Optos Share Discussion Threads

[harvester] 19/7/2014 20:22

zastas: I had a quick look what TDW has to offer . At first glance they have nothing that would interest me .
Their charging system is far too complex , requiring constant vigilance to avoid excessive charges. Their 'phone dealing costs are very high and even their on-line trading costs for the most active traders are higher than the best of the bunch.
Iweb charge a flat fee of £5 per trade for on-line or 'phone trading with no variation for frequency of trading. That takes some beating. The only extra cost , a very small increase, is for placing limit order trades .

[harvester] 19/7/2014 20:08

Some of us dinosaurs still have some puffs in us.
Planning to use some long put options this week to sell some SSE long-term holding shares after collecting the divi .
CFD's save stamp duty but carry other costs . Long-term shareholding not so bad if you buy cheap enough in market dips and collect a decent divi to cover the carry costs .
A long time ago I used to spread-bet options with IG but I much preferred trading options through option brokers. With spread-betting firms like IG it is hard to secure a trade by placing the bet inside the bid/offer range . With option brokers all my option trades are inside that range and the brokers sometimes manage to improve on the already tight limit I set .

[zastas] 19/7/2014 09:59

Are we all dinosaurs?

Perhaps we should all be Spreadbetting and CFDing and margining now; investing is so passee.

FXCM started or rapidly promoted initially its spreadbetting, soon after it took over ODL. Possibly that's where the money is for brokers. But then again, TDWaterhouse seems to be doing really well, expanding by hoovering up countless traditional brokers since it entered the UK by buying Skipton BS's sharedealing in about 1997.

Remember those days? Even though I believe TDW offers some spreadbetting through a liaison with IG or City I think, its bulk of income comes from traditional services, with minimal or no platform charges and lower dealing charges.

[harvester] 18/7/2014 18:21

Placed 6 stock option trades today; all with another broker .
Not prepared to pay for phoenix with live or delayed prices .
If they don't reveal their trading costs soon I will switch the entire account .
I previously enjoyed very low trading costs with FXCM with no set minimum but costs with my alternative broker are not much higher .
I liked the old account information system which FXCM used to provide but they have lost that edge .
The new account summary under Phoenix is much inferior to what was provided before. Missing collateral, stock holding and option value which no longer listed .
I guess that the whole system change was very badly planned and managed .

Today I added to BT december call spread among other trades .
Bought more dec 380C/400C spread @ -8 . New 4g services to be introduced by BT look promising if they can get it to work seamlessly .
MY July Ftse calls and AZN puts and calls ended with full gain.
Now just short AZN March 3600puts and AZN August 4000Puts/5000calls . My only August position at present . Tried to write august ftse 7050 calls but premiums offered were too low .

[alphorn] 18/7/2014 13:04

I have a few trades to do before the end of July - the monthly fee is waived for a minimum of 3 mthly trades? The commission is way way lower than the trades through Swiss banks but from what is said higher than competition in the UK?

[profitaker] 18/7/2014 13:01

6200 puts expired OTM.

Phoenix - don't like it, and $90 a month for real-time option prices ??? I really don't think so !

[zastas] 18/7/2014 12:58

Thanks for posting; there must be more of us on here reading.

I indeed expect there to be more who will leave PHOENIX. Unless they revert back to a free usage for a minimum-once-monthly-trading, the charges are now way higher than the competition. SAXO is for me the best to compare with, as their platform looks similar. In fact, it is technically more developed ( but also more challenging for the older irregular user like me) and they offer definitely more markets ( Portugal, Bonds, FX options etc) and yet they charge nothing provided you trade once every 3 months.

For frequent, very frequent FX and CFD traders it may be worth it but for investing and option writing I can not see it as good anymore, given the competition. We seem to all agree that MyBroker was a gem, and was for me worth paying for.

I would have thought that most brokers make a lot, and often far more, from lending our cash balances overnight in the money markets. For them just getting 0.2-0.5% adds up in my case to far more than the dealing charges; waving those for large cash holders seems a non-brainer to me. Essentially that's what TDDirect does by charging nothing to anyone with just a moderate cash holding of , from memory, about 5-10k. I shall ask FXCM before my December deadline.

[hop53ton] 18/7/2014 10:37

I've just closed my old ODL account. At times in the past I've used it frequently for covered call writing and MyBroker was absolutely ideal for me. But I've really struggled even with the basics on Phoenix using my linux pc and there seems no way of avoiding the monthly platform fee without at least three trades per month even though I don't want continuous live data from them. A real pity, but I suppose it's a way for them to weed out irregular and stick-in-the-mud clients like me. Enjoy reading this thread from time to time btw.

[harvester] 17/7/2014 17:35

Has anyone here attempted to place an online trade using Phoenix yet ?

Has anyone else placed a telephone trade under the new Phoenix system and at what trading cost ?

Lucklily I have no ITM July expiries with FXCM.
My July expiries of AZN with Sucden are also well OTM .

[harvester] 17/7/2014 15:51

This morning they had the stock options price feed working but not yet the price feed for ftse index options .

[zastas] 17/7/2014 15:02

Agree, option displays now working well today. Leaves the high platform monthly charge.

[harvester] 17/7/2014 10:12

At last there is some progress with phoenix.
They have corrected the gross data error in my account and the options price feed now appears to be working.
Strangely, two dates are offered for selection in each strike month . Don't quite know why .

[alphorn] 16/7/2014 10:04

Don't know - don't write index options!

Perhaps IG?

[harvester] 16/7/2014 10:00

ALP: thanks; same as I am using now for stock options.
Where can we get ftse100 index options from now ?

[alphorn] 16/7/2014 09:52

Harv - yes, this one:

hxxps://globalderivatives.nyx.com/en/stock-options/nyse-liffe/contract-list

No account with Sucden.

[harvester] 16/7/2014 00:32

ALP: ta for response. Are you referring to the "ICE" site quoted by Youna above or some other Liffe site ? If so , which one .
It appears that they will be charging a high price for live options prices which were previously available free on 'phone enquiry . Without direct access to current live prices , placing an on-line trade order is like shooting
in the dark .
My impression is that they have been overwhelmed by the change-over problems and stream of 'phone calls by puzzled customers . Eventually things will settle down as people get used to the quirks of phoenix but I fear that I will still dislike the platform change even when the bugs are sorted and when I understand phoenix better and can navigate more easily .
Do you still hold an account with Sucden ? Apparently they are going to bring option prices to their Smart platform in a few months time .

[alphorn] 15/7/2014 22:15

Harv - I have been letting some of the dust settle; I should have a quiet week or so trading but will do some tests next week. In the meantime am reading the posts here carefully.

PS. have got more used to the new LIFFE site.

[harvester] 15/7/2014 20:12

ALP: how are you getting on with the phoenix system ? Had a response yet what your trading costs will be in future ?

[harvester] 15/7/2014 20:09

zastas: thanks for update .
I have checked the sep RBS options you refer to .
They don't appears to be real data. As mentioned before , the bid and ask prices displayed for options by phoenix are identical for each date/strike , i.e. not real prices but nonsense . You can get phoney option prices listed for more strikes by hovering at the bottom of the option window and extending it but won't get real information . The option window right now only gives an indication what the display would be like if they get their option feed from the exchange going .

The trading prices listed on the rate card are hugely greater than my previous trading costs .
I was not using their Mytrack , hence not missing it . However I miss their previous account data , account summaries and rolling statements . The charge for phoenix they will apply is discretionary , depending on your trading . I can't imagine they dare to charge for July after all the chaos on changeover .

Prof: They are overwhelmed by all the 'phone calls and problems with phoenix they have to sort out . Running around like headless chicken, trying to keep the business going. By the time they reach some state of normality they will have lost a lot of customers .
Don't expect to get a 'phone call from them . Just keep ringing them and insist that they sort it while you are on the 'phone . An e-mail wouldn't hurt to get it documented that you are waiting for their response .

[profitaker] 15/7/2014 16:12

Still can't get on. Spent an hour on the phone to them trying to FIND my account !!! Waiting for a call back, utter shambles !!!

[zastas] 15/7/2014 15:31

Harv,

No problem logging on just now.

But......still delayed option display not working well. Again most strikes and prices for RBS Sept missing, incl my own written ones of puts 320. These may be bugs we should give them some time to iron out, but they will need to be for me to stay.


But....I have just checked the emailed rate card. Trading charges much the same; for just freguent equity buying/selling they are not competitive with almost all competition. CFDs, I rarely use now, but are 10 bps: does that mean essentially a 0.1% fee? Used to be 0.2% when I used them last in 2009, so perhaps cheaper there then.

Most 'shocking' of all is that the basic PHOENIX platform, with only delayed data, is going to cost £25 per month. That is only just below what I paid for TRACK - provided I traded once a month- with 5 pages of live data incl option prices, and so well that Prof called them the d... .......s.

Although I understand that service has to be paid for somehow, it's not a good offer. Even SAXO charges £25 only every 3 months, and nothing if you trade once/3 months. Idealing also has some charge, but it's a lot less than PHOENIX, and at least their dealing is very,very competitive.

So I am struggling to justify staying with Phoenix, when I have all the others too, and am already thinking about ditching SAXO too. I shall stay till all option positions have expired and/or been closed by me, if too deep in the money. That's December as decision time.

Sadly Track's charge for just LIFFE would also now be too much for a simple retail person like me, I believe they want $85 per month.

Wonder how Prof 's getting on; perhaps he had failed to update his email at FXCM. I have done something similar in the past. Can't understand why else he did not receive that email.

[harvester] 15/7/2014 13:37

Had problem logging into phoenix this morning.
Once logged in , could not get a rolling statement for my account. Anybody else able to load a rolling statement ?

For vodafone phoenix only listed option prices for one strike in July and the bid/ask prices were identical as before . No joy yet in getting trading costs info either .Hence no trades with FXCM.

Trades placed with other broker:

STO 1x RDSB dec 2200Puts @20 to complete 2200/2800 strangle.
STO 1x BP dec 540calls @ 4.75 (covered call)
STO 2x CNA dec 280P @ 4

[harvester] 14/7/2014 19:56

Prof: have you been able to log on to phoenix yet ? What do you make of it ?

Alp: have you found out yet what your trading costs will be under the new phoenix system ?

[harvester] 14/7/2014 19:55

zastas:
the options displaying on my phoenix screen all show identical bid and ask prices, i.e. they are not prices I can use to place a trading order . FXCM are still waiting to resolve the price feed problems .
The equity prices displayed in the "last trade" window are all delayed prices.
That last trade window is of no use to me unless it gives current live prices which I can get free from ADVFN or an ADVFN competitor .
The bid/ask price displayed for equities has a bid/ask range but also appears to give delayed prices . Besides, commissions for equity trading are so expensive with fxcm that I would not dream of placing an equity trading order with them unless forced to do so by option assignment . I do my equity trading through iwebshare dealing which has a flat fee of £5 per trade . Makes a huge difference !!
As far as options are concerned, delayed prices are alright for preparing a trade order but at the point of dealing I need to know the current live price which I was able to get before by telephone trading at favourable price.
Now I don't know what the new costs are and hence have stopped option trading with fxcm until that has been clarified .
Fortunately I only have short FTSE call options expiring this week which are well OTM .

[zastas] 14/7/2014 14:02

Looking better on today's trading day.

I was able to bring up most of the option displays ( but for instance Barc dec 14 failed to do so), and even my holdings are well displayed, even though different from Track. Track will always be missed, but I may be able to live with Phoenix. I still need to investigate the charges, but perhaps all the delayed data are now completely free, even without once monthly trading.