E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades • Hacker News Board

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#51

Post by slackfan » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 2:26 AM UTC

fourstar wrote: post #36

justboxing wrote: post #25

E*Trade, Schwab, and pretty much every other brokerage is playing catchup with RobinHood, which has had free trades on stocks and options from the very beginning. This has caused a steady exodus of users on these commission charging platforms, crossing over to RH. It's especially pronounced with Millenials and Gen-Z / "Post millenials". You may not always get the best pricing, and also there are no market trades as o…

I think this logic is hilarious. You really believe that the “millennials and zoomers” actually have enough capital to compete with these traditional brokerages? Robinhood doesn’t event pay out dividends. You’re overselling it. Their education for options is basic at best. PLUS anyone who is serious about playing options should actually invest time in learning it. If anything, its cleaner ui makes it easier for said…

Huh? I get my dividends hitting my account when stuff I hold in RH pays out.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#52

Post by dhhdhdsbdb » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 2:34 AM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #41

omarhaneef wrote: post #12

Maybe all of you read every word Matt Levine writes as I do, but in case you don't, here is his explanation: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-02/the-tr...

I love reading his stuff. I would honestly pay up to one of two dozen dollars a month for his very high quality thinking.

Totally agreed, and I'm not even much of an investor.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#53

Post by sitzkrieg » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 2:47 AM UTC

bobcostas55 wrote: post #30

basch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Id venture robinhood is getting a little too much credit here. The order this happened in was Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E trade. They were obviously all prepared to do it in the event one of them went for it. Interactive Brokers did this more to give themselves a competitive edge over Schwab, TDA, and E Trade. That lasted about a day.

Kinda sucks that IB started a whole new (gimped) service for this. I want my TWS and API access, why can't they let me choose whether I want to pay commissions or let them sell my order flow and do the trades for free?

if it makes you feel better, their API is text based and doesnt use message delimiters, so update TWS with great care, because a single new character off in any message will break your entire stream of data, order execution(and especially combo) entries, etc..

They also have some of the worst real time market data available (intraday), absolutely horrendous historical market data request rate limiting and more. Great brokerage, but if you're interested in API for more than orders I recommend other services for realtime data

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#54

Post by 1123581321 » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #41

omarhaneef wrote: post #12

Maybe all of you read every word Matt Levine writes as I do, but in case you don't, here is his explanation: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-02/the-tr...

I love reading his stuff. I would honestly pay up to one of two dozen dollars a month for his very high quality thinking.

Are you saying that as a Bloomberg subscriber?

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#55

Post by thisisit » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:03 AM UTC

Does this apply to RSU accounts opened by companies for their offshore employees too?

The brokerage some of my colleagues pay to E*Trade is huge. $15 per trade to sell RSUs. And sometimes it gets too costly for them to sell RSU because of the brokerage costs.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#56

Post by StevePerkins » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:09 AM UTC

benmanns wrote: post #5

Does anyone (outside Robinhood) do 0 commission options trades?

Firstrade has been doing so since the middle of last year. Although if you choose to actually EXERCISE an option, rather trading it prior to expiration, then there are fees involved in that.

ETrade's annoucement says that they are eliminating commissions for stock AND option trades. But the fine print says that they're still charging $0.65/contract. Apparently, it doesn't count if they use the phrase "contract charge" instead of "commission". https://about.etrade.com/newsroom/press-releases/article?qmo...

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#57

Post by StevePerkins » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:14 AM UTC

scotch_drinker wrote: post #37

benmanns wrote: post #5

Does anyone (outside Robinhood) do 0 commission options trades?

TD Ameritrade just started doing it. https://www.tdameritrade.com/why-td-ameritrade/free-stock-tr...

Read their fine print. There's still a "contract charge" of $0.65/contract. Apparently many of these players are eliminating commissions by using a different word for it instead.

As far as I know of, only Robinhood and Firstrade have true zero-cost option trading. And even then, there can be fees involved if you actually exercise options.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#58

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:22 AM UTC

ummonk wrote: post #43

If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product. In this case they’re selling your order flow.

People pay for order flow because retail customers are, on average, idiots. If you didn't get paid, you'd still be just as smart or dumb as you ever were, you just wouldn't be getting a rebate.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#59

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:24 AM UTC

1123581321 wrote: post #54

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love reading his stuff. I would honestly pay up to one of two dozen dollars a month for his very high quality thinking.

Are you saying that as a Bloomberg subscriber?

I think his interests are not exactly in alignment with Bloomberg...that's why you can subscribe to his column for free, without paying for the rest of Bloomberg. I have a feeling it won't last forever.

Re: E*Trade Announces $0 Base Commissions for Online Stock, ETF, and Options Trades

#60

Post by matorl » Sun, Oct 06, 2019, 4:51 AM UTC

sitzkrieg wrote: post #53

bobcostas55 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda sucks that IB started a whole new (gimped) service for this. I want my TWS and API access, why can't they let me choose whether I want to pay commissions or let them sell my order flow and do the trades for free?

if it makes you feel better, their API is text based and doesnt use message delimiters, so update TWS with great care, because a single new character off in any message will break your entire stream of data, order execution(and especially combo) entries, etc.. They also have some of the worst real time market data available (intraday), absolutely horrendous historical market data request rate limiting and more. Great…

Who do you recommend for an API for more than orders? Just yesterday I was looking at IBs data streams to figure out if they give me what I need without hitting rate limits.