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.
{ 133 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.
Yeah seriously what’s the big deal having to sit on $100 bucks… Not like they’re stealing it from you, if it helps keep commissions low I’m for it.
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?
My experience(although not yet a customer) was actually quite excellent. They have online live help and the person answered every question to my satisfaction. They actually have some really great features that many deeply discounted brokers do not(DRIP and short interest rebate). They have been very helpful for me so far. It has been a while since this post, so maybe things have changed…
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
I can not believe there are no email confirmations to be honest. All brokers do this and there is no privacy issues with it. Simply emailing and saying this order got filled and at what price and qty is really no big deal and does not give away any personal information. I actually just sent in two accounts to open (one peraonal and one corporate) and really am suprised to hear about this lack of confirmation. If place and open order and am away from my system (have email on my phone) it’s nice to know if it got placed. Or if I am working I can check email, see order was placed or an alert was sent about a stock. now that I am thinking about it, the system may not even let me set up alerts about a product?
New commission rates are really going to hurt for Iron Condors or other multi-leg strategies. After I received the message this morning, I checked around and they still have the best prices around. Thinkorswim has the best software, however.
OH is now crap to me. Eoption offer better pricing.
I believe it’s $3 + .10/contract
Shannon,
Thanks for the reply. I like the fact that somebody is monitoring and listening to our comments. That is great thing. Trust really increases that way as we can see that you are trying to do better. I decided to join OptionsHouse immediately, I went to the site to open account, but now to my surprise, price structure is changed. When is that price structure going to be effective? If I join today, will I get the old price structure for 6 months to 1 year as promotional. I agree that you are still the best around but feels bad to see when I wanted to join things changing.
Thank you,
Don’t bother with OH Jumbo. Even old customers don’t get to keep the old flat rate. If you want low commission for option trading, you might want to try eOption. Their regular rate is $3 + .10 per contracts, and if you call them 1-888-793-5333, they will low the rate to $3 + .05 per contracts. OH can’t beat that.
http://www.eoption.com/index.html#
Another alternative if you trade less than 15 contracts is Interactive Brokers. Commission is only $.70/contract and cheaper than OH if you trade less than 15 contract. And their SmartRouting will get you much better price than Optionshouse IMO.
Jumbo Jug,
Thanks for the words of encouragement – we are doing our best to listen and respond to conversations that are happening online.
I also understand that finding our recent price changes might be surprising to someone in your shoes.
Please know that the changes in our price structure didn’t happen overnight. The previous flat pricing structure worked fine for OptionsHouse for 3 years since the brokerage opened to the public, however, recent changes in market dynamics caused the company to re-evaluate its pricing. The new rates will go into effect beginning December 15, 2009.
OptionsHouse has always been up front about accepting payment-for-order-flow in order to pass savings onto its customers while monitoring order execution quality. However, payment-for-order-flow rates declined significantly this past year. With more symbols trading in pennies, this trend will continue into 2010. In light of these changes it became necessary to revamp the pricing structure to continue offering low pricing to our customers.
Without getting too technical, payment-for-order-flow is the securities industry practice of providing a monetary incentive for brokers to route their orders through a specific market maker. While OptionsHouse closely monitors order execution quality, when things are equal, we accept payment for order flow in order to pass on that savings to customers.
The reason we are one of the only online brokerages to change rates in response to these market dynamics is that most brokerages maintain margins so big that they don’t need to change prices. During the last three years, this practice of passing on savings to OptionsHouse customers has saved them millions of dollars in commissions compared with many of our competitors.
While the new pricing structure is no longer flat, it is flexible, and based on trading behavior. With our up to 5 for $5 rate, customers will actually pay 50% less than before with our flat rate pricing for trades with 5 contracts. Our other plan caters to the active trader who routinely trades more than 10 contracts per ticket. Customers can also switch between plans in order to accommodate occasional high volume trades.
Plus, OptionsHouse will continue to provide the same flat rate of $2.95 for stock trades.
The decision to change the pricing structure was not an easy decision to make, and while no one can predict the future or how the market will change, at this time there are no plans to modify the pricing structure again in the near future. Rates at OptionsHouse have held steady – and we’ve even lowered pricing on spreads and stocks over the last 3 years. The goal at OptionsHouse has always been to provide a solid value for all its customers.
I hope this helps explain why some things are changing right now at OptionsHouse. We do our best to be as transparent as possible and welcome all feedback.
Thanks so much for your questions!
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
The 2 rate plans “sound” flexible but if you change the rate plan in the middle of the day, the new rate won’t be effective until the following trading day. Here is the FAQ from Optionshouse:
04 Can I change my commission plan in the middle of the day, and when does it take effect?
Yes, you can change your commission plan at any time (24 hours a day) and the change will be applied to the account on the next trading day beginning at 7:30 am CT. For example, if you change your commission plan at 6:00 am CT, the change will take effect at 7:30 am CT the same day. If you change your commission plan at 8:00 am CT, the change will take effect at 7:30 am CT the FOLLOWING day.
This means if you want to trade in high volume in the middle of the day, you’ll need to pray that the market does not change dramatically the following day so that you don’t miss the boat. If you can do that, then yeah, it is FLEXIBLE.
Shannon, I have one suggestion.
Why bother with 2 rate plan when it doesn’t make any sense for customers who trade less than 10 contracts to use the “$8.5 + .15/contract” rate and customers who trade more than 10 contracts to use the “$5 up to 5 contracts + $1/contract after” rate.
Instead, just use this structure: $1/contract up to 10 contract with a minimum of $5 commission, and $8.5 + .15/contract with 10+ contracts. The commission charge stays the same and customers don’t have to bother to switch between the 2 plans and don’t have to “plan ahead” if they want to trade high volume, since switching plan in the middle of the day won’t take effect until the next trading day.
I just open an account with them yesterday, hope they approve a college student with no job, of being able to buy call and put. If they do, I will stick with them after I graduate and can trade with more capital when I get a job.
I have both OH and Eoption accounts. I have to say that both offers good value to the customers. While Eoption does charge less ($3 plus 0.1 per contract is a lot less), they do charge you $25 for extended-hour trading. Now, in OH you still get $2.95 for after-hour trading, which I like to do. Therefore, depending on what you trade most, the choice is yours.
Now, for some areas that need improvement, Shannon, I think OH should at least have streaming quotes. Unless I am mistaken, although you can create your watchlist, the quotes are NOT streamed. (Of course you can refresh them, but it is really a pain.) I would recommend OH develop some similar features ASAP.
Regards.
What good is it to pay low commissions if the service is crappy. They don’t email you about changes to your account or their policies (e.g. They never let me know that they were now allowing extended hours trading online or that I had been determined to be a “pattern daytrader”). furthermore, their premarket hours don’t beging until 7:30 a.m. ct and afterhours only runs from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ct. and as for customer service, they are the rudest i’ve run into and they won’t hesitate to give you a wrong answer and then try to blow you off if you question them. Their stock trading platform can get you into trouble since they only offer the option of “buy” and “sell”. If you are accustomed to buying 100 shares but for some reason only buy 70 and then forget and sell 100 shares, you’ve just purchased 30 short shares. the platform is just way too elementary. it definitely is not a platform for serious stock traders.
Ditto on everything you said. I’ve talked to a guy named Ray a couple of times who is a complete jerk. When I first opened the account I asked him via livechat whether OH had a tool that would provide me the same info. that Level II would provide and he said “yes”, pointed me to the “ratio” field, and told me that was total volume of BID and ASK. Comparing that to Level II on the platform I was going to be giving up to go to OH, I told him he was incorrect. Well that was a mistake because when I pressed to get the correct information, he terminated the chat. On another ocassion when we spoke by phone, he kept asking me if there was anything else he could help me with despite the fact that he kept refusing to answer the questions I had asked him.
On several occasions I entered BUY/SELL orders and they weren’t processed. I’m not saying that I entered them and they weren’t filled, I’m saying that they never went into OH system, i.e. they never showed up as an order or in their “activity” field. Here I would be expecting a fill only to look and see that there was no order.
Also, for daytrading, I find their trade ticket to be awkward. The BID/ASK automatically populates with the best price at the time you first opened the ticket. Firstly, if you want to change that price, the field is very small as are the up/down arrows. Secondly, since the field does not refresh, until you have your first negative experience, you may not realize that the ASK has dropped since you first opened the ticket and you end up buying a stock $.5 – $2 more than what the current ASK was. Which brings me to this point. Other platforms will notify you that you are out of range of the current BID/ASK, OH does not.
I will be closing my account.
Ron Miller and Mark,
I’m very sorry you both had such negative experiences as OptionsHouse customers. I noted the concerns each of you expressed here and plan to do a little research internally. I will get back with a more detailed response very soon.
Thanks for posting your feedback.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
Any thoughts on having an iPhone app for trading? ToS and Ameritrade have it, and it’s a pleasure to be so connected.
Directed mainly at Shannon Paul, but everyone take a look.
I have also experianced a rude and put off attatude with a phone conversation this morning. I am totally new at purchasing stocks on line. For that matter, I have not been involved in the stock market for about 5 years, since my local stock broker died. I have just retired and wanted to start playing the stock market again, since now I have more time than I know what to do with, and happly opened the internet and searched google for online stock brokers, coming across all listed. I was impressed with the 2.95 pricing listed with OH so I thought it would be necessary to call with my question ( never buying on line has it’s concerns). My call was answered and I explained I was totally new to the online purchasing market and after asking 4 direct questions on stock terms and pricing, the man cut me short by assuring me he was a stock broker and didn’t have time to educate me on stocks. Total time of this conversation was 1 minute 14 seconds. He asked if he could direct my call to another department and I agreed ( annoyed at this for sure ). The second man answered my call and I explained and asked if he had time to answer my questions. He said he did have time, but also seemed irritated to answer question about on line trading. So I thanked him for his help and we hung up. Total time of the second conversation was 1 minute 27 seconds. Thats when I thought I’de better research Option House a bit more to see if the pros in this busikness agree that the customer service is terrible and degrading, and I can see that it in fact is.
As for that, I think I’ll keep looking to find a broker that is more friendly and has more than 2 minutes to talk to a customer.
@Tyler D,
I apologize for the delayed reply. I understand your frustration about the recent changes to the OptionHouse rate structure. The decision to modify the structure was not a decision anyone at the company took lightly.
Many brokerages offer different rate plans for different types of customers with different trading activity. Unlike many of our competitors, we do not require a minimum balance or minimum activity level to qualify for a different rate, so in that sense, the structure is still flexible. The ability to switch rates in real time may be something worth exploring and I will pass that idea along to the team.
@Michael,
There are a lot of great resources out there for beginning investors. There are webinars on OptionsHouse and a lot of great news and information specific to options traders on ONN.tv (OptionsHouse is affiliated with ONN.tv through its parent company, PEAK6 Online). Investopedia and CBOE also have a wealth of information on their websites. Virtual trading might also be a good idea before risking real money. OptionsHouse has a virtual trading platform and there are other virtual platforms like We Seed (affiliated with OptionsHouse through its parent company, PEAK6 Online), and Kapitall.
@Andrew,
You’re correct to point out the other fees beyond basic rates for trades. Sometimes people forget about the other costs associated with maintaining an account when they shop for brokers.
Thanks also for the suggestion regarding streaming quotes. This one is definitely on our radar and included on a list of future improvements we hope to make soon.
@Ron Miller and Mark,
I’m very sorry each of your experiences was so unpleasant and I will definitely pass along your sentiments to others on the team.
With regards to changes and other important information, OptionsHouse uses a few different outreach methods to communicate with its customers including email, account message center updates and by voice. For new features, it’s customary to send an email announcing the feature along with additional information on the company website as well as an alert inside the trading platform. The extended hours trading announcement in particular was communicated via email and included an alert in the trading platform that customers had to acknowledge before proceeding into his or her account. This approach was selected specifically because of additional risks associated with extended hours trading for investors.
As far as recommended changes to the trading platform, I’m glad to pass along the feedback to the team and appreciate you taking the time to articulate specific ways to make things better.
@DHBandler,
That is definitely a great idea. We just launched a mobile trading platform that works very well and we are exploring other ways to improve mobile account access, including native applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Droid.
@Ed Meshechek,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I think it’s probably safe to say we have all had that kind of interaction and know how exactly how frustrating it can be. I am very sorry you had this kind of experience with OptionsHouse.
I would really like the opportunity to connect you with George Ruhana. He is the CEO at OptionsHouse, and I know he is very interested in hearing feedback from investors like you. Please let me know if you are interested and I will connect you with him directly. My email address is spaul[at]peak6[dot]com.
Everyone,
Thank you for continuing the conversation about OptionsHouse and for providing so much great feedback on how we can make the experience better for everyone moving forward.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
Per Shannon Paul. You are a salesperson; your job is smooth the waters. You say “The extended hours trading announcement in particular was communicated via email and included an alert in the trading platform that customers had to acknowledge before proceeding into his or her account.” Bullshit stinks whether out of the mouth of a crusty old sailor or the sweet petite girls are spice and everything nice. I call BULLSHIT! If such a notice was developed, it did not reach all accounts.
I open an account with optionshouse around late October. It was done after looking at positive reviews from this website and few others. Since I am a day trader, I also love the fact that each trade only costs 2.95. Now you’re wondering how was my experience? It was exactly like Ed’s.
I rarely ever called customer service. However, I called the one time in my whole life because there was a GLITCH in their platform. The total account value DOES NOT match to my realize gain/loss and unrealized gain/loss. There was a difference of $500 dollar. I immediately called customer service to sort this out, but the guy was extremely rude and flat out told me “he does not have time for me”. I was shock the live support would say something like that. I decided to call to confront them and also to fix my issue. Guess what happen? Another guy said the same thing. He told me I’ll have to send in an e-mail so they can look into it. I told them that’s fine, but give me a timeline as when it’ll be taken care. Then comes the irritated voice, just send an email (repeat 3x) which completely ignores my questions. Then he said, are we done? I have other customers I need to help. At this point I am mad, because there is a missing $500 in my account with OH and he isn’t doing anything about it. I told him what do you mean other customer? you can even help the one you are talking to right now. Then I paused, knowing I had over $40k with them I don’t want to piss HIM off, because he might end up holding MY MONEY hostage. So I end up politely told him I’ll send an email to get this fix. Total conversation time was LESS THAN 2 minutes.
So what happen? They email me saying nothing is wrong with my account, without giving me any reason. They refer me to the maxit tax calc program (which shows your realize and unrealized gain/loss), that was completely pointless because I had been looking at that the whole time. I end up spending almost 2 hours, calculating all the buy&sell activities to figure out why I am missing $500 dollar. It turns out, the “GLITCH” was that an order was process at an correct price, but showed an incorrect account value. How that happen was I made a limit order for xyz stock at $15.20 but then I cancel it, then I input a limit buy order at $15.25 for the same xyz stock. The stock was executed at $15.25 like it should, but my account value was calculated from the $15.20. Hence when the price of my stock drop, there was an additional missing negative $500 dollar on top of what I had loss.
After using OH for barely 2 month, I am planning to close my account. I understand since a trade only cost $2.95, the customer service couldn’t be that great. But seriously, they are even worst than Sogotrade (and they are already bad), I am planning switch back to use them for my day trading (at least they don’t flat out tell me they do not have time to fix my issue). I also uses Scott trade & Tradeking for my long positions, I would recommend them for better customer service, but they are in a different price range. For anyone that wants to use OH PLEASE STAY AWAY. The $2.95 per trade is not worth it when when customer service treats you like TRASH. I have never been treated so badly by any online discount broker and I’ll be sure to tell all my friends to stay away. Long waits when calling customer service is one thing, but flat out telling you they do not have time to help or listen to you is another.
Other than the change in commissions, I find OH to be a good broker. There used
to be a problem with doing an ACH transfer, but that is now corrected. I also just transfered some money between accounts, and it went off fine.
I have been looking at eOption as a broker, but their interface is rather primitive, as you have to type in the option symbol.
There are two comments I would like to make:
1) On the order entry ticket, I would like it to give the price of the spread at the
mark rather than the market. I usually do much better than the market price….
much closer to the mark price.
2) I trade some of the indices that have weekly options listed, such as the OEX and SPX. I would like to use OH for this as my other broker (TOS) is very expensive for commissions.
Optionshouse have changed their rates so dramatically, in some circumstances by in excess of 1000%, that all the wonderful stuff you read above no longer applies in any way shape or form.
4 months after joining them for their rates I have to move again because many of the startegies which I apply have become totally non-profitable.
How about
$2.95 + $.65/contract (1 – 10 contract)
$7.95 + $.15/contract (11 – 100 contact)
$17.95 + $.05/contract (101 – unlimited)
-You will get more small player to switch over, you will be very competitive with e-options since the extra 55 cent/contract cover the quality of your trading platform and several of the other fees associated with maintaining an account.
-The guys trading 11 – 100 contract won’t get affected since they are already with you to begin with, and are alright with your fee change from the $10 flat rate already.
-You will attract the big account plus the big guys who were use to the $10 flat rate will probably stay and say “now it seem fair”.
Its a win win situation. Enjoy the holidays. Finger cross, hope optionshouse approve of this new fee structure for options trading.
If not, than the least you could do is this:
$2.95 + $.65/contract (1 – 10 contract)
$7.95 + $.15/contract (11 – 100 contact)
$12.95 + $.10/contract (101 – unlimited)
I would suggest that anyone who communicates with OH record their phone calls and keep screenshots of your livehelp chats; I have and can support any and all of the negative reports I’ve stated or would state. I’d like to add that I have pulled my money and stopped trading with them DESPITE the fact that I still had 45 free trades – they just aren’t worth it.
FURTHERMORE, for those want to trade extended hours, the money that I could have profited had they provided realistic extended hour trading (pre-market 8:30 ET to 9:25 ET; after-hours only 4:00 ET – 5:00 ET) far exceeded any commission saved verses other online brokers.
Ron Miller,
I just hope we can discuss your concerns in a calm manner. I am actually not a sales person at all. In fact, my only exposure to a sales environment was watching the Glengarry Glen Ross film adaptation (sorry, bad joke).
My goal here isn’t to minimize any negative experience you, or anyone else here, have shared, but to acknowledge your concerns and communicate these things back to the team in order for OptionsHouse to continue to improve.
I apologize for the delay, but I was able to check with our operations team to see if there was any glitch in our system that might have resulted in a lack of communication regarding the details of extended hours trading.
Our system reports that you confirmed receipt of the notice on 12/2/2009 at 8:40:49 Central Time. I can have a customer service representative send a screenshot of the notice if you would like to view it. Please contact me at spaul[at]peak6[dot]com if you would like me to have customer service contact you.
Marc,
I am very sorry for your negative experience with OptionsHouse customer service. I appreciate the feedback and will definitely pass along the details you have shared here.
Amkr,
I’m glad your experience at OptionsHouse has been positive. Thanks so much for the suggestions. I will gladly pass them along to the team.
Alberto,
I understand your frustration over the rates change, but please know this decision was not made lightly. The reason for the change at OptionsHouse is due to recent changes in the market that caused payment-for-order-flow to decline significantly this year.
Since I’m not sure how familiar you may be with this practice, payment-for-order-flow is the securities industry practice of providing a monetary incentive for brokers to route their orders through a specific market maker. While OptionsHouse closely monitors order execution quality, when things are equal, we accept payment for order flow in order to pass on savings to our customers.
OptionsHouse was not alone in this practice, but we were one of the only brokers to pass on this savings to its customers. However, since more symbols are trading in pennies, the downward trend in payment-for-order-flow will likely continue, making our old flat-rate structure unsustainable.
Michael,
Thank you. I really appreciate the trouble you went through to outline what you feel would be a better pricing structure. I will certainly pass along your input.
Thanks again,
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
It seems to me that something is definately wrong when 90% of the reviews are negative. I’ve been a ‘reviewer’ of reviews for a long time and that is generally not the case at all. I stated to open account with Options House and let me tell you, what a hassle. I have 5 other brokerage accounts (all I assume have to adhere to similiar guidelines to open an account and all are well known). First, Options House says for my personal account they ‘could not identify me by my social security number’. So i had to provide a bunch of other stuff which I don’t have. I just opened an account on Trade Monster, have not traded yet as I am waiting for my funding transfer and they have no problems at all. I then tried to open a corporate account for my business and again Options House says they can not verify my FEIN number (which i’ve had since 1996). They direct me to form SS4 which is a form to APPLY for a FEIN. Well, i already have one and I have never been asked for that form in 14 years, don’t know where it is and certainly don’t need it as I can assure you that the government knows my FEIN and it is correct. In the past two years I’ve opened accounts ad TD, Fidelity, Thinkor Swim, TradeMonster and never had a problem with any of them until Options House. It’s a shame to. I understand platform development and expansion is an ongoing process and they seem to have a lot to offer and understand the needs of their customers to a point. There is potential there which is why I wanted to give them a shot. But, they are making it so hard to even get the account open I’d doubtful I will be able to use them.
I really hate liars and people who try to cover up their errors. This is the email I received on 12-2-09; it say NOTHING about extended hour trading!!
“To Our Valued Customers,
OptionsHouse has implemented a new pricing structure with two distinct rate choices: “$8.50 + .15/contract” or “Up to 5 for $5″ where five contracts are only $5, plus $1 per contract over five.
With this new, tiered pricing structure, you’ll not only get one of the lowest rates available, you’ll also get the flexibility to choose the rate that works best for you. Plus, you can change your rate once a day. For more information on our new pricing structure, please visit our Rates Page. Please be assured – even though our rates are changing, our commitment to providing competitive prices and a solid value is not.
You can choose your new rate immediately. If you do not choose a new rate by December 15, 4:30 pm CT, OptionsHouse will automatically default your account to the $8.50 + .15/contract rate. So please note: your account will remain at the previous flat-rate structure until either you select a new rate, or OptionsHouse automatically defaults your account to the $8.50 +.15/contract rate on December 15, 4:30 pm CT.
Here is how to select your new rate:
Click the “Manage Accounts” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen
Select “Manage Account Preferences”
Go to the “Rates” tab and select your new rate
After making your selection, click the “Save” button in the bottom right corner of the screen
If you have multiple accounts, you will need to select the rate for each account individually. If you have already selected your new rate, you can change it once per day using the same instructions above.
Please don’t hesitate to call Customer Service toll-free during regular business hours (Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm CT, except exchange holidays) at 1-877-653-2500. You can also use our live help feature while you are logged into your account, which is at the bottom right hand corner of the screen, or email us any time at customerservice@optionshouse.com and we will respond promptly during regular business hours.
Sincerely,
OptionsHouse Customer Service”
Wait, you are actually going send my ideal to the team, well then, I am going to take my time and actually come up with a competitive price structure then.
Since everyone seem so mad about the flat rate changes…
and to be fair to Options House…
$2.95 + $0.40/contract (1 – 10 contracts/trade)
$4.95 + $0.20/contract (11 – 50 contracts/trade)
$9.95 + $0.10/contract (51-100 contracts/trade)
$14.95 + $0.05/contract (101 – 500 contracts/trade)
$39.95 Flat Rate (500 – unlimited contracts/trade)
0r
$2.95 + $0.40/contract (1 – 10)
$4.95 + $0.20/contract (11 – 50)
$9.95 + $0.10/contract (51-100)
$14.95 + $0.05/contract (101 – unlimited)
0r
Up To 5 for $2.95; Each additional contract: $0.50
$4.95 + $0.15/contract
Marc,
First of all, let me suggest how to “reconcile” your positions with OH. Forget about “gains or loss”, only reconcile the cash – usually is the option buying power, and review for positions only. This way, regardless of how they calculate the gains or losses for you, regardless of how they price it, you will get the value consistently.
Now, talking about OH’s trading experience, I would have to say, I am a little disappointed. Today, it looks they did not get the options pricing right and I did get a message from them, only later. It says that this is due to “exchange error”, but my other brokers reported correct prices, therefore, I don’t know this is “really” an exchange error. If I use OH as my only broker, I would have made bad decision about my trades, Shannon, you need to tell them to communicate earlier when this issue happens.
Ron Miller,
I think I understand the miscommunication here.
The email you reference is an entirely different piece of communication. You’re right; the price change email did not communicate anything about extended hours trading.
The alert I was referring to above was something you would have seen upon logging into your account on 12/2/09. When you logged into your account on this date, the alert would have shown instead of the regular home page inside your account. In order to access your account on this date, you would have had to click on a button to acknowledge receipt of this particular communication.
The time-date stamp I reference in my previous comment is in relation to this alert – not the email about the pricing change at OptionsHouse.
Again, I apologize for any confusion and would be glad to connect you with a customer service representative who could provide a screen shot of the particular alert intended to communicate the details around extended hours trading.
Richard,
I’m not sure it’s fair to say that 90% of OptionsHouse reviews are negative. In fact, most are very positive. However, I am sorry the process to open your account has been so frustrating. I did some checking with customer service on the items you shared. You do have an account with us, but I cannot post the details here due to our customer privacy policy.
I would be happy to connect you with someone who can assist you directly. My email address is spaul[at]peak6[dot]com. Again, I apologize for any difficulty you’ve had with this process.
Michael,
Again, thanks for sharing what you think would be an ideal price structure. However, please know that not all of our customers are upset with the price change. Many customers report being very happy with the recent changes and our number of new account applications has been very strong since making the announcement.
I’m happy to pass along your suggestions to others on the team.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
Recently, I have been making investment at Optionhouse, I am very happy with them. If you buy and sell often (even I am not a day trader, sometimes I had to sell once I think I made a bad decision), the fees make it possibly for you to get out (or in) without hurt. Their fees on options is also very great.
Kai-Chih Chang
I suspect that as a happy client of OH you might be in the minority.
Please read some of the other entries regarding the outrageous exponential increases in fees and the irritating dual rate system which is very painful to deal with.
You’ll find it difficult to ignore so many people complaining about the same thing.
OH commisions are now barely average/fair as long as you trade fairly infrequently and under 5 contracts.
If however for example you trade Iron Condors which have very tight margins then they have gone from the best option around to being totally impractical.
Paying 25% to 50% upfront of what are only POTENTIAL profits just to initiate the transaction is simply bad business for active traders.
A four leg Iron Condor of 100 contracts per leg used to be $14.95, now the same trade costs $94. An overnight 650% increase.
EOption.com commission for the same transaction is $32.
And OH please don’t respond to this with the childish “but XYZ are even more expensive”. That’s an argument as juvenile as I would hear from my children when they were four years old and trying to justify their misbehaviour by bringing their sibling down with them.
Compare yourselves instead to your most realistic competitor and not to the worst horse in the race because then all you’d have to be is a just minutely less than Fidelity’s fees.
Between them my 2 accounts only amount to approximately $200K which is insignificant for OH to even notice but if enough of us leave it may get their attention …….
Optionsxpress where I still have another account has a fantastic platform and tools and I have traded there quite successfully for about 6 years.
I only recently moved 2 of my accounts to OH for the great rates which they had at the time.
4 months later that competitive advantage is completely gone. Optionsxpress is now competitive in terms of rates and has a far superior trading platform.
Its a good thing I hadn’t yet gotten around to transferring that account (~110K) over to OH. It would just have been yet another account which I’d now be forced to move.
BTW Any suggestions regarding alternative brokers, that might be a competitive alternative to EOption.com in terms of platform/execution as well as having reasonable commission rates, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and I wish you all successful trading in the new year.
Alberto
Alberto,
I am actually considering transferring to Eoption. I have been thinking that they would probably raise the commission, but so far there is no such indication.
I do not trade a lot in Eoption though, because it is an rollover IRA. I would have to say they are good for order execution. They do have java-based streaming quotes, but it looks that they do not allow you to leave the streaming quote open and simultaneously enter orders. But that is ok for me since I use E*Trade for streaming quotes anyway.
The biggest down side for Eoption is that their extended-hour commission is $25. If they lower it to standard commission or even a little bit more, I would transfer all of my accounts to them.
Just2trade is another good option, I like them a lot. They used to have big issue with their clearing firm – North American Clearing Corp. But after that firm went bankrupt, everything seems fine with their new clearing firm – Legent Clearing.
Andrew,
Sorry for the delayed reply – yes, there was a problem with options pricing in our system on January 4. I apologize for any problems you experienced and I will definitely pass along your feedback regarding earlier notification to others on the team. Thank you.
Kai-Chih Chang,
Thanks so much for weighing in – it’s always good to hear from happy OptionsHouse customers.
Alberto,
I understand you’re unhappy with the recent rates change at OptionsHouse, but as I stated in a previous comment, not only are we still very competitive from a rates perspective, the decision to move away from flat rates was due to changes in the industry with respect to payment for order flow. Broker News Blog has a well-reasoned explanation about how pressure on margin rates and bid/ask spreads are affecting how brokerages will continue to charge for trades: http://www.brokernewsblog.com/index.php/20091207262/Broker-News/News/OptionsHouse-Pricing-is-The-New-Normal-SCHW-OXPS-AMTD.html
For future reference, please note that a four leg, 100 Iron Condor at OptionsHouse would only cost $72.50 (not $94 as you suggested above). And, this same trade at EOption would actually cost $52, not $32 ($3 per leg plus $.1 per contract). At OptionsXpress this trade of a four leg 100 Iron Condor would cost $500 with their Active Trader rate and $600 at their regular rate – more than five or six times what it would cost at OptionsHouse.
I hope this helps provide some insight. If you ever need any clarification about how OptionsHouse stacks up against others in the industry, please feel free to contact customer service directly.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
I have been with Optionshouse for about a year and now have 6 separate accounts with them. I am surprised at the number of negative imnpressions about OH and thought I should speak up. I have been very satisfied with OH so far. I trade quite frequently, although not a daytrader and I think I saved quite a bit on commissions. I mostly trade call options, spreads and stocks usually under 20 contracts. For this requirement I found OH to be quite inexpensive. I used to have (still have) Optionsxpress account. It has a fantastic platform but the commissions are much more expensive. Stocks cost 14.95 and options cost 15 per 10 contracts. That is much more expensive thanOH.
Other specific things I like about OH:
-Easy to get approved for level 4 option trading. I am still not approved for that at Optionsxpress.
-Same price for broker assisted or online trades. I am relatively new at trading options and needed help in setting up a spread one time and a synthetic long another time. Both times, I was helped right away by the customer service and they guided me step by step in placing the order. She even asked me if I was sure about the strategy. In fact, I have contacted customer service several times for other things and have never had a rude response.
However, I do have issue with some things which are very basic but are not available.
-There is no way to set alerts linked to stock movements.
- I cannot transfer money between different OH accounts. I have to email customer service, and they will transfer. I have never seen that with any other brokerage.
-I cannot differentiate accounts by using nick names
-I cannot change cost basis of a stock on the platform. I have to email customer service to do it for me. That is archaic.
-Mobile platform is very rudimentary. I love the Optionsxpress app.
-Already discussed issue of executed trade alert not being sent.
But overall, the cost structure is very favorable and as I just realized, there is someone from the brokerage who is actually listening and responding to issues. I will support this kind of company any day.
Different brokerage firms has pros and cons.
For Optionshouse, I would have to say it is a very fine broker. In addition to Ravi’s comments, I would have to add one more:
Streaming quotes, which are very important to me.
Sogotrade has streaming quotes and the cost structure is ok. But they charge ludicrous margin rates: 7.25% versus 4.25%.
Personally, I like Eoption more, but do not trade after-market.
I used to have just2trade account, everything is NOT bad at all. However, if you have a day-trading call and not meet that call (I did not get any communication that my account fell below $25,000.00.), your account will be restricted for one-year. Other brokers have 3-month policy. Therefore, I moved out.
Now, just so you guys know, as of 1/12/2010:
Sogotrade’s streaming quotes are NOT working.
Eoption has order entering issues for “e-spreads”. (They told me that I can call and do it with the broker, but I will need to call to modify or cancel the existing order.)
My point is that every broker has its problems here and there.
Optionshouse is not so bad, but could be better.
I have come to an conclusion and I am going to go send in my copy of driver ID and SSN to complete my new account application because Shannon Paul actually answer people back instead of hiding, Optionshouse is always trying to improve, and they have the option to withdraw through an ACH online. Their commission seem alright I guess, better than Fidelity, I can tell you that. I don’t know how I ended up trading 48 time with Fidelity last year with a 1k starting balance account and now its only at about $850. They made about $960 commission from me in 2009. Options trading, here I come, more leverage than those 3x ETFs.
Michael,
Just a recommendation, and I am not in any way trying to make fun of you.
If you have 1k, do NOT trade frequently. Guys (like me) trade more just because we make pennies but for big chunk of shares.
I would buy something and write covered calls (that is what I do for IRA accounts).
Just my two cents.
Ravi,
Thank you so much for providing such detailed insight into your experience as an OptionsHouse customer. I’m also glad to hear you appreciate our efforts to listen to our customers and respond. The feedback you provided here is extremely helpful and I will definitely include your suggestions to others on the team.
Please feel free to reach out to me directly with feedback or suggestions at any time so I may pass them along. My email address is spaul[at]peak6[dot]com.
Thanks again!
Andrew,
Thanks for the input. Your point about streaming quotes is definitely noted. If you have other suggestions or feedback you think would improve your experience as an OptionsHouse customer, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Michael,
I’m very glad to hear that you appreciate our responsiveness to OptionsHouse customers online. Thank you for the kind words and all the best to you with your new account.
Shannon Paul
Community Manager
PEAK6 Online, parent company of OptionsHouse
Shannon,
As someone who is in the business of advising corporate clients with customer service and operational issues, there are three things that you need to address ASAP based on the hundreds of comments above.
1- You need to send a SWAT team to hear out your customer service calls, fire those a…holes that don’t have any customer service skills and train the heck out of those worthy of keeping. The comments from customers above are absolutely horrific and certainly gave me pause in moving forward with opening an account at OH.
2- The dual options price structure while perhaps ideal in concept because of the so called “flexibility”, it is a complete detractor from what your customers really want: to make money trading, not having to think about their commission structure each trading day. There are plenty of suggestions above on how to make it seamless for a customer to get the best price if trading 10. Don’t argue with the customer, just get rid of this silly price scheme, it is distracting, confusing, and annoying.
3- Lastly, quit apologizing! It makes you sound powerless. Don’t tell people you feel your pain, you don’t. If someone has an issue on this board, empower them by calling you directly or have them call the customer service center and get them transferred to you directly. Deal with the issues head on. Apologizing simply gets people more annoyed.
Good luck.
I have been using OptionsHouse since the summer of 09. I obviously do not like the new commission structure like the rest of you (who wants to pay more when they were paying less?), and it does make me worry in the back of my mind…”great, I wonder what future negative changes they will have in store for us next.” And to be honest, I have also cut down on the number of option trades I’ve been making ever since they killed off the flat rate trading. However, I did look around for another broker this past month, but even with OptionsHouse new commission structure, I still haven’t found a better deal anywhere else (yet).
I checked out eOption like others mentioned on here, and while they are less expensive than OptionsHouse, they need to make significant improvements to their trading platform before I’d even consider switching. I still haven’t found anything better for the value that compares to OptionsHouse’s “3 clicks and you’re done” trading platform, which I find very seamless and impressive for a web based platform. Plus eOption has a separate platform for realtime quote information, which is not directly connected to their trading platform. That’s a waste in my opinion.
The only brokers I have traded with in the past that have faster and more effective trading platforms (in my opinion) are those that charge you between 3 and 5 times more per contract, like Ameritrade/Schwab/Fidelity. TradeMonster is a decent alternative, but a little more expensive than OptionsHouse, and their platform is a little bit of overkill.
But anyway, it’s really a shame that OptionsHouse’s low price strategy didn’t work out. They clearly were counting on traders to come running over from the more expensive brokers in droves, but it obviously never happened, otherwise they’d still probably offer flat rate options trades. I’m a little confused about why there weren’t more traders who transfered over. I guess some just didn’t mind paying more. I didn’t recall ever seeing any commercials on tv either that advertised the less expensive commissions…that might have helped. Perhaps another broker will offer flat rates again one day.
For now though, I am still trading with OptionsHouse, and I am waiting for them to add more advanced orders (like order-triggers-order, order-cancels-order, etc.), which they have pushed back due to the new commission change. I will probably post another update again in the summer, unless I find a new broker before then (which I doubt).
Jes, What I have found to work successfully, and you may want to consider, is to split your trading across more than one platform deploying trades according to the different strengths of each platform. Pick the optimum horse to run the specific course. My suggested combination would be Optionsxpress.com and Eoption.com.
If what you are looking for is an extremely sophisticated, user-friendly and powerful platform with every research and analysis tool you could probably wish for then please take a serious look at OptionsXpress with whom I’ve had accounts for 7 years. ( I only recently had switched 2 of my trading accounts to Optionshouse specifically lured there by the rates on multi-leg trades).
If you compare the OptionsXpress and Optionshouse platforms on the basis of features and professional performance then Optionsxpress unquestionably beats Optionshouse hands down.
It is a far more sophisticated platform, higher reliability and availability, superior analysis features and tools, better front-end user experience, better browser compatibility, better mobile compatibility etc etc etc. (If you happen to travel regularly try using Optionshouse on a standard sized netbook to see one example of what I’m referring to. Optionshouse’s response was “well you could phone the trading desk and we’d place the trade for you.”)
On the basis of features there is simply no comparison. Optionsxpress comes first and but I suspect Optionshouse would be much further down the list than second. And in 7 years no unreasonable nasty surprises.
I still conduct most of my analysis and research as well as a considerable portion of my trading on Optionsxpress because in most instances their fees work out to be no higher than Optionshouse.
When I decided to start deploying some Iron Condor stategies Optionsxpress fees for these types of trades were admittedly prohibitive which is why I very recently had switched 2 of my accounts to Optionshouse, lured their by their flat-rate pricing.
What I however cannot accept is a “service provider” drastically and unreasonably (600%-1000% fee increases) changing the rules after the game is well underway.
The major reason for my anger at this point is that I must now rank Optionshouse alongside all the other sleazy bait and switch operators out there. If I really wanted the agravation of dealing with that kind of underhanded practice then I’d go buy a second-hand car from a guy in a loud plaid blazer at a dealership in a low-rent neighbourhood.
EOption might be less sophiticated as a platform but their prices seem to make some of the stategies which I want to deploy more feasible.
As long I conduct the remaining half of my trading on Optionsxpress it will continues to provide me with access to their far superior research tools and between those two platforms I will have the best of both worlds.
It also gives me the tiny satisfaction of having reacted appropriately to Optionshouse’s bait and switch practices by taking my business elsewhere, and by continuing to spread the word among fellow traders , friends, colleagues and online sites not only of their technically average/mediocre platform but also of their proven tendency to spring unpleasant and disproportionately unreasonable surprises on their client base.
Once bitten, I now have no confidence that they won’t pull another similarly unpleasant stunt with little notice at any time in the future.
Newsflash for Optionshouse, active traders as a general rule don’t like surprises, neither from the markets nor from their service providers.
Shannon, please don’t bother to respond to this posting with your usual patronizing and empty platitudes. Words are cheap. Any significant action however to address your clients’ disgruntlement has been highly conspicuous by it’s total absence.