TASTYWORKS

kenb

New member
Has anyone tried Tastyworks trading platform yet?
Looking at the screenshots it looks very similar to TOS. Great commission rates too.
If anyone has tried them out, please let me know what you think...
Thanks
 
Yes I am using both but TOS is better because it has the analyze tab If you are not using the analyze tab than it's about the same
As far as commissions they are close depending on how many option contracts you are doing
I have not compared them with stocks only
 
i use tastyworks but it's not my primary trading platform so i'm not a power user. it runs on java so it
will run on different operating systems. it's fast, stable and has very good support. commissions are good,
everyone gets the same commissions: options are $1 per contract to open, $0 to close. they cap
commissions at $10 per leg.

they have limited analysis tools, you can plot the risk graph but only with the same expiration. when you try
to analyze a calendar or diagonal they only plot the farther out expiration. there's no "what-if" analysis
capability. if you're looking for analysis, scans or charting similar to thinkorswim you'll be disappointed.
they don't have trade automation capability, only the basic order types. order entry and management is
easy. the platform doesn't have a lot of customization options but what they have is adequate. i like the
platform but if i didn't have other tools for modeling and tracking i would not be able to trade they way i do.
my opinion, anyway. fwiw.
 
Thanks, think I will hold off trading with them until I can fully analyze how the current order will affect the trade, I do quite a few calendars and diagonals.
Though I have ONE for analysis, I think I would miss the convenience and safety of being able to analyze a potential trade on my current positions right before I enter new orders. Expect they will probably add more features over the coming months.
 
You don't want to trade without an analyze graph especially calendars or diagonals
As long as you have ONE you can trade at any brokerage
You can also open a minimum account at TOS just so you can use the analyze tab
I am not sure how soon they will add new features It has been quite a while since they added anything so I would not count on them adding a good analyze tab or improving on the limited one they have now but as long as you have a good analyze tab elsewhere you can still place trades with them
 
Ok, thanks for the input...

I think at this point TOS is still the way to go until TastyWorks gets a full analyze feature in place, unless the contract size is going to be big, like for STOCK option trading.
 
I opened an account with them, however I'm not going to fund it anytime soon.

Their program seems like it's not finished yet, I was not even able to see where the very small font size could be adjusted and it seems to lack many other features TOS have available. I'm guessing in the they will come out with improved versions. Also at 50 cents a contract they have to be passing on the 65 cents per contract the exchange charges on each SPX contract, so it's not quite as reasonable as it seems to be at first glance.
 
As far as I know it's finished
I know it may look a bit clunky but what you see is what you get
As far as the font size it looks like a reasonable size to me Maybe you may need to adjust your resolution or you can ask them about it
They are willing to help you if they can You can also ask for a feature and if there is enough demand from other customers they are willing to listen and perhaps do something about it
As far as the fees it depends on how many contracts you trade
I calculated it at one point and around 10 contracts it's close to other brokerages
I just looked at it now and at 7 verticals in SPX round trip TOS is only 66 cents cheaper so I would not consider that a reason not to trade with them It may look cheap at $1 per contract but for SPX it's not much of a difference to other brokerages
For any stocks it may be better but I have only traded SPX so I can't speak on how that compares to other brokerages

With Tastyworks you also get to see a lot of studies that they do and have video clips so it's good for beginner traders
They also have other traders that you can follow
I am just using it to place trades as I don't want to have one big account at one brokerage That way I am limiting myself to smaller trade sizes and I can place trades that is opposite the one I have in the other account so I am not stepping over the same strike
Ideally I would have a few smaller accounts at TOS but they only allow one margin account so I can't do that
 
I have a dormant Tastyworks account and have been probing it in case Schwab starts to mess around with TOS after their acquisition of TD Ameritrade.

I set up an order to buy a 30 lot SPX butterfly and was surprised to see that the commission cap of $10 per option leg does not apply to index options, i.e. the commission is $120 (120 contracts roundtrip x $1). A 30-lot butterfly on SPY has commissions of just $30 (3 legs capped at $10 per leg.)

In addition, the Tastyworks (exchange) fees for the SPX (weekly) buy order are $94.40, whereas the corresponding TOS fees are only $69.60.

Since I did not actually place the order, can anybody using Tastyworks confirm that this really is the case?
 
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Just curious how did you see the fees if you did not place the order ?
Did you ask them how come they did not cap it at $10 on SPX ?

As far as the SPX fees they are about right It's 75 cents per leg plus another .036 Trans fee I came up with 94.32 calculation
I am guessing they cannot put a cap on the index fees
This is just a sugestion but you could try to build a similar trade that is wider but less contracts
 
On both platforms, fees are shown on the order confirmation page: "Est. Fees" in tw and "Cost of Trade incl. commissions +fees" in TOS. I backed out of tw before confirming the order.

It looks like tw also includes a .10 "Clearing Fee" per contract over and above the 3rd party exchange fees.

I have not yet contacted tw about this.
 
I know about TOS I just don't think I have a confirmation page in TW
Maybe the platform is different but on the web platform there is a "review and send" on the trade tab so after that the order goes in there is no confirmation page at least I don't remember seeing it

You are correct about the .10 fee that is why the effective commission for SPX is 75 cents and that is for opening and closing so that 1 dollar for opening and zero for closing is not helping at all on lowering the commission
So the total effective commission rate for SPX only is 1.25 per option leg or if closing the trade or 1.75 if you let it expire For other underlying the rate is better but for SPX is the worst rate but if you make good money without any adjustments the fees are negligible
Doing 30 lot butterflys with a lot of adjustments is going to eat up a lot of profits at TW
 
I heard on one of the Tastyworks shows that they are coming out with something called a "look back"
It's supposed to come out maybe next week
Supposedly you could do some of the studies they are doing maybe some possible back testing
I guess we will have to wait and see how it looks
 
Here is a sneak peak at the lookback
It is in beta mode and you can sign up for beta testing and they said you don't need an account to be a beta tester
 
I am trying out the beta version of the lookback but unfortunately it does not work on the indexes yet but it looks interesting

It has a bigger and better risk graph window than the one on the web or the desktop version although still not as good as TOS
You can slide the date and watch the p/l line change but it does not tell me the p/l for real time it's more like a model

The backtest I am not sure how good it is since I have never used a backtest before but it has things you can adjust like take profits early, Stop loss and exit at a certain DTE and than see how the trade would have worked out over a long time
For SPY it goes back to 2005 so you can do similar studies that they do on their show
 
There was one other feature I forgot to mention
It has a forcasted p/l It's a green and red colored cone that starts from the current price and expands going forward which is ok but I prefer to se the p/l on the risk graph like it is on TOS
 
Upon further review the Lookback is not as good as I hoped I thought the risk graph maybe was able to compete with TOS but it looks like it's just based on pure mathematical theoreticals so it has no p/l values that would correlate with it It's more like a toy for someone who is just starting with options and wants to see what the risk graph looks like but not something that you can actually use to see what your p/l is today
 
There is still hope left
I was told that this feature is disabled on the beta version but it will be available on the released version
I will do another review whenever that comes out
 
I found a quirk in the web version of TastyWorks
If I have a trade that was already filled and want to add a duplicate to that position just to increase the qty it cannot be done with the web version It only works with the desktop platform So you would have to place it at a nearby strike
They say they are working on an update to the web version to address this quirk
 
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