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Options trading is quickly becoming one of the most popular methods of trading. While all brokerages generally have this offering, it is important to know which one is best suited for your individual style of trading. It takes some time to get used to a platform so that you are always on top of it and don’t suffer because of a lack of user experience. Here are 10 of the best apps and websites for options trading for you to kick off your options trading journey:
Optionality
Optionality has completely re-imagined the options trading process as we know it. They are a street-smart mobile trading app designed to help manage your risk and shop multiple pre-packaged spreads, all in just a few clicks! Optionality aims to make the complicated process of options trading a bit more approachable for casual traders. The app features multiple options trading tactics for stocks and ETFs by pre-packaging spreads into a streamlined menu. Users can compare these pre-packaged option spreads in featured risk buckets, ‘lower risk’, ‘medium risk’, and ‘higher risk’, pre-filtered for liquidity and expiration. They utilize pre-trade metrics and helpful data to give each trade context about the associated risks before you place a trade.
Webull
WeBull is a website and community-driven mobile-focused online broker that allows you to invest in thousands of companies with the help of their online in-depth analytics tools. You get to enjoy intuitive, powerful advanced charts with multiple technical indicators and Premier Level 2 Advance Nasdaq Total View. You get to make the best 30 bids and offers on NASDAQ and also have availability of NOII and Time & Sales. It provides for commission-free online stock trading to help cover the full extended hours of smart trading, allowing you to diversify your portfolio using ADRs, ETFs, Stocks, and Options.
TastyWorks
Tastyworks is an online broker site that believes that they are one of the pioneers of options trading for retail investors and the team consists of some of the most experienced in the industry. The team at Tastyworks helps you to secure your investments via the simple method of ‘see it, click it, trade it.’ They provide curve analysis, quick roll and quick order adjustments (to allow option position to roll into the next expiration cycle), percent of profit limit orders ETF-equivalent futures DELTA, and in-app trading ensures that you are able to make proper trade investments that are beneficial to you.
Robinhood
Robinhood is an American financial services website that is known to offer commission-free trading of stocks and exchange-traded funds via a mobile app which they introduced in 2015. They require no per-contract fee, exercise fee, or assignment fee. They divide customers into two levels, based on trading experience, financial situation, and investment objectives – If you’re designated a Level 2, you can execute long calls, long puts, covered calls, and cash-covered puts. If you’re designated a Level 3, then along with all the above trades, you get the whole collection of fixed-risk spreads that include Iron Butterflies, Iron Condors, and also Credit Spreads.
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers LLC is a website that allows you to invest in bonds, mutual funds, ETFs through a global market. They make use of trading tools within the TWS or Trader Workstation platform, making it suitable for professional traders. Their algorithm trading provides you with Market Scanner, Options Strategy Lab, Strategy Builder, Risk Navigator, and Volatility Lab. You also get access to a portfolio builder. This website is quite popular with hedge funds but is forewarned that it isn’t ideal for beginners as TWS requires a $110,000 deposit to start off with margin trading.
ThinkorSwim
ThinkorSwim is a website whose parent organization is TD Ameritrade and which is ideal for the trading obsessed because it is made by people who are obsessed with trading too. You can access this website through the web, desktop, and mobile. The web features have an intuitive interface to help expand your portfolio. You can also try risk-free paper trading before opting for investing actual money. There are $0 commissions on online stock, and their proprietary Sizzle Index (on the desktop) helps to compare the day’s movement against a five-day average. You get to stress test your portfolio too so as to analyze the profit and risk involved in your stocks.
Power E*Trade
Power E*Trade is ideal for day traders and people who are extremely passionate about the stock market. It is extremely easy to use and has feature-rich charting. This website makes use of Technical Pattern Recognition, Earnings Move Analyzer, Risk/Reward Probabilities, Powerful Charts, Exit Plans, Preset Scans, and Spectral Analysis. It draws up charts for automatic support and resistance lines to help identify a technical pattern, views a stock’s expected moves, and uses Snapshot Analysis to provide the risks and rewards of an options trade.
TradeStation
TradeStation allows you to invest in stocks, ETFs, options, futures, crypto, mutual funds, and IPOs. They take zero commissions for stocks, options, and futures and have the following trading accounts – individual and joint, retirement, entity, and funding instructions. TradeStation is ideal for both experienced investors as well as active traders who are looking for long-term capital appreciation. They make use of a simulated trading account to help allow you to test your strategies in real-time but without having to risk your capital. Other than that, there is continued access to the industry’s largest historical market databases to help back-test stocks and options. The TradeStation platform, which is accessible on both iOS and Android, and other independent third-party help in executing their performance with better speed and perfect quality.
TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade provides you with a commission-free online trading experience. They provide commission-free services, which is why there are no platform fees, no data fees, and no trade minimums. It allows virtual trading with fake money, performs advanced earnings analysis, plotting economic data, backtesting with ThinkOnDemand. Traders can create real-time stock scans and also perform advanced analysis, thus bringing perfect clarity to one’s trading experience.
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab provides you with a modern approach to investing and retirement. It has a flagship downloadable trading platform called StreetSmart Edge that helps to provide options traders and day traders all that is needed for them to find any success. Options traders also have access to Schwab’s All-in-one Trade Ticket along with its proprietary order type Walk Limit, which is both considered equally good. Their Trade Source is suitable for casual investors who are looking for clean charting and streaming of quotes. It is often considered one of the best in class for the ‘active trading’ category.
In conclusion, these 10 trading platforms for options provide a variety of features and tools to cater to different trading styles and preferences. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, there is a platform that suits your needs. Take the time to explore and familiarize yourself with the platforms to make the most informed trading decisions.
