Options Trading

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Bees ZA

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Good Evening.

Anyone here busy with options trading?

What platform do you use because I can not seem to find anything in South Africa.

I know about Robinhood but they are not available in our country and I am now looking at thinkorswim.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
if you just want to take advantage of the movements in price without actually exercising the actual option then you can use gt247

you can still go long and/or short with them
 
thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade has some great reviews. I've not used them for options trading but I like both their standard and stand-alone, thinkorswim, platforms for stock and ETF investments. There is no commission on trading shares nor ETFs. They have no inactivity or monthly fees but for option trading I believe you need a minimum $2,000 deposit. They charge $0.65 per options contract, which is basically the same as most other well-known brokerages in the US.

Opening an account with TD Ameritrade is cumbersome as you apply online but have to fax the required documents to them. You can use a service like FAX.PLUS to fax online. It takes about a week or 2 to open the account. They then send your account details and PIN to activate your userID via snail mail. Once you receive a welcome email you do not have to wait for the account details in the post as you can just phone them for the details using TextNow as this app gives you a free US number.

Seen a few people recommending Interactive Brokers but they have an inactivity fee if you do not trade enough or do not have more than $10,000 invested. This inactivity fee is $10 pm for less than $10,000 invested or $20 pm for less than $2,000.
 
DarkImpact said:
Seen a few people recommending Interactive Brokers but they have an inactivity fee if you do not trade enough or do not have more than $10,000 invested. This inactivity fee is $10 pm for less than $10,000 invested or $20 pm for less than $2,000.
Click to expand...

IBKR Lite is free, no minimums. Margin rates aren't as good, but they're still better than anywhere else.
 
JayM said:
IBKR Lite is free, no minimums. Margin rates aren't as good, but they're still better than anywhere else.
Click to expand...

I looked at IBKR Lite and last I checked only US and Indian citizens/ residents can open the non-Pro account. A few comments on South Africans not being able to open the Lite account in the below. Care to share how I can go about opening one as a South African? When I tried it automatically started opening a Pro account.

 
Bees ZA said:
Good Evening.

Anyone here busy with options trading?

What platform do you use because I can not seem to find anything in South Africa.

I know about Robinhood but they are not available in our country and I am now looking at thinkorswim.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The liquidity in the SA market is too low to trade.
You also need a very large account to open one up.

The fees and liquidity in the US is amazing as most of the world trade there.
The 2 top contenders are TD Ameritrade/thinkorswim (my preference) and Interactive brokers.
 
bchip said:
The liquidity in the SA market is too low to trade.
You also need a very large account to open one up.

The fees and liquidity in the US is amazing as most of the world trade there.
The 2 top contenders are TD Ameritrade/thinkorswim (my preference) and Interactive brokers.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
DarkImpact said:
I looked at IBKR Lite and last I checked only US and Indian citizens/ residents can open the non-Pro account. A few comments on South Africans not being able to open the Lite account in the below. Care to share how I can go about opening one as a South African? When I tried it automatically started opening a Pro account.

Click to expand...

Never actually tried opening a lite account, but you could be right.
 
I was looking for something as simple to understand as robinhood. Gives you all the information you need on a UI that actually looks good and easy to read.

Snyper564 said:
Just remember your zar caps 1m SDA and 10m FIA
Click to expand...
Luckily not even close. Thanks for the info tho.
 
Bees ZA said:
Anyone here busy with options trading?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

If you are interested in options trading I would recommend listening to Tom Sosnoff

I was fortunate to meet him once, very nice guy.
I believe he was one of the co-founders of thinkorswim.
After he sold it to TD Ameritrade he spends his time helping people understand the market

His youtube channel: tastytrade

www.youtube.com

tastytrade

tastytrade is the fastest growing Financial Network in the galaxy. Tune in and watch 8 hours of live, actionable Market Talk everyday during Market Hours.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
bchip said:
If you are interested in options trading I would recommend listening to Tom Sosnoff

I was fortunate to meet him once, very nice guy.
I believe he was one of the co-founders of thinkorswim.
After he sold it to TD Ameritrade he spends his time helping people understand the market

His youtube channel: tastytrade

www.youtube.com

tastytrade

tastytrade is the fastest growing Financial Network in the galaxy. Tune in and watch 8 hours of live, actionable Market Talk everyday during Market Hours.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
Just FYI, I've got an account with TDA and from signup to other requests I've sent, I've not had to fax or post anything to them.

Just .com email them instead via international@tdameritrade
 
Bees ZA said:
Good Evening.

Anyone here busy with options trading?

What platform do you use because I can not seem to find anything in South Africa.

I know about Robinhood but they are not available in our country and I am now looking at thinkorswim.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
The best broker to use would be IC markets, they an Australian based broker but you can trade with them if you in South Africa, the thing is that most of these other brokers in South Africa are scams. For example JP markets that exit scammed with over R2 billion of clients funds. Avatrade is still okay but stay away from non reputed brokers like trade245. A friend of mine works at the firm and he tells me how these guys actually rob their clients. The broker is run by this JP Markets guy's (Justin Paulse) brother. My friend is a customer service agent and deals with the complaints. If you need trading tools then Forex Genics would be your best option.
 
Any other suggestions for legit brokers for a south african to trade forex? I mean even if they overseas as-long as they legit?
 
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I've started to do some paper trading to see if I can eek out a small profit before investing my own hard earned. If you have any must see education content regarding Options, please share. I'm watching and reading as much as I can at the moment.
 
Selling my first puts this afternoon when the market opens. Eeeek.
 
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