Optionshouse Review — Options Trading Comparison (2012)

OptionsHouse is an online brokerage from where you can trade options, stocks and maintain your IRA. You can get 100 free trades as a new customer when you open an account with $3,000.

OptionsHouse has great tools to help you with your investing, including:

• Risk Viewer will help you with the math of your trade, with the Greeks, the deltas and betas and the overall market risk of your options trade.
• Call Spread Investigator will help you identify the best trade.
• Covered Call Investigator can help you make a good income with covered calls.
• Put Spread Investigator helps with put spread ideas.
• Profit and Loss Calculator
• Probability Calculator
• Trade Generator
• Stock Screener
• Volatility Charts

OptionsHouse is also a member of the Securities Investor Protections Corporation (SIPC), which means if OptionsHouse gets in trouble or files bankruptcy, you will not lose the money you have parked there.

OptionsHouse has competitive and flexible pricing, which is important when you trade options. OptionsHouse is not just for trading options, they are also a brokerage house where you can also have your IRA, checking accounts, brokerage and options account with one firm.

The per trade price and maintenance fees are competitive and beats most other brokerage firms. The minimum required amount is $1,000 to open your account when other brokerage firms and mutual fund companies can require more than this. And only $2,000 to open a margin account.

OptionsHouse has no maintenance fees, no minimum volume requirements, no minimum monthly requirements and the same rates for broker assisted trades. Customer service is among the best in the industry for online brokerage firms.

OptionsHouse is one of the cheapest places to trade, especially options, which can certainly help your bottom line as a trader. The same flat rate also pertains to broker assisted trades.

As a comparison, 50 contracts at OptionsHouse would be $16.00, but at Thinkorswim.com, the price for the same trade would be $84.95. Some other comparisons for 50 contracts would be:

• At Charles Schwab, trading 50 contracts would cost you $46.45
• E*Trade would cost $47.49
• OptionsXpress would cost you $75 for the same 50 contract trade.

OptionsHouse also has educational webinars and videos that will help you learn the different strategies for option trading. You can also call them during market hours to ask your trading questions.

OptionsHouse is not just for options, you can trade stocks as well. The following is a price list for OptionsHouse:

You can trade stocks for $3.95 per trade.

There are two different prices for options trading. Want to trade just a few than the trade would be 5 contracts for $5. If you want to trade more than five contracts, you would pay $8.50 plus 15 cents per contract.

• For a spread trade, the cost is 10 spreads for $10. For more than 10 spreads you would pay $12.50 plus 15 cents per contract. This is good for spreads, straddles and combo trades.
• OptionsHouse has a detailed price list for all trades and accounts.
• .005 cents per share for pink sheets stocks
• Wire fees cost $15 for domestic delivery
• Overnight check delivery is $20.
• IRA accounts have no maintenance cost.

My favorite is the no extra cost for broker assisted trades. Have you ever had a trade on and your computer or internet service was not working. You have to then call your brokerage firm. With OptionsHouse you will not be charged extra for a broker assisted trade.

One of the biggest complaints is that OptionsHouse has shorter than normal extended trading hours. The trading hours at OptionsHouse is 1 hour pre-market and 1 hour after-market. You cannot trade futures or international stocks.

Another complaint is no real time streaming quotes. But this is only for virtual or paper trading, when you have an actual account, you will see real time streaming of option chain price. OptionsHouse is one of the better brokerage firms for trading options. Barron’s rated them at a 4 ½ out of 5 stars in best for options traders, customer service, education and usability.

Online reviews said they had great customer service and I would have to agree. Calling them on the phone was easy and I had my questions answered promptly.

Read the fine print, there are different charges for every type of trade. Penny stocks on the pink sheets costs more. Mutual funds carry their own charges. For option trading, OptionsHouse is one of the best and offer many tools to help you make the best trade.