Futures Options Commissions

tom

Well-known member
Administrator
Since I trade a lot of ES futures options, I am interested in what different brokers are charging for their commissions. Here's what I found so far:

Exchange fee is $1.23 and the NFA fee is $0.02. There are typically a few other small fees but this should be close enough.

These fees are in addition to the broker commissions below.

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Since I'm already at IB, it looks like a good place to stay.
 
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Here's an update on the Interactive Brokers commissions I paid earlier today:

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Today it looks like I paid $1.42/contract total. I'll ask IB how that is broken down.
 
I'm with TOS, on /ES contracts I am paying commission of $1.50, exchange fees of $0.55, and NFA fees of $0.02 = $2.07
 
I'm with TOS, on /ES contracts I am paying commission of $1.50, exchange fees of $0.55, and NFA fees of $0.02 = $2.07

Hi Larry.

Did you negotiate that rate?

I'm looking at some TOS futures options trades I did recently and the fees for one ES futures options vertical:

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Exchange fee: $1.10
NFA Fee: $0.02
Commissions: $4.50 ($2.25/contract)
------------------------
Total $5.62
Per contract $2.81

I can't find any other broker that changes $0.55 exchange fee for ES e-mini futures.

Here are a few listing of exchange fees from different brokers:


This aligns with IB's $1.23 exchange fee and the $0.02 NFA fee.
 
Hi Tom:
The last time I negotiated a fee structure with tos was 3-4 years ago. At that time, I was not trading futures at all, almost exclusively options and at that time, I negotiated a better option commission, $0.65 per contract (including spx, rut, ndx), but the pricing structure increased my equity trade commissions but don't remember to what price. Likewise my futures contracts were priced at $1.50, but again, I wasn't trading those. Of course since then, equity trades are free, and tos has added exchange fees of $0.66 for spx and $0.18 for the rut. I suspect Schwab acquiring TD Ameritrade might be an explanation. Still quite a discrepancy between IB and TOS.
 
Of course since then, equity trades are free, and tos has added exchange fees of $0.66 for spx and $0.18 for the rut. I suspect Schwab acquiring TD Ameritrade might be an explanation.
I can't speak for futures but just to clarify Schwab acquiring TD had nothing to do with TOS passing along the index fees of $0.65 for SPX that was already like that before the merger and it's still that way now and Schwab is also still not charging any index fees for SPX or RUT
 
Just spoke to TOS regarding my MES futures they charge me $2.25/contract so round trip is $4.50 but they will bring it lower depending on volume I do after 2 months between $1.00 to $1.50/contract approx.
 
Hi Yogesh,

If you have any military service, TradeStation is a program calls Salutes. Futures commissions are $0.45 per contract:


Regular TradeStation futures commissions are $1.50. Until July 31, they have a 50% discount on futures commissions. $0.25 for micros and $0.75 for full contracts. Seems like it's "locked-in" with a promo code of FUTRAFZT. MES margins are quite good too:

1653342172890.png
 
Hi Yogesh,

If you have any military service, TradeStation is a program calls Salutes. Futures commissions are $0.45 per contract:


Regular TradeStation futures commissions are $1.50. Until July 31, they have a 50% discount on futures commissions. $0.25 for micros and $0.75 for full contracts. Seems like it's "locked-in" with a promo code of FUTRAFZT. MES margins are quite good too:

View attachment 3984
Thank you Tom!
 
Anyone tried the other discount futures brokerages to find out what other fees are required for platform or data to get the real cost of trading ?
 
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