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. 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 $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.
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Mexx,
Thanks for taking the time to review the dialogue here. I hope the exchange shows what we’re doing to respond to customer concerns and implement suggestions and improvements to the platform and processes when possible.
Again, the pricing structure may make it difficult for some of our customers to adjust, changes in how the market handles payment-for-order-flow made flat rates unsustainable for OptionsHouse to continue. This is an industry-wide change and the only reason many of our competitors were not affected is because their fees were already well above where they needed to be in order to accommodate for this change.
The new rates structure was also selected as a long-term solution. With so many symbols trading in the pennies, it is likely that payment for order flow will continue its current downward trend. Changing rates as a broker is obviously not an easy decision to make. In this case, it absolutely had to be done.
I know I’m not powerless, but I appreciate your concern. I apologize when people share a negative experience because I am truly sorry. I do feel their pain and I think we all know what it’s like to have a negative customer experience or an unwelcome change in circumstances. Just because I work for the company doesn’t mean I don’t have empathy for others’ negative experiences. I’m still quite human. Also, I have provided my direct contact information above in other comments in order to help the customer service process along. My email address is posted here as a point of contact. In this case there are laws and guidelines that prohibit me from doing anything that could be interpreted as solicitation of an account or acting as a customer service representative. My email address is spaul[at]peak6[dot]com and you (as well as anyone else here) is welcome to reach out to me any time and I will connect you with the appropriate member of the team.
Jes,
The information you share here is fair – a lot of people seemed to think the flat rates at OptionsHouse were too good to be true. However, many industry analysts agree that flat rates from any broker will be a thing of the past due to the industry changes to how payment-for-order-flow is handled. We have a very ambitious product roadmap and intend to make several improvements over the next few months.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Alberto,
The change in OptionsHouse rates is a reality, but the current rates structure was decided upon precisely because we didn’t want to have to make a similar change any time soon. Although nobody knows exactly what the future holds, the change was, and still is, intended to be a long-term solution. We were also one of the only brokerages to ever pass along savings to customers by accepting payment-for-order-flow even though it is a common practice – even among brokers that are not as competitive from a rates perspective. I think this alone speaks to the intentions of the team at OptionsHouse even if a few others might think differently.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online – parent company of OptionsHouse
Shannon,
Just a question for the miscellaneous fees charged to each trade:
I am a very meticulous person, every night I enter the trade detail info based on OH’s confirmation for each trade. And, after receiving my monthly statement, I reconcile the balances. It seems to me, at least for some trades, there are always a very small difference in net proceeds, often in pennies. I must point out that all of which are in my favor, which means the fees are LESS than what stated in the confirmation. I just want to know why there is the difference.
Plus, Shannon, the extended hours platform is NOT work due to the “vendor problem”, as I was told this morning. Do you have any timeframe it would be fixed? It is just a little annoying that I would need to call to place the order.
Andrew,
Thanks for reaching out – I apologize for the delay posting my reply, but I wanted to do some checking around internally to make sure I could understand what was happening for you.
Fees are estimated for the ticket/confirmation, but the clearing firm calculates them overnight. Typically, any discrepancies are only slightly different than the calculation at the time of the trade and may be off by a couple pennies either way — lucky for you this discrepancy tends to work out in your favor
Recently, exchange fees have been in a state of flux, but we are constantly working to ensure accuracy on our end. However, if there is ever a large discrepancy or something doesn’t seem right, please don’t hesitate to call customer service right away.
On the second issue you bring up regarding the extended hours trading platform. Issues like this are very rare, but I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. In this particular instance a vendor was having problems routing orders through before the market opened that day. The issue was fixed almost immediately and has been functioning without issue ever since. If you ever receive an error message while making a trade during the extended hours period, the trade desk is available to help you over the phone at (877) 653-2500.
Best,
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
I found Optionhouse’s (Virtual) rate pricing too vague in my account info and 15 min behind market ticks. (Maybe a virtual thing but understand the 15 min behind)
Ex. I had a 0.03 buy and 0.0398 sell in an OTC stock. At the end of the transaction this OTC stock had a 7.54% increase in profit.
Optionhouse only showed a 0.03 open and 0.03 closed account summary.
It appears like Optionhouse is showing a -% activity (including fees).
In any case I bought in low and sold high but somewhere, somehow, I am missing more than the brokerage, and misc. fees. ($500 worth)
Ex. I started with $12,291.16 and put a $1,500 buy trade @ 0.03. Minus the broker and misc fees, I should of had roughly a 7.54% increase in activity. My final account balance is now $11,785.26. Not sure where it all went to. Further more I could not find my confirmations and account statements anywhere to verify expenses.
Because of that I had to approximate these figures. I know for fact I made a profit above and beyond the fees when I closed. As I watched a Level II OTC quote chart in real time before and after that trade.
My Optionhouse account summary shows that I made profit somehow. This would not be a very comforting platform to switch to, from another broker account in light of this. In defense they claim that trading may not accurately reflect the actual market in trades. (But is this virtual or real?)
In the meantime I would still like to find out where the missing $500 went and how to find my confirmations and account statements to verify this.
I have been using OH for only 1 week, but have found the structure very easy to use for a complete novice. up 20% in my first week. my only complaint is I have sold some contracts on monday that I haven’t received credit for. This is preventing me from buying more contracts late monday evening. Also, a second ACH processed on 3/2/10 was accepted on 3/4/10 is still pending. I am still waiting to see how that ends up. overall, I look forward to continuing to use OH if you ever receive my money.
I have been with OptionsXpress for a few years now and have a Schwab Savings account. If you are new to options I would recommend OX due to there training materials and their tools. Their customer service is top notch and have been always willing to help me out if I had a question.
After you start trading a large amount of contracts OX can get VERY expensive and that is why I just opened a OptionsHouse account to trade spreads, mostly credit spreads. OptionsHouse just recently jacked up their flat rate to .15/contract + fee, however If you do the math its still a lot cheaper than OX.
The OptionsHouse layout impressed me, I liked how the options pricing guide was laid out with both calls/puts and for every month on one single screen, also you can trade directly from that screen. Very nice.
Now for my experience with OptionsHouse..
I opened a margin account with them 1 month ago with $3,000 to get a feel for the trading platform. On the application to open the account, it specifically asks what you
are going to trade, I put spreads/credit spreads, however when I got my account
cleared and funded I went to make my first trade and a error box came up and said my
account is not allowed to trade at that trading level. Keep in mind I have been trading options, spreads, credit spreads for years with OX. I then presented my case to their team for account approval and they said they would NOT upgrade my account trading level to trade a credit spread and that I could re-apply in 90 days. So now at this point, I was getting a little anxious and I sent a message to their customer service team and said basically this is what happened, I am very disappointed and this is what I want Ect…if I cannot get access to trade a protected spread with limited risk I need to cancel my account. I waited a few days for them to respond back to me and they never did, I just checked my bank account and they direct deposited all my money back to my bank account and that was it…there was no, we are sorry blah blah blah, nothing! I guess they do not like business and making money, now I understand $3k is not a whole lot of money however there would have been a lot more in there within the year. I would not recommend OptionsHouse to anyone due to their customer service.
If someone has some insight about my experience and has an explanation why I was treated the way I was, that would be great. My OptionsXpress account allows me to trade credit spreads, iron condors, Ect… I guess I will put some money back with them…however I wish their rates would go down.
Luke
I have had the opposite experience. OX did not give me level 5 trading privilege,but OH did right away. You have to mention that you will be usisng the account for speculation on the application. I originally did not mention this and did not get the privileges.When I called customer service,they told methis and asked me to send an email mentioning that I will be using the account for speculation.Then I got approved.
Ravi
Ravi,
hmm, thats very odd, maybe I just caught a customer service rep on a bad day… It’s too bad, like I said they completely cancelled my account without hesitation. I really wish I could trade with OH, it would save me alot of money compared to optionsxpress.
No, it’s pretty typical of their responses. They only have 3 CSR’s and they are the same by phone or live help.
Luke,
I’m very sorry this happened to your account. I just want you to know I
forwarded your comments to OptionsHouse CEO George Ruhana, and he is
interested in speaking with you directly so we may figure out a way to
remedy your situation.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Please reach out as soon as
possible to spaul[at]peak6[dot]com.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
I wanted to do a quick follow up on the comment I previously left above. The CEO of OptionsHouse George Ruhana got in contact with me about my concern and reopened my account with credit spread trading access.
As I mentioned before, the OptionsHouse platform is going to work very well, along with the great commission stucture, now with the customer support I think this brokerage is a very good option for investors.
Again, Thank you Mr. Ruhana for your time and attention.
Luke Cole
found out the reason my account was delayed receiving funds from sell was because I have a cash account….after two weeks of trading I am still impressed with the platform.
Phillip
Give it a few more weeks or start trading actively and that feeling will soon go away.
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