Which trading account to choose? Help please.

Thrugelmir

am.jovial said:

lr1277 said:

Are you talking about those products which have expiry dates and are worthless after said date? The ones that work on the ice cube effect and knowledge of the Black-Scholes theorem/model?

Yes. It may not be for everyone or it may be thing of the past or the CFDs have taken over them. But, I personally know people who are making big money trading only in options. CFDs are not yet popular in our country but I will also explore them.  

That's because the majority of people who trade them end up losing money.  Like horse racing if you want to be guaranteed to win, own the bookies. 

am.jovial

Thrugelmir said:

am.jovial said:

lr1277 said:

Are you talking about those products which have expiry dates and are worthless after said date? The ones that work on the ice cube effect and knowledge of the Black-Scholes theorem/model?

Yes. It may not be for everyone or it may be thing of the past or the CFDs have taken over them. But, I personally know people who are making big money trading only in options. CFDs are not yet popular in our country but I will also explore them.  

That's because the majority of people who trade them end up losing money.  Like horse racing if you want to be guaranteed to win, own the bookies. 

I understand the complexities and statistics of people loosing money as day traders and options trader. Thanks for your concern. (Really liked the Daniel Crosby's quote too - it is so true  !!)
 

am.jovial

barnstar2077 said:

If it was easy to make money this way then everyone would be doing it.  If on the other hand you think that it isn't easy but that you are smarter than the average person, then good luck to you, you are going to need it. 

I don't say it is easy and I know about 80% to 90% people loose money from day trading or Futures and options trading. 
I am still looking for a suitable trading platform that allows me to trade options across EU markets from UK and with other usual features like low fees/charges, fast and good platform, reliable etc.  

barnstar2077

Well, I hope you never find a suitable trading platform and continue to invest wisely instead. 

lr1277

Have thought about this a bit more. When my investment club traded options, we were trading US shares on a US brokerage. So the club owned the share and the club sold a call contract for somebody to buy the share at a strike price higher than the buying price. So sometimes the option was taken up and we would lose the shares but gain the money at the strike price. 

If the strike price was not reached we would have the money the buyer paid for the call option.

So having googled, no UK stockbroker appears to offer options, however a few US brokers appear to offer options trading. Look on stockbroker.com. If you choose this you would also have to navigate the US tax system including the W8-BEN form and possibly others.
You suggested you wanted to trade ING, but that would mean somebody would have to own the ING shares to offer a call option for you to buy. I am guessing you would need to find a Dutch or European stockbroker who traded both ING and offered options trading. With my CFD broker I don’t know what happens behind the scenes, but I do know I can buy/sell a CFD in a single company. In which case I don’t know the underlying instrument for you to buy an option in an index or another financial product. But then my knowledge is 17+ years old.
HTH

bd10

Your best bet is Interactive Broker (UK).

They offer you direct access to the CME for futures and options. The only "crypto" you could do would be bitcoin futures but the initial margin is so high, it's de facto a cash market. IB is a proper FCM and the 5 lots you want to bid/offer, this is your bid/offer, IB does not take the other side of bulk up customer orders to a consolidated order that then gets send to the CME. This is important as depending on the matching rules of the contract you trade, you can rest assured you get proper fills. They do not front run. Same for options, your counterparty is CME Clearing. That's hugely important, the last thing you want is to take on counterparty risk with your broker for an OTC options you mistook as exchange traded contract.

If you plan to sell options, you want to contact them directly. They let you do that too but the account size requirement is typically higher. You'll still get margined as per SPAN, they are just super careful. Some US-based brokers do not ask for additional account equity. For that you can check the list the CME has "find a broker". Just contact them. Also, whether you go with IB or someone else, do a background check on the CFTC and NFA for any complaints, fines, legal disputes etc and their excess capital over minimum capital requirements. IB should not have a problem passing these tests given their size.

Lastly, be very wary of anyone offering you commission free trading on a futures exchange. Anything below $0.50 per lot per size plus exchange/NFA fees is unrealistic unless you do serious volume or are part of an incentive scheme. These are institutional rates. Also, be careful with places like degiro. Just google "amsterdamtrader degiro options" and you get the idea...

Otherwise, happy trading good luck!

AnotherJoe

am.jovial said:

Which trading account is best suitable for : 
Derivatives trading (Futures and Options) in key European markets - LSE, Euronext, Frankfurt stock exchange, Nordic and Nasdaq? 
It will be sporadic orders initially (6 to 12 months) and may increase gradually.  
It will  be great if we can also trade cryptocurrencies. 
Any link to detailed comparison of key competitors would also be very useful. Google throws of lot of affiliate content and difficult to trust. Hope it won't be the case here. 

Many thanks for the help. 
Thanks,
Am
  

This is like asking "which type of saw is best to cut my hand off".

Absolutely classic case of "if you need to ask, you shouldn't be doing it"

bd10

To be fair, finding the right broker for one's requirements is not easy, so the question is a fair one imho. Futures are options are as risky as one wants them to be. Outright bets leveraged up to the neck is not the same as running some slow moving spreads in eurodollars. Futures have a bad rep: everyone has an uncle who lost his shirt in pork bellies...But as long as risk is properly managed, don't see an issue with that. Crypto's are a different ballgame, haven't seen any US-based FCM that let you do those (unless it's the CME contract).

am.jovial

We have just opened an account with IB and will explore it. Thanks for all the sensible answers, warnings  (I ignore others) !