OptionsHouse Rating: 
Rating:
Website: www.optionshouse.com
Fees: $2.95 / stock trade , including Broker assisted. Options from $5 / trade
Account Minimums: None*
Transfer Fees: Up to £100 reimbursement on transfer costs.
Virtual Trading: Yes
Trading Platorm: In house no frills, easy to use platform
Tools / Resources: Streaming charts, news and analysis
Customer Service: Very good! Barron’s 2009 Online Broker Survey ranked them #1 in trade experience
*No minimum account balance but initial account opening funding of $1000 required for cash accounts. $2000 for margin accounts. No Foreign (Non US) accounts.
STOP PRESS!! Get 100 Commission FREE trades if you sign up with promo code FREE100 before April 30th 2010!
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Background: OptionsHouse, as you would expect is primarily an options broker but don’t let that stall you if you are purely a stock trader. They also cover stocks, bonds and mutual funds and at $2.95 / trade you maybe can’t afford to ignore them!
They were founded by one of the biggest options traders, PEAK6 Investments and are members of SIPC therefore offering insurance cover of up to $500,000 ($100,000 in cash).
They were recently awarded “Best For Options Traders” by Barron’s 2009 Online Broker Survey and rated #1 in Trade Experience, so they are clearly making a good current impression.
Pricing: On pure price, OptionsHouse are difficult to beat. Just $2.95 per stock trade and that includes broker assisted. That is significantly lower that anyone else out there at the moment. Options trading pricing is equally competitive starting at just $5 for 5 contracts, with a standard option fee of around $9.
Types of Account: OptionsHouse offer the following accounts: Individual, Corporate, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, Traditional IRAs, Joint, UTMA, UGMA, Trusts, Partnerships, Investment Clubs, and Educational IRAs.
Click Here To Visit OptionsHouse
Trading Platform: The trading platform is simple and professional and thankfully devoid of too much clutter that is found on some platforms. On the main screen you can access your account summary and order status as well as your current open positions.
You also have access to a quote look up and more detailed information on particular stocks. Note the quotes are not streaming so you will need to refresh your screen to get up to the minute quotes.
You can also customise your dashboard to a degree.
OptionsHouse has yet to offer any kind of trading ‘community’ in the form of a forum but they do have a regularly updated blog.
Tools / Resources: Whilst it is true that the OptionsHouse tools are aimed at options trading they do have some excellent streaming charts and news.
There is also a risk and probability calculator and a handy stock screener tool.
They also offer webinars on investing and trading topics.
Virtual Trading: OptionsHouse offer a virtual trading account so you can ‘paper trade’ to your heart’s content to test out your stock trading plan.
Account Transfer: OptionsHouse will reimburse you with $100 to cover the cost of transferring your account from another broker.
Click Here To Visit OptionsHouse
STOP PRESS!! Get 100 Commission FREE trades if you sign up with promo code FREE100 before April 30th 2010!
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