• Trading Software and Operating Tools 


First, there are generally two sites which are seen as the "best" for options trading: optionsXpress and TradeStation. Both of these have their perks and their reasons that you may decide to work through them.

OptionsXpress is a great place to start because they don't have an account mini-mum. They do ask a $12.95 commission on trades, and OptionsXpress only takes $1.25 for each contract. The fees can be a tad iffy depending upon your trade volume but generally, the fees are low compared to other options. The other great thing about options trading by way of optionsXpress is that they have a lot of features that you'd really come expecting. For example, they offer real time quotes, and also allow you to look at options chains. Even better, optionsXpress doesn't charge you extra at all for using these tools. Bear in mind that in the world of finance, platforms will always favor those who are able to move more shares and who trade more often. But with that said, as far as a cost-effective options trading platform, OptionsXpress has you covered.

If you have a bit of money to invest, then you can go with TradeStation. TradeSta-tion is generally ranked up there with optionsXpress in terms of powerful options trading platforms. And indeed, it's hard to find one much better than TradeStation. In exchange for a bit of a hefty account minimum, TradeStation offers you a vast number of useful tools tucked right into their super handy platform. For exam-ple, you'll find yourself using features like automatic trade execution rather often. TradeStation is also built for people who understand technology such that they can develop, test, and sell their own trading strategies to other enterprising investors who may have an interest in such a thing. Of course, this doesn't mean necessarily that you have to use this utility, but it can undoubtedly help you should you decide to use it. It has a high price tag with it, but it's complicated to find a platform that is much better than TradeStation at what it's supposed to do: be a simple and straight-forward platform which is highly extensible and super easy to build upon, should that be what you're wanting.

However, these can get somewhat convoluted. What if you just wanted simple, low-cost, and easy to understand, then its hard to beat eOption. eOption is fantas-tic for low-capital investors who want the platform to just simply get out of their way and let them do their own thing eOptions has an account minimum of $500, which isn't too much in terms of options trading, and their rates are incredibly flat. They take a $3 trade commission, as well as fifteen cents for every contract that you decide to be involved with. If you haven't traded two times in the last year, or if you have less than ten thousand dollars in either your credit balances or your debit balances, you'll pay a fifty dollar fee for "account inactivity". They have an incredibly low margin rate, which means that their trading costs are low. The only place that you might get caught up is that they have a lot of data fees and platform fees. These can be a veritable cash rainbow of prices, and clock in at anywhere from $1 to $200 in a month, or possibly even more depending upon what all you're doing on the platform. As far as design and ease of use, there's not too much that's different from the others; there are an array of features that are available to you. Nothing particularly stand-out or surprising, but it certainly isn't a drab platform either. It's well-featured and if you just want a simple and low-cost platform other than optionsXpress, it's incredibly challenging to find something that will fill those shoes better than eOptions.

In terms of powerful trading platforms, there are two reigning kings: TD Ameritrade and OptionsHouse. Both have their own perks. Either one of these has one of the highest tech and fully loaded trading platforms that you can ask for, as well as with specifically useful features that you as the end user will find especially neat and handy.

TD Ameritrade doesn't have an account minimum and it takes a $9.99 trade com-mission. In addition, they have a promotion running which gives you six hundred dollars when you make a specified deposit. That can certainly be alluring in its own and give you a bit of extra capital to work with. TD Ameritrade operates on one of the most revered trading platforms in the business. Known as thinkorswim, this platform is specially created for active investors who are wanting the opportunity to get their hands on high quality tools and research, as well as who would like to try out different strategies or practice cost observation by analyzing the risks and benefits of specific interactions they could make on the marketplace. In addition, TD Ameritrade offers the Trade Architect service, based on the internet, as well as a Mobile Trader application for smartphones and other mobile devices. Should one use Trade Architect instead of thinkorswim, they'll find it lacking a bit in tools and services compared to the awe-inspiring thinkorswim, but nevertheless they'll still find an absolute wealth of sophisticated features that they'll find useful regardless.

The other super impressive platform that one may be interested in is aligned with the OptionsHouse eTrade broker. They offer a vast array of tools which are usu-ally relegated to financial professionals who make an entire career out of carefully watching and analyzing the markets in different ways. In other words, they have a vast number of tools that will benefit the type who wants to be an active trader. OptionsHouse too has a decent trade commission: $4.95 per trade. They don't have a specific account minimum, and they offer a thousand dollars in free commissions when you make a specified deposit.

Lastly, there are a couple platforms which offer a significant amount of utility in another way: the absolute wealth of market research and market data that they'll have available for free to any enterprising users who decide to use these services. In this category are Charles Schwab and Fidelity. Fidelity has a $7.95 trade commission and a $2,500 account minimum. However, in return for this hefty minimum and hefty commission rate, you get access to one of the best stores of knowledge in the industry. They get a considerable amount of re-search, more significant than almost anybody else, and they offer a lot of research from over twenty industry giants, such as McLean Capital Management. They make it super easy to access all of this and it also comes free with your account. They also offer an application for your mobile device which lets you access all of the research by way of your phone's built-in web browser. If you're looking for raw research, it's hard to do any better than using Fidelity Investments as your broker.

However, there is a tad more to knowledge than simply research, and Charles Schwab excels where Fidelity falls short. They have a $6.95 trade commission and a $1,000 account minimum. Additionally, they'll give you five hundred dollars in cash if you make a specified deposit, which once again could be useful for building up some expendable capital to use for your trading. In addition to a lot of raw research, Schwab has a tremendous amount of support for active traders, offering things such as trade assessment tools to allow you to see whether or not a trade you'd like to make is a bright idea. However, they also offer to you a ton of options market discourse by the analysts hired by Schwab, as well as seminars, both live and pre-recorded, both online and in-person. What's more is that the in-person seminars are free to users of the service, because Schwab has a lot of branches throughout the country. What's more is that Schwab offers two top-notch plat-forms for stock trading. One is geared towards newer options traders, called StreetSmart, and the other is geared towards far more active traders, called StreetSmart Edge.

Really, knowing what options broker to go with is a matter of knowing yourself and your situation. Do you have a lot to spend on options trading? If you don't have a lot of investment capital, it's much better to start small and not invest too much in the first place, since your capital matters more to you by virtue of there being less of it. If you have a lot of investment capital and a basic idea of how to trade options, you'd be served well to go with one of the more research-heavy brokers geared at active traders. That too is a consideration in and of itself; do you want trading to be a significant part of your life? For example, do you want to do more with trading than just check the market every morning before work and night before bed? Do you want to spend a significant amount of time working on your portfolio and evaluating specific decisions to see which one would result in you making the most significant profit? If so, then you might find that you'd find yourself happier in the ones with a greater wealth of tools.