OptionsHouse, OptionsThis and OptionsThat. So many options brokerage houses which means confusing choices for us all. Other than having OptionsHouse promotion code (see below for them), how does this broker get you to remember ? How about $2.95 per stock trade?
Click Here to Sign up for an OptionsHouse Account and type in the promotion code FREE100 to be eligible.
Fees Come First
That’s not a typo. Over at OptionsHouse, stock trades are just $2.95 no matter what. When a company can make money like this, it really makes you wonder how much money other premium stock brokers are making off us. What’s even better is OptionsHouse’s flat rate options commission structure. The per contract fee can quickly add up because you buy or sell so many contracts per trade. With this broker, it’s $9.95 per trade no matter how many contracts exchange hands, no questions asked.
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 $2.95!
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 lookup, 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 2009 Online Broker Survey ranked them #1 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 $2.95 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.
- 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.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Woah… $2.95 is ultra cheap and even though I promised myself not to keep changing stock brokers, I’m really tempted to try it out!
Under the rates and fees, there’s a “ACATs into Account”. What is that? Is it something specific to optionshouse?
ACAT stands for Automated Customer Account Transfer and it is a system to make electronic transfers of full brokerage accounts between FINRA and NYSE firms. Knowing this, it implies that OptionsHouse is a member and should boost your confidence in the broker. The other thing to note is that the transfer usually takes 7-10 business days (as opposed to the manual method which can take weeks).
You guys have been missing out! I started with OptionsHouse a while ago and I never figured out why people pay $10, $15, or $20 per trade. It’s funny how so many people say that $4.95 trades are cheap when I’ve been paying $2.95.
$2.95 per trade. Enough said about OptionsHouse.
You forgot to mention that optionshouse currently requires you to keep $100 in your account in order to trade, and you are not allowed to touch that $100. For example if you fund your account with $1,000 and try to make a trade that uses all the cash, it will reject your order. You will only be allowed to trade with $900 of the $1,000 since they require you to keep the $100 in there for some reason. I called and asked why and the representative’s lame excuse was that it’s because they don’t collect commissions until the end of each day. I asked why can’t you just have the system take the commissions out during each trade, and they said their system is not designed like that. I never go all in when I invest, but it bothers me to know that I’m not allowed to use all of the money I funded my account with…and that optionshouse is obviously doing something with $100 of each customer’s account.
That IS weird. Thanks for alerting us. If someone knows anything else about the mysterious use of the $100 of every account, please let us know as I’m very interested in knowing the truth.
I don’t see this is a problem. I mean, a hundred bucks.
I believe this is a non-issue whether anyone thinks it’s a problem or not because the restriction is lifted and there’s no longer this quirky requirement.
I just heard today that optionshouse finally gave in and removed that $100 minimum balance requirement after enough complaints came in. I don’t think we’ll ever really find out why they were “borrowing” $100 from each customer though. Glad it’s fixed anyhow
First, I want to thank David for taking the time to review OptionsHouse on MoneyNing. Our team really appreciates the discussion on your site and the opportunity to listen to feedback from your readers.
Mark,
I work for PEAK6 Online, the parent company of OptionsHouse, and I just wanted to let you know that the $100 reserve requirement has been gone from all OptionsHouse accounts for more than two weeks now.
Please note the policy was never intended to punish our customers, or “borrow” funds from account holders, but was there to cover small margin calls for large-volume options traders since this was once our core customer base. Now that we are attracting more diverse investing consumers, we decided to remove this policy. Again, we appreciate all feedback since it helps us create the best possible investing experience for all our customers.
If you have any questions or concerns about our platform or pricing structure, please feel free to reach out to me directly at spaul[at]peak6[dot]com.
Many thanks,
Shannon Paul
Communications Manager
PEAK6 Online – Parent Company of OptionsHouse
Optionshouse is one of the worst regarding customer service. Iam surprised why they employ the most idiot and unexperienced people there who are self-centered. they know only how to alienate customers and make them switch to other brokers. They put the obstacles in front of their customers to make them stop trading and leave. Even glitches are there in their platform which is undependable itself.
Care to describe a specific instance?
I agree with Eddie that OptionsHouse is not having everything perfected yet but the whole platform and experience is getting better. For $2.95, I would stick with them and wait for it to continue to improve.
It’s like that $100 reserve requirement. They figured out that it was unnecessary and they took it away. Patience my friend!
Any feedback or comments on fills with optionshouse??
The rumor is that Optionshouse is able to sustain the incredibly low commission structure because it routes orders through PEAK6 and pocket money, but the CEO said that:
1. In the first six months of 2009, Optionshouse routed less than 2% of its order flow to PEAK6
2. Orders went to the same people that serve Optionshouse’s competitors.
3. Of the orders that went through PEAK6, they went into exchange sponsored auctions where open bids can be placed and the orders were executed at better prices than NBBO for the broker.
I know it’s hard to believe when the guy works for Optionshouse, but it’s illegal for him to give false facts, not to mention that it’s illegal for them to get you a “worst than NBBO” price.
I have had no complaints whatsoever with this broker. I used to believe that the only way they could charge such low commissions was from weak fills…but that has not been the case at all…as my fills have been great. The trading platform has also grown on me significantly as far as speed is concerned. You don’t really appreciate how quickly you can adjust your orders on optionshouse until you’re caught in the middle of some intense trading activity and you only have but a few seconds to cancel or make changes to your orders so that you can get in or out of a position at a better price. Then once you realize how fast you were able to accomplish all of this with their platform…it’s just empowering. The quick little one-two-click pop up system they employ for filling out order tickets and editing existing orders is just great. I used to trade with other discount brokers…but none of them offered such quick order editing ability, especially with the amazingly low commissions you get here.
The only problem I have had with the platform was a case where I modified an open order on a trade that was partially filled, and got confused because I thought the platform was telling me that the new replacement order had been completely filled right away, when it actually hadn’t. I believe it was a rare technical glitch, but to make a long story short, after calling tech support and informing them about the problem I had experienced, they credited my account for the additional commission charge I had incurred from the confusion. You call that terrible customer service?
What’s more, by the end of this year, I heard that optionshouse is going to add more advanced order types (like one cancels other, one triggers other, etc.) which is really going to make my trading experience even better.
One last thing I wanted to mention: do you know how amazing it is to actually be able to buy 100 options contracts, for example, and then sell them 1 cent higher than you bought them for, and still manage to make a profit? Or how about getting into an options trade with 100 contracts that doesn’t go your way, and ending up having to sell the contracts at the same price you bought them for, but only losing $20 (the commissions) on the round trip deal? I don’t know of any other brokers who offer commissions low enough for those two conditions to be possible. In my opinion you’re losing money if you’re trading with anyone else.
I’ve been trading mostly stocks for over a year with OH. I’ve enjoyed the trading experience and low fees. I did call customer service twice and received satisfactory outcomes. I would like to see features added like position percentage gain/loss, electronic monthly statement access, account self maintenance (ie–change phone number), after hours trading, and the trademonster’s “Exit Plan”.
I am considering moving my account to option house and decided to read customers review of this company. The reviews are very encouraging, so I will open account with this company.
My friend is a big fan of OptionsHouse. But he has few good points and skepticism about the way trading happens in OptionsHouse.
Good things:
1. Charges low fee for options. They get 100 out of 100 Marks there.
2. Real time update of price .
Bad things:
1. Browser freeze on you once in an hour. You have to kill the browser and restart new browser.
2. There is no way you get confirmation about any order execution unless you are logged in and watching interactively. They will not send any confirmation e-mail. Looks scary to me here. To give an example, let us say you put an order and it is executed today, 2 days or few days later, there is no way you know it is executed. However, you get an e-mail that something happend in your account at the end of the day without specific trade information. That means if you are not logged in let us say the price goes up, OptionsHouse can sell your options and you do not even know. He is not saying they they are doing it or they will do it. But not providing e-mail confirmation makes me think so much.
Another example he gave was, let us say you put order for qty:50 options, once in while you see only qty:1 option getting executing (buy or sell). That means if you cancel the order you are paying $9.99 for one option. He does not know somebody really bought that contract or OptionsHouse is executing to make money.
That is the reason I did not open account until today. I told my friend to let me know when they provide e-mail confirmation to me of every executed trade.
There are more things like this he mentioned and he is not sure everything going great or not if you are logged in and watching all the time.
Hope this information helps other people decide whether to join OptionsHouse or not.
David,
I hope you don’t mind my weighing in again in the comments. I really do appreciate all of the insight your readers have shared here in the comments about OptionsHouse and we are definitely listening. The latest one from Jumbo Jug is one I would like to address:
I consulted with our product team and we are unaware of any issues on our end that could be causing your friend’s browser to freeze; especially as frequently as once in an hour. This may be a problem with his connection or hardware, but anyone who has any technical issues or difficulty connecting is welcome to contact our customer service department at customerservice@optionshouse.com or call 877-653-2500 to see if there is anything we can do to assist with the troubleshooting process.
As far as confirmation emails are concerned, you’re correct; we do not automatically generate a confirmation email at the time of the trade, but we do send out an email after the close of the market to alert customers that a confirmation is in their OptionsHouse account message center. We send the actual confirmation to the account message center in order to keep the information secure for our customers. However, I did pass along your idea to the product team and they will definitely keep it in mind for any future enhancements to our current system.
The last scenario you outlined where you describe putting in an order for qty:50 options and seeing only qty:1 of those contracts execute. There is always the potential for this to happen in a market scenario, but our trading platform has a built-in feature that allows you to do an exchange look-up before you trade. This shows the bid, ask and size on every exchange at that given moment. After the trade, execution reports are also available for every fill posted to an OptionsHouse account. As a firm, we do not engage in filling any trades for a single contract in order to exact commissions for modifications.
I am happy to connect you, or your friend, with someone on our team that can address all your questions and concerns about OptionsHouse, or please feel free to contact customer service directly.
I hope this helps you and your friend as well as anyone else here considering an account at OptionsHouse.
Thank you,
Shannon Paul
Communications Manager
PEAK6 Online – Parent Company of OptionsHouse