership (stock brokerage business) with licenses in Series 7, 63, 24, 27, three major insurance licenses, and additional licenses in other money areas.
Two months ago, I opened a stock trading account with O.H. Trading mostly ETFs, all executions were perfect.
However, I have to agree with many mailed in comments. O.H.’s staff is extremely short fused and rude. I have traded for 40 years with various brokers but your staff is unprofessional. Beth, don’t rely on Barron’s. As long as you advertise in that paper, they’ll give you a nice write-up. O.H. has an image problem that creates opportunity costs.
My final question is directed to you Beth: I was told that my unused funds will have to be put into a Money Market fund. If that’s the case, O.H. will have to offer a fund that is riskless, meaning that the price cannot go below one dollar. Even your short-term U.S. Government Securities Fund is not risk free. People want to trade stocks or options. Don’t take their money to gamble with. Use your own funds. This would force me to go somewhere else.
Herp,
Thank you for reaching out. With OptionsHouse you have two options for holding un-invested capital. Generally our client funds are held in a DWS Scudder money market (CSAXX). Alternatively, you can choose to opt out of the money market and hold your funds in cash. If you are currently invested in the money market and would like to opt out, or have any further questions please call (877) 653-2500.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
Is it a legitimate practice for a MM to drop the value of an option position simply because a person is trying to sell it? JW as I am fairly new to trading. I bought a few call options recently, originally my few positions were the only ones for the September call (now there are 217). But everytime I’ve expressed interest in selling out of the position it seems that the value of the bid and mid automatically drop with my order placement. Sometimes it has seemed that it was due to the system simply updating automatically d/t the stock price having dropped a bit, however I’ve seen it do the same when the stock price hasn’t moved (or has moved upwards), only to then regain its prior inflated value shortly after I cancel my sell order. Is this legitimate or a form of manipulation?
Like I said I’m fairly new to options, but it doesn’t seem like a fair trading practice to me. Technically if somebody held a large position they could just drop the value down to nothing anytime the buyer attempted to sell and the buyer would be automatically screwed over. And it is definitely an automatic process whereby it drops the price as soon as I attempt to sell, even with minimal positions involved. I don’t know if there is some process involved where this is ok and the entire market does this, or if this is some tactic that peak3 is employing itself. But on the other hand there was a day that the price went up over 5 percent and the mid didn’t go up at all. I didn’t take note of if the bid price moved at all, but if it did it was minimal (with a delta of .75 nonetheless). I’m considering filing a FINRA complaint since I figure those people would know better than I do whether or not its legit. If it is I’m sure the complaint would be disregarded anyways. I just get the sense that there are some schenanigans going on with this process. I’ll probably hold off on the complaint as a last resort, but I’m going to closely observe the movement here in the days ahead and if I continue to see things that seem questionable and can’t get a good explanation for it (If so I’ll try the customer support chat feature as well, though I’m skeptical that will be of any help) the complaint will probably be my only good option.
Chris,
For any specific questions you have about the options market, how it works, or specific numbers you are seeing within the OptionsHouse platform, please contact customer service (877) 653-2500 and we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse
Try reading this:
http://www.bigtrends.com/trading-education/working-the-option-market-makers-bidask-spread/
Or read some other articles online about how exchanges work, what market makers are, etc.
If you think the spread between the bid/ask of an options contract is too wide from the market maker, then why don’t you try to work both sides of the spread yourself and see how well that works out for you?
They delay sending 1099 again this year until Mar 15. Same excuse as last year. I will close my OptionsHouse account after this tax reason. Not worth it.
Been using Optionshouse for over 3 years now. My thoughts….
They are by far the most conservative brokerage I’ve used when it comes to margin and especially buying power calculations.
Here’s a typical example: on a credit spread, all brokerages are required to hold a margin reserve equal to difference in strikes times contracts. 10 strike difference equals 1000$ reserve held back. When you close out your position, your reserve is released back to you. At OH, not so fast. Every other broker I’ve used releases your reserve immediately upon closing the credit position (tradeking, optionsxpress, thinkorswim, etc). This is key to rolling a credit position or reestablishing a new one altogether. The issue with Optionshouse is they will not release your reserve until the next trading day. You can call them after you close the spread and they will have someone at the margin desk review your buying power, but you have to do this *every time* and depending who you get transferred to they either do it instantly, put it in their to do list where it may or may not get done that day , or on several occasions, tell you that it can’t be done at all.
There is no reason those reserve funds should not be automatically released upon closing the credit spread. It is your money still, it never left your account, the brokerage holds it from your buying power to make sure there is zero risk to them in a Max loss event on your spread. An annoyance for sure.
Similar thing happens with debit spreads that finish both legs in the money. One side gets auto exercised the other leg gets assigned to you, net result is a cash increase in your account equal to the difference in strikes of your spread times number of contracts. Monday morning you are free to trade that money. At OX, think or swim, trade King that’s how it works. With Optionshouse? Not so fast.
They dump the cash in your account true enough, BUT THEN reduce your buying power by the amount of the exercised option for 3 to 4 days until settlement occurs. With a small priced stock it is an annoyance. With a stock like GOOG, this shuts down your account until settlement. While it is true, this can be avoided by closing down your position before expiration for less than max profit, that is not acceptable when compared to the competition.
The griping about length of time to fund accounts, receive distributions, etc are definitely true as well.
Do you sense a pattern here? They like to hold on to *your* money longer than other brokerages. There’s a lengthy or behavioral workaround for nearly every inconvenience OH throws your way.
If you open an account with them you will ask yourself frequently if the super low unbeatable rates are worth the hassle for how you trade options.
For me I’ve stuck with them for 3 years, but mostly on the strength of their mobile app as compared to TRADE KING ‘s non existent one. Optionshouse freeform trade ticket beats the pants off of TK as well.
I plan to investigate moving my accounts back to TK…. I’ll compare commissions on my trades and see if the difference monetarily is worth it. Typing up this review forced me to realize a few things. Namely that with so many options out there, having accessto your own money is more important to me than the absolute lowest rate.
Scott
I would be interested in seeing an answer on this from OH. I just opened a small 25K account as a trial, still waiting for ACH to clear, while I maintain much more substantial trading accounts at Fidelity and TD Ameritrade (trying to reduce commissions from $2500-$3000/month). 90% of my trades are selling verticals and iron condors. What you describe simply will not work for me, it is very common for me to close a dozen positions on Thursday and Friday of expirations (weekly and monthly) and establish new positions immediately. If I have to wait a day or have a chat every Thursday and Friday with customer service, this simply will not work. I have read two page of reviews and none of the bad reviews concern me, most are by people who do not understand margin, I only use margin to avoid the settlement period and never have credit balances, so no concern. But your comment is the first one that concerns me. Is it really the case that on margin accounts, closing tramsactions are not immediately credit to your buying power? If that is the case. I will not even begin this trial will move straight to my next target, IB. That is I wait for another three days for the ACH to clear and five days for the ACH out to clear (really OH, what risk are you protecting yourself from on an ACH transfer out)?
Optionshouse low commissions are sort of smoke and mirrors.
Right now as I type this a march 13 weekly 1535-1540 bear call spread – I get .80 credit from optionshouse
The same march 13 weekly 1535-1540 bear call spread from td ameritrade is giving me 1.00 credit.
An April 13 1580-1585 bear call spread – I’m getting .65 credit from td ameritrade.
Optionshouse April 13 1580-1585 bear call spread is not even trading… It shows 0.00
Hey, I have a question. It is pretty basic, but I am just starting!
I sold some stock yesterday, but I was not able to use the money in my account today. I called customer service and they told me I have to wait the day of the transaction+3 business days before my money becomes available again. Is that the case with all brokers, or is this an OH specific issue? How do you work around this if you want to put all your money on a stock, sell everything the same day and repeat every day. This waiting period is really frustrating. Thanks.
Hi John
You are discovering the “joys” of Optionshouse. The key here is that per SEC rules funds from a sale of stock are given 3 days to settle. Options only take 1 day to settle.
Most other brokerages will prevent you from withdrawing that money from your account until funds have settled and in this respect, OH is no different.
Where they do differ is in the buying power calculation. Every other brokerage will release those funds into your buying power to be used immediately or the next day at the latest. Not so with OH as you have found out.
There is only one workaround for the scenario you described and that is to never spend more than 33% of your account at one time at OH.
Well that or switch to another broker with higher commissions but will give you more flexibility with your own money.
Isn’t it exactly the same with all brokers? Looks like OP has a cash account and that’s why the funds need 3 days to clear.
Switch to margin account and you can trade immediately after the close of the previous position.
Thank you for the responses guys, even though I am still a bit confused on which one truly is the case. Whether this is an OH specific issue, or whether this is how things work with cash accounts. I will call a few other brokers to ask how things work with them.
It is the same with all brokers, rules for a cash account. You can avoid this with a margin account.
This is the same in any brokerage. If you buy then sell stocks, the money will take 3 business days to clear and for the $ to be available in your account to trade with again. If you buy then sell options, it takes 1 day to clear. If your $ hasn’t cleared and you buy, you might get a pass, but they will suspend your account if you repeat. It’s a regulation, and it’s standard.
After using OptionsHouse for about six months, I can only say it sucks. Yes, transactions are dirt “cheap” (unless you are day trader with many transactions during a month), but you get what you pay for. I’ll list some problems, because certainly there are more
1. Funding does take a long time (but since you are reading this you should expect that and it is similar with other brokers with exception of the few), but getting money out of the OptionsHouse is pain as well.
2. Their “new” platform is really not usable (is worse in every aspect than already bad old one and is more clunky). You have to do many clicks for common operations, or get info you need to have in front of you all the time. Presented info (fonts,space, colors…) is extremely hard to use (or better say not to use). Info (positions, graphs, account value…) is not refreshed in real time, but you have manually to refresh the page. To enter the order you have to do many clicks and confirmations and things are scattered over the pop-up screens. Alerts are not working at all. Tax statements/forms are joke and inaccurate. Only somewhat good thing in old platform is modifying order (sucks big in new platform). Stock screening works randomly. Their platform is not very well cross browser compatible. Only positive impression about platform was that old platform seemed relatively stable. Scottrade seems lighting years in front of them (and it is far from perfect).
3. Order execution is bad. They are routing orders in some weird way and you will almost always get market order executed for worse than current ask price (when buying) and will be unable to find the same transaction at other brokers. I had only luck with limit orders. Since spread orders require market orders, you will lose money on them every time you do so, so them (spread orders) being cheaper will cost you more. Not having quick way to put order in, will cost you additionally.
Screenshot on this page is the old platform (which is still around) but even though bad is still more usable than “new”.
I have quite a few years with OH, I pay 2.99 for stocks and $5 for 5 contracts. However, as I get more active, I was looking for a better broker with superior platform and overall system. You people are all complaining. Does any of you know of a better alternative? Who are you with? Looks like you are just venting out but not leaving. Maybe I should look-up Angie’s list.
I had to wait over 3 days to see the transactions to my bank in order to verify the upcoming ach deposit. Then another 5 days for my payment to clear and be able to make a trade. Yes the platform is ok and the selling fee is good. But the wait time for my funds to be avaiable to clear is ridiculous. I made a trade on 3/15 for a sell to close on a (good till close duration) that was “created and filled that same day within 5 minutes” yets its 8:21 3/19 and while my cash bal reflects my total value of what should be there my stock b/p hasn’t registered my trade. I understand i made a trade on a friday but for god sakes this is a cash account why hold my money when I want to make additional trades…. which is the only way that your going to make money from me because i would never go to margin. There ability to hold my cash when I want to make a trade is unbearable. Time is money and they suck the money right from you if you consider holding your buying power as money. The only conclusion I could come to is they do not make the majority of their money from the 3.95 fee but from having regular cash accounts become margin accounts and then get them in some option trade and force them to sell early. While I really want to make a trade tomorrow, as a couple of my perspective securities performed poorly today, if my funds clear I am seriuosly and almost positively transfering my money to the bank and looking for another site. I am not looking forward to the 3 day wait I have heard about but this is ridiculous. If anyone has experience with a stock trading company with reseasnable fees for day traders that will trade nearly 100% of their cash porfolio and have that security filled and executed ON BOTH ENDS with funds avaiable immediatly, please let me know. I give optionhouse a C- for their ach waits, stock execution b/p avaiablility, and customer support (tried multiple times to have my funds released and whenever i spoke to someone on chat and asked to speak to their supervisor i found that I was already speaking to one, which is horse shit.) STAY AWAY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias
So I am three weeks into trying out OH, and I am in the process of moving all my option trading capital to OH.
The pluses: the commissions. I will save at least $5,000 a year from what I was paying at ThinkOrSwim.
The neutrals: the platform. I have seen much worse, it is useable to place trade (better than TOS), the position display is also better than TOS. The tools are useless. On the positive they side, I got API access and am developing my own platform the way I want it.
The bad: ACH times. put an ACH on Thursday morning, will hit your account the following Wednesday, and be fully usable the subsequent day (one week ACH in effect, not 3 days). The lack of automated ACH (I liked the automatic ACH feature at TOS).
The ugly: the “charts”, if you want to call them that. Better if you pretend they do not have charts.
The maybe: it looks like buying power is accurately calculated overnight, but becomes incorrect (understated) as positions are closed during the day, not sure, I will have to watch more closely, and not an issue as I like to trade a third of the account only….
So nothing unexpected so far. This is a place to place cheap options trades, nothing more. Everything else (charts, scans, etc…), you will have to get somewhere else
A lot of complaints above seem to be from new traders. This is not the platform for new traders, in my opinion, start with something more expensive like TD Ameritrade/ThinkOrSwim, where there are people to hold your hand, albeit you pay for it in higher commissions. A lot of complains above also seem to be from traders who do not understand margin. If you exceed your margin, fully expect any broker to close your position to protect themselves from a loss. It is not their job to protect you from a loss if you traded too big, and it does not matter what your forcibly closed position is worth the next day or a week later. Trade small, and leave lots of cash in your account and monitor your buying power, if you sell naked (66% cash would be a good starting point).
Thank you for that review. Best, fairest, most informative, realistic, experienced user review. It took me reading thru the whole entire list of comments to get to it tho, lol
if only ur review showed up at top, would’ve saved me lots of time
I’ve been in optionshouse for a few weeks, slowly getting my feet wet. I don’t do options. I simply buy and sell stocks. I have no complaints about trades being filled. It’s all good on that front. The actual buy/sell part of the platform is perfectly fine, but I generally don’t love the rest of platform itself. I’m not fond of the layout. I have a schwab account so I do all my homework at schwab, and then do the actual trading on optionshouse.
Hopefully optionshouse can stay in business with these super low rates. My impression is that they are genuinely trying to provide a good product. But it is a discount broker, so you get somewhat of a discount experience. I’m okay with that.
OH utilizes deceptive trade practices, and their customer service is outrageously poor. It always takes more than 10-15 minutes just to get through to someone. And it seems most have very poor customer service skills.
If you have the chance please complain about Option House to SEC and FINRA and to other sites.
Appreciate the comments…I am a first time wannabe trader and planning to invest 3000 in one stock. I plan to just move my stock options at around every month at most…What online brokerage will you recommend? Thank you!
Sadly, I must modify my semi-positive review above. Three times this week, while I was being more vigilant, i noticed that the margin requirement for a new position was quite high, and when I entered the same trade on ThinkOrSwim the margin requirement was half that of OptionsHouse. This is not the case for defined risk spreads, only for sales of naked puts and calls.
For example, I was trying to sell 30 contracts of the May 13 5 PUT on GRPN for .28 (with GRPN trading at 5.42). OptionsHouse wanted $9900 in margin, ThinkOrSwim wanted $5300. The $10 I would have saved in commission would have been more than wiped out by OptionsHouse tying up an extra $4600 in margin.
There is no indication anywhere that they are not charging the CBOE Margin Calculation handbook rate, which in my opinion is the worst offense, not the fact that they charge higher margin but that it is not disclosed. This is not the place for premium sellers, unless the premium you sell is only defined risk (then my review above stands).
$9900 covers GRPN going to 1.40 in the next 10 days, a 2 standard deviation move. I am not sure if a 2 standard deviation move is what they charge for all naked call and put spreads, I have lost interest in OptionsHouse and moving on to the next broker. I had high hopes. Oh well…
I will also take back whatever I said about the people complaining about margin above. I understand margin and margin calculations very well and no one at OH can explain how they calculate it, so who knows how their margin was jacked, I was not there so I do not know
I was attracted by the lower commissions on options. I trade options nearly exclusively, mostly credit spreads. I still have a TOS account and prefer that platform and its use. My problem came last month when I tried to close a losing position and the platform wouldn’t let me. This necessitated a phone call. It was a little slow in being answered. Losing $ by the second made it worse. When I did speak with someone even they had trouble closing the trade, having to put me on hold while figuring out the solution. Just the time I was on the phone with the rep cost me $5k. So needless to say I was none to happy.
I have found OH a little slow to fill orders, but I can’t say its any worse than others.
I have an email to OH inquiring how to roll a position in its platform, I can only hope its as simple as TOS.
We (the investment community) need the OH’s of the world in order to keep the other brokerage houses reasonably competitive. In my perfect world the OH option fees would be duplicated by TD so I could enjoy the best of both worlds.
I have optionhouse now and this was the worst choice ever. This is with no doubts the worst company I have ever had the misfortune of doing business with. Their unqualified customer service team will hang up on you or disconnect you from chats or not reply to emails when you question something and they are not smart enough to answer. Their software is pathetic, if the name of a company has options in it you would think their software would be able to handle people who trade options. I trade with stops and they NEVER get you the price of your stop, i can live with maybe a penny or two per contract lower sometimes but for options that they will get you atleast .04 below your order price at most 90% of the time. For options that trade in .05 increments they best you will get is .15 per contract under your stop. I took a screen shot once which showed my stop order being open and the bid ask was both lower than my stop and the order had still not been executed. The customer service is the worst I have ever seen they are unqualified and unprofessional.
You forgot to mention that you must deposit at least $5,000 with OptionsHouse to claim the 100 free trade promotion. Thanks for the thorough review otherwise though.
Yes, it’s true. OH “customer service” does not exist. And I never even got to open my account! After completing their extensive online application, I received a voicemail from “Jeff” on my cell phone the next day. Calling back the next day from my office at work, I finally got put in touch with “Michael” who spoke to me for all of 30 seconds before he put me on hold. After about 40 minutes of waiting I finally had to hang up and get back to work. In the meantime, I also sent them two e-mails on different days regarding my newly opened account. These were both answered the next day with a standard request for me to call them at their customer service phone number, which I tried to do again the following day. Of course, calling their “customer service” number doesn’t exactly mean that you will actually be talking to a live person, and after listening to their recordings for half an hour, had to once again hang up and get back to work. Finally, today I get another e-mail from them telling me that they are sending my personal check back to me in the mail because they “did not receive a response from me.” I GIVE UP! ! !
I am just a regular Joe not affiliated with any brokerage firm. Opened an Etrade IRA account in March and now want to open another IRA for my wife and thought I would explore alternatives. I like the mobile app and the platform from Etrade. Even though it is an IRA account I do plenty of day trading, as this source of funds is not really where retirement funds will come from, so I do speculate. I opened an account with OH and tried to download the mobile app. It does not work on my HTC android. Frustrating!! It does work on my Nexus tablet. I was looking for a brokerage that might save some $ on the trades as my positions typically do not exceed $2000 and the fees start to become relevant to profits. So I am looking at OH and Tradeking. From what I have read in this thread I think I will keep looking. My experience with Etrade customer service has been pretty good. When the account was opened it took some time to get funds available for use. But, I was provided an account handler that I have a direct line to when I have a question. If he is not able to take a call I have left messages which are returned within the same day, even minutes after I leave the message. So, I think the customer service there is pretty good. Although when I opened the account I assumed I would get 60 days of free trades, and started loading up positions only to find this offer was not good for retirement accounts (read the fine print). I took a bath on about $600 in fees that I would have avoided had I known the trades weren’t free for this type of account. My account rep listened and explained why the trades weren’t free, but did not refund my money. They could have done a better job making this aspect clearer in the literature. With the IRA account I am able to use funds from closed positions in 3 business days. A regular account takes 24 hours to clear funds for reinvestmet and a bit longer to be released as cash. Trades at market are instantaneous and at the ask price, and when trades are set at limits typically end up better than where I set them. I use the pro platform and the standard platform, but prefer the standard platform. Although the pro platform can be used for extended hours trading I tried this and could not complete trades because they must match the exact ask/bid price and # of shares. Low $ doesn’t seem to get any attention after hours. I’ll check out Trade King and maybe some others, but may end right back with Etrade. I guess you get what you pay for…
Here’s an update to my mediocre (at best) experience with options house:
I bought a stock on Friday morning, and now on Saturday afternoon the details of the purchase have yet to be centrally posted in my account. I say “centrally” posted because I can see the order was filled, but the main page you go to see the complete details of the trade shows nothing. I assume it’s because the trade was made on a Friday. Other days of the week, the details of the trade don’t get posted until several hours after the market closes, which is annoying in and of itself, but a whole day later, and still no confirmation is super annoying.
Complaint #2: The account balance routinely shows an incorrect number. The error is usually 5 to 20 cents, but I have seen it be as much as $4 off. Granted that’s not much, but the fact is, the number is almost never correct. And they have no explanation for it. This does not instill confidence should a bigger issue arise.
Issues like this will keep me from ever having more than $5,000 in the trading account with OH, and tempts me to just close the account completely.
My experience with customer service has been okay. I mention that only because so many people have complained.
It’s a $3.95 a trade service. You get what you pay for. That may be okay, but it’s going to limit the size of my account, and keep me thinking about closing it.
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