Best Options Brokers
Options trading is when you buy or sell an underlying asset at a pre-negotiated price by a certain future date. It can be a way to speculate on the prices of various assets and allows for flexible trading strategies. It can also be a way to hedge risks and requires less initial investment up front than some other markets.
Options are a flexible investment tool that can help you take advantage of any market condition. With the ability to generate income, reduce risk, or take advantage of your market views, options can help you achieve and leverage those goals.
Before you can start trading options, you will need to show that you know what you are doing. This is because options are considered riskier than some other forms of trading. Compared with opening a stock brokerage account, opening an options trading account can require larger amounts of capital and more experience.
That being said, there are many brokers that provide options trading which you can choose from. We have compiled this options trading guide to help you understand more about option brokers and what to look for during your search for one.
Top 10 Options Brokers
ASIC, BaFin, CFTC, DFSA, FCA, FINMA, FMA, FSA, FSCA, JFSA, MAFF, MAS, METI, NFA
$250
1974
1:200
AvaTrade
AvaTrade provide impressive options trading at competitive prices via professional and powerful desktop platforms along with an intuitive and versatile options trading app.
The AvaOptions trading app features 13 option strategies, including spot, call, call spread, call ratio, put, put spread, put ratio, straddle, straddle, butterfly, condo, risk reversal, and seagull option strategies. Everything is managed from your mobile device, whether it’s an iPad or an iPhone.
Further the AvaOptions app offers interactive screens, and intuitive functionality, for a wide range of financial instruments, including options, indices, gold, and currency pairs. Plus, there are complimentary demo accounts available, with no registration needed.
Traders have access to any strike, and any expiration date up to 1 year. There are live streaming trades available 24/5, with multibank liquidity provided. The option strategies can be applied to dozens of currency pairs, and commodities like silver and gold as well. Trade sizes will vary from 10,000 to 10 million.
Whether you are novice or expert in options trading, receiving comprehensive support can help you with your options trading strategies. AvaTrade’s state-of-the-art AvaOptions trading platform equips you with powerful market analysis and trading strategy tools to make informed decisions and trade options with confidence.
IG
With IG, you can trade flexible online options and speculate on a range of assets. You get the expertise and support from one of the best CFD providers in the world. They are established and regulated in multiple jurisdiction which can give additional peace of mind to investors.
You can choose from a range of expiries and trade on a breadth of markets when you trade options with them. Choose the option to suit you and trade major indices, shares and FX with daily or weekly, monthly and quarterly options.
They enable you to buy and sell options with no closing spread when you hold them until their fixed expiry date. You can develop options trading strategies using a variety of options and take a position on rising, falling and even flat markets all over the world.
IG have a generous range of educational content for you to discover the fundamentals of options trading, including: what are options, which markets you can trade, what moves options prices, and how to get started with options trading.
City Index
At City Index you can diversify your investment portfolio by trading options via CFD trading or spread betting (UK only) with daily, monthly and quarterly contracts available. You get full access to the brokers intuitive options ladder via the advanced desktop platform and convenient mobile apps for iOS and Android.
City Index offer traders a wide range of opportunities across markets including indices, commodities, forex and metals. They are a regulated broker with a huge selection of financial instruments and very competitive trading conditions including low fees, tight spreads and rapid trade execution speeds. Forex.com is another trading broker under the same umbrella which further emphasises the stature of the company.
E*TRADE
Whether you’re in-the-money, or out-of-the-money, E*TRADE can help you keep on top of your portfolio with intuitive tools for trading options on stocks, indexes, and futures. You pay no per-contract charge when you buy to close an equity option priced below a set value. This allows you to close short options positions that may have risk, but currently offer little or no reward potential, without paying any contract fees.
Options on futures offer nearly 24-hour access to react around potentially market moving economic events. You can choose to hedge existing futures positions, earn premium or speculate while using less funds upfront. Plus, you could diversify into metals, energies, currencies and more. The broker has lots of helpful content where you can learn the basics of options, explore strategies for trading them, and see how they may fit into a portfolio.
Swissquote
Swissquote is a multi-asset trading platform where you can build your own diverse portfolio with a huge selection of financial instruments to choose from. They have a fantastic selection of industry leading platforms where you can trade options and CFDs with some of the lowest fees that you will find from any broker.
You can also get free access to some powerful trading tools including the brilliant Autochartist. These can be very useful to help you find opportunities in your preferred markets. Beginners are well looked after with lots of handy educational resources.
In terms of safety, the broker is regulated and are part of the large Swissquote Group Holding Ltd company who have a proven track record of offering financial services since 1996. One of my favourite aspects of this broker is that their support team is very prompt, polite and efficient with their responses.
Freedom24
Founded in 2008, Freedom Finance, the official company name of Freedom24, has already offered to its 400,000+ worldwide clients participation in 280+ IPOs, including 40,000+ trade stocks, 1,500+ ETFs, 1,000+ US Stock Options and 147,000+ bonds on the largest exchanges in Europe, Asia and the US.
Firstrade
Firstrade provide traders with access to US markets for trading Stocks, ETFs, Options, 11,000+ Mutual Funds and lots more. They have a good range of platforms with powerful trading tools and versatile accounts. Fees start from as low as $0 but they do not offer CFD trading.
Saxo Bank
Saxo Bank is a regulated broker that offers a huge selection of over 42,000 financial instruments for trading on advanced platforms with good trading conditions including tight spreads, low fees and rapid execution speeds. They also provide daily market analysis, powerful trading tools, educational materials and managed portfolios.
tastyworks
tastyworks is a USA broker that has professional trading platforms for retail traders to trade in an intuitional environment with all of the tools and education they need to reach their goals.
Plus500
Founded in 2008, Plus500 is a regulated and leading online trading broker providing a large range of 2,000+ CFD instruments for trading on their simple and clean proprietary trading platforms with very competitive trading conditions.
84% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Conclusion
Here you will find our best option brokers, based on thousands of hours of extensive research, testing and analysis across hundreds of brokers. Upon conclusion of each of our broker reviews, we have assigned each broker with a rating.
Some of the most important factors that contribute towards a good broker for trading options online have been considered including things such as the available options, other financial instruments, platforms, apps, tools, execution, liquidity, fees, education, funding options, regulation, customer service and more.
Each of our chosen options brokers have undergone and passed our stringent broker reviews with flying colours, based on what we consider to be amongst the most important considerations when choosing an option broker for trading online. These brokers are well-established within the online trading industry, providing top options trading conditions to traders and investors of all experience levels.
Having the best options brokers according to our findings listed in one place, can help you save time when looking for the best option broker for your own individual needs.
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