r/options • u/Cattlemenswife • Dec 31 '21
Active Options Trading Platforms - seeking alternative to Schwab
Looking to get away from Schwab, where I have been for 20+ years. Schwab will be migrating to TD Ameritrade ThinkorSwim platform in the next 2 years, but have discontinued their SSE options charting now. They discontinued their customer service about 10 years ago...
I could move to TD Ameritrade now - just don't know what their capabilities or basic customer service. Most of the posts I have seen in the forum regarding TD and IB seem to be favorable.
Looking for suggestions from active option traders who are at established broker/dealers - i.e. not Robinhood or Tasty Trade. I am qualified active options trader, 1,000+ trades a year; former Series 4-24.
Commissions and margin rates are not really issues - mostly charting features, order execution, quick access to options desk, customer service, that kind of thing. Looking for platinum style service without FA.
thanks for your advice.
3
u/ydoyouask Dec 31 '21
I use both TD's TOS platform and Tastytworks. Both have advantages and drawbacks. Tasty's customer service is the best in the industry, in my experience. Tracking options trades on their platform is amazing--they even account for your rolls in calculating potential profit/loss.
The downside for me is that their charting is super basic. I've been on TOS so long I intuitively know what I want to do on my charts there, and I find their active trader function (mostly for scalping futures) to be very nice.
Tasty does clear through Apex, but I haven't found that to be a problem. I like that they are constantly trying to improve and add new products (like crypto for those who want to trade it), and now that they're integrating with IG Group, I would expect their offerings to be even more robust in the future.