eOption Review


When you are an active trader who is focused on low costs above all, eOption could be the right broker for you. EOption provides you incredibly cheap stock and options trading commissions, while its low margin rates put it among the very best in that category.

 

While eOption is focused on costs, they do not offer some of the other features which beginning investors might want. The firm's base trading platform is well and basic.

 

What are the benefits of eOption?

 

Commissions: It is difficult to beat $3 stock trading commissions, especially when you are not an active trader who can benefit from volume discounts which other brokers offer. EOption’s costs for options trading are equally attractive, with just a 15 cent contract fee in addition to the $3 base. The broker-assisted trade costs: an additional $6 in most cases that is reasonable compared with the typical fee that runs upward of $20. However fund investors should note that the firm does not provide any no-transaction-fee mutual funds or commission-free exchange-traded funds.

 

Automated Trading: Part of eOption’s target audience are investors who use automatic trading which is based on newsletter suggestions. How this works: Account holders subscribe to one of the roughly 60 participating newsletters, then authorize eOption to automatically execute recommended trades from that newsletter. Clients can choose the maximum amount per trade - based on dollar amount, number of contracts or percentage of account value - and change their auto-trading subscription at any time. The cost is $5 per trade for equities and $5 base plus 15 cents per contract for options.

 

Margin rates: Margin traders, take note: EOption has some of the lowest margin rates which are available. As of January 2018, the base rate for account balances of $49,999 and under was 6.0%. That drops to as low as 3.5% for balances of $1 million and above.

 

Open to international accounts: EOption allows non-U.S. residents from some countries to open an international account. Those countries are Australia, Austria, China, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Accounts can be opened with a minimum of $25,000 in any combination of cash and securities.