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Best Options Trading Platforms & Brokers

March 08, 2024

Brokers have made huge strides towards making options appealing to everyday investors. But options will always be finicky little demons that can only be tamed by knowledge, data, and high-quality tools. When I trade options, which is pretty often (c’mon, /MNQ), I want low pricing and a highly customizable platform that adapts to my style.

First-time options traders deserve high-quality tools, too, but it’s easier to learn options trading when there’s fewer abbreviations on the platforms, more explanation, and less math. While testing brokers for options trading, I also evaluated their ease of use and options education, and I looked at how well everything on an options quote and order ticket is explained. Here’s who topped the charts for options.

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Since 2009, we've helped over 20 million visitors research, compare, and choose an online broker. Our writers have collectively placed thousands of trades over their careers. Here's how we test.

Best Options Trading Platforms 2024

Here are the best options trading platforms, based on over 30 variables.

  • tastytrade
    - Lowest options commissions for frequent traders
  • Charles Schwab - Best for intermediate-level options traders
  • Interactive Brokers
    - Best for professional options traders
  • E*TRADE
    - Best for casual options trading
  • Merrill Edge - Best for first-time options traders
tastytrade
4/5 Stars 4.0 Overall

Lowest options commissions for frequent traders

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.50 info

The tastytrade platform is ideal for frequent options traders, with a per-contract commission that’s 23% less than top rivals. It also offers efficient workflow, useful risk management tools, great design and strong online content, and won our No. 1 Desktop Options Trading Platform award for 2024. Read full review

Pros
  • Excellent layout
  • Clear expertise with active trading
  • Great stock options pricing
Cons
  • Maverick approach makes initial learning curve a bit steep
  • Few choices for long-term investing
Visit Site

Open and fund & earn up to $4,000*

Charles Schwab
5/5 Stars 5.0 Overall

Best for intermediate-level options traders

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.65

Schwab's acquisition of TD Ameritrade brings thinkorswim functionality to Schwab customers. Options traders will appreciate the powerful combo of Schwab's equity research and thinkorswim's phenomenal charts and Hacker tools. Read full review

Pros
  • TD Ameritrade’s excellent thinkorswim trading platforms now available
  • Trading-friendly app and browser enhancements
  • Exceptional high net worth services
Cons
  • No cryptocurrency trading
  • Mutual fund fees are complex
Interactive Brokers
4.5/5 Stars 4.5 Overall

Best for professional options traders

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.65

Trading tools within the Trader Workstation platform are built for professional options traders, encompassing algorithmic trading, Options Strategy Lab, Volatility Lab, Risk Navigator, Market Scanner and other features. The tradeoff is that TWS is not beginner-friendly. Read full review

Pros
  • Astounding array of customizable tools
  • Allows trading in foreign markets
  • Convenient apps for individual investors
Cons
  • Restrictive trading permissions
  • Main platforms might feel cold
Visit Site

New clients, special margin rates.

E*TRADE
5/5 Stars 5.0 Overall

Best for casual options trading

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.65

For beginner, casual, and active options traders, Power E*TRADE offers the perfect blend of usability, excellent tools and seamless position management — custom grouping, real-time streaming Greeks, risk analysis, and more. Read full review

Pros
  • Watch lists are the best in the business
  • Smooth mobile navigation
  • High-quality high-net-worth Morgan Stanley proprietary research
Cons
  • Cryptocurrencies not currently available
  • Margin rates are high compared to other brokers
Visit Site

Open and fund & get up to $1,000.

Merrill Edge
4.5/5 Stars 4.5 Overall

Best for first-time options traders

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.65

Merrill Edge offers a superb, well-rounded offering with competitive pricing and numerous options tools, including the idea generation tool OptionsPlay. It’s a particularly good choice for existing Bank of America customers, who will appreciate its under-one-roof advantages. Read full review

Pros
  • Portfolio Story, Dynamic Insights, and the Stock and Fund Stories are groundbreaking features
  • High-quality proprietary research
Cons
  • Some site elements slow to load
  • No crypto, futures, forex or penny stocks

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Winners Summary

Lowest options commissions for frequent traders - tastytrade

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
tastytrade logotastytrade $0.00 $0.00 $0.50 info Open and fund & earn up to $4,000* Visit Site

Tastytrade, our top pick for options trading for 2024, is an options trader’s dream. The platform is lightning-fast and the workflow is super efficient. Analytics appear intuitively when and where they matter most and adjusting trades on the fly is a piece of cake. Don’t miss the videos and ideas from tastytrade’s corporate affiliate tastylive, as it’ll make you feel as if you have knowledgeable friends on the trading floor.

Best for intermediate-level options traders - Charles Schwab

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
Charles Schwab logoCharles Schwab $0.00 $0.00 $0.65 Read Review

Charles Schwab’s thinkorswim platforms, available on both desktop and mobile, provide all that you could want for successful options trading and is easier on both eyes and brains compared to Interactive Brokers’ Trader Workstation. Strategy Roller enables clients to create custom rules and roll their existing options positions automatically.

Best for professional options traders - Interactive Brokers

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
Interactive Brokers logoInteractive Brokers $0.00 $0.00 $0.65 New clients, special margin rates. Visit Site

For professionals, Interactive Brokers takes the crown as the best options platform. Its margin rates are outstanding. The trading platform, Trader Workstation, is exceptionally powerful, but is also one of the most challenging platforms to learn out of all the brokers we tested.

Best for casual options traders - E*TRADE

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
E*TRADE logoE*TRADE $0.00 $0.00 $0.65 Open and fund & get up to $1,000. Visit Site

Our other winners also offer excellent platforms. Web-based Power E*TRADE is a bit friendlier to newer options traders, and the tools are well laid out. E*TRADE’s attention to detail shows in automatic spread groupings, effortless scanning in StrategySEEK, and easy-to-understand risk/reward data through tradeLAB.

Best for first-time options traders - Merrill Edge

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
Merrill Edge logoMerrill Edge $0.00 $0.00 $0.65 Read Review

Merrill Edge is our top recommendation for beginners, due to the ease of use of its options tools and because of Merrill's unique way of presenting stocks and ETFs through their "Story" formats. Its industry-disrupting Stock Stories make researching stocks an absolute joy for people who don’t live for financial statements. Some brokers offer more tools and others have quicker order entry, but for beginners looking for the whole package, Merrill makes the most sense to us.

FAQs

What is options trading?

Options trading involves buying and selling the rights to buy or sell securities at specific prices at certain dates. Picture betting on a sports game and being able to buy and sell that bet as the game progresses. That, in a nutshell, is how options trading works, though of course it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Option prices fluctuate on the price and volatility of their underlying investments and the time remaining until the options expire. Traders use options to speculate, reduce risk, or generate income.

Options trading platform tools comparison

Here's a summary of the primary options trading features offered by the best options trading brokers. See the end of this guide for a definition of each feature.

Feature tastytrade logotastytrade Charles Schwab logoCharles Schwab Interactive Brokers logoInteractive Brokers E*TRADE logoE*TRADE Merrill Edge logoMerrill Edge
Option Chains - Basic View info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Chains - Strategy View info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Chains - Streaming info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Chains - Total Columns info 20 31 38 32 68
Option Chains - Greeks info 5 5 12 5 5
Option Positions - Greeks Streaming info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Chains - Quick Analysis info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Analysis - P&L Charts info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Probability Analysis info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Probability Analysis Adv info Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Option Positions - Rolling info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Option Positions - Grouping info Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
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Options trading platform pricing comparison

Here's a summary of the pricing for the best options trading brokers.

Feature tastytrade logotastytrade Charles Schwab logoCharles Schwab Interactive Brokers logoInteractive Brokers E*TRADE logoE*TRADE Merrill Edge logoMerrill Edge
Minimum Deposit $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Stock Trades $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
ETF Trade Fee $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Options (Base Fee) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Options (Per Contract) $0.50 info $0.65 $0.65 $0.65 $0.65
Futures (Per Contract) $1.25 $2.25 $0.85 $1.50 (Not offered)
Broker Assisted Trade Fee $0 $25 $30 $25 $29.95
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Where can I practice options trading?

To practice options trading, choose an options trading platform that offers a free paper trading account. With paper trading, virtual money is used to place options trades in a simulated environment. E*TRADE, Charles Schwab, tastytrade, TradeStation, Webull, and Interactive Brokers all let you paper trade options.

What is the best trading platform for options?

Based on our testing and analysis, here are the best trading platforms for options in 2024.

  • Tastytrade - 4 Stars - Best options trading platform and tools, great pricing
  • Charles Schwab - 5 Stars - Industry standard thinkorswim platform, equity tools and research
  • Interactive Brokers - 4.5 Stars - Best for professional options traders
  • E*TRADE - 5 Stars - Best web-based platform and provides equity tools and research
  • Merrill Edge - 4.5 Stars - Best for beginners

What options broker is best for beginners?

Merrill Edge is the best broker for first time option traders, thanks to a nifty tool called the Strategy Assistant. It walks you through choosing an option position step by step.

Which broker has free options trading?

Instead of calling their revenue per trade “commissions,” many brokers charge per-contract fees (including some brokers who claim to have "zero commission" options trading). The exceptions are Robinhood, SoFi Invest , Firstrade and Webull, which charge no commissions or fees for options. Of these, we prefer Webull, which has a silky-smooth desktop platform.

What is a call option?

A call option locks in the right to buy a stock (or other security) at a certain price (called the “strike”) until a specific date (the expiration). If the price goes above the strike price, then the call owner can buy the stock for the strike price and sell it for the market price. The premium is what the call buyer pays the call seller for this privilege. If the stock doesn’t rise above the strike price before expiration, the call buyer loses the whole premium. Investors can also sell call options to earn premiums. A contract usually represents a call on 100 shares of stock.

What is a put option?

A put option locks in the right to sell a stock (or other security) at a certain price (called the “strike”) until a specific date (the expiration). If the price goes below the strike price, then the put owner can sell the stock for the strike price, which is higher than the market price. The premium is what the put buyer pays the put seller for this privilege. If the stock doesn’t fall below the strike price before expiration, the put buyer loses the whole premium. Investors can also sell put options to earn premiums. A contract usually represents a put on 100 shares of stock.

What are 0DTE options?

“0DTE” stands for “zero days until expiration.” These options are inexpensive because they have only a day or less before the option expires. They are also extremely speculative because, in the short term, stocks’ movements are close to unpredictable. We at StockBrokers.com think they are only suitable for highly sophisticated options traders.

How much money do you need for options trading?

You should have at least $5,000 that you are prepared to lose, and speculative options trading should only account for 10% of your portfolio. Though you can get started with as little as a few hundred dollars, that’s more or less rolling the dice. Experienced options traders maintain several positions at once that tend to offset risks, and that can’t be done with a few hundred dollars.

Is options trading risky?

Yes. Options trading is a form of leveraged investing and thus is inherently risky. Any time an investor is using leverage to trade, they are taking on additional risk. Many times, this risk is unforeseen and not easily quantified.

On the most basic level, investors who buy a call or put option are only risking the money they invested in the contract. However, when selling a call or put, if the trade isn't protected (also known as going naked), the investor is taking on potentially unlimited risk.

As a protective measure, there are different options approval levels (usually four), and being approved requires an application through the online broker platform to unlock. The riskier the options strategy, the more demanding the requirement will become to be approved.

Options trading platform features summary

All of the best brokers for options trading offer the following features.

Feature Definition
Has Education - Options Provides a minimum of 10 educational pieces (articles, videos, archived webinars, or similar) with the primary subject being options. All content must be easily found within the website's learning center. Platform tutorials, FAQs, etc. do NOT count.
Option Chains - Streaming Real-time Option chains with streaming real-time data.
Option Chains - Greeks Viewable When viewing an option chain, the total number of Greeks that are available to be viewed as optional columns. Greeks = delta, gamma, theta, vega, rho.
Option Chains - Quick Analysis The ability to jump straight from the option chain to a P&L chart or probability chart for deeper analysis. Viewing a summary P&L within the chain itself also qualifies.
Option Analysis - P&L Charts When analyzing a theoretical option trade, a P&L chart is available.
Option Analysis - Probability Analysis A basic probability calculator.
Option Analysis - Probability Analysis Adv A tool to analyze a hypothetical option position. Displays a probability histogram / chart with optional customizations.
Option Positions - Greeks Viewable View at least two different greeks for a currently open option position.
Option Positions - Greeks Viewable Streaming View at least two different Greeks for a currently open option position and have their values stream with real-time data.
Option Positions - Advanced Analysis Ability to analyze an active option position and change at least two of the three following conditions - date, stock price, volatility - and assess what happens to the value of the position.
Option Positions - Rolling Ability to pre-populate a trade ticket and seamlessly roll an option position to the next relative expiration.
Option Positions - Strategy Grouping Ability to group current option positions by the underlying strategy: covered call, vertical, etc. Can be done manually by user or automatically by the platform.
Level 2 Quotes - Options Level 2 options quotes available.
Screener - Options Offers an options screener. Commonly referred to as a spread creation tool or similar.

Our Research

Why you should trust us

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT, the lead writer for StockBrokers.com, has over 30 years of investing experience and actively trades stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and options on futures. He's held roles as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and journalist. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designations and served on the board of directors of the CMT Association.

Blain Reinkensmeyer, head of research at StockBrokers.com, has been investing and trading for over 25 years. After having placed over 2,000 trades in his late teens and early 20s, he became one of the first in digital media to review online brokerages. Blain created the original scoring rubric for StockBrokers.com and oversees all testing and rating methodologies.

For this guide:

  • Whenever possible, we used our own brokerage accounts for testing. For several brokers, we used a test account that was provided to us.
  • We collected more than 250 data points related to options trading across 17 brokers.
  • We personally placed multiple options trades.

How we tested

For this guide to the best platforms for options trading, our research team rigorously tested platform usability and quality of tools, such as options chains (e.g., optional views, total optional columns, streaming data quality, total Greeks offered), options analysis (e.g., P&L charts, calculators), and option position management (e.g., whether Greeks stream, rolling functionality, grouping availability, and advanced position analysis).

StockBrokers.com uses a variety of computing devices to evaluate trading platforms. Our reviews were conducted using the following devices: iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB RAM running the current MacOS, and a Dell Vostro 5402 laptop i5 with 8 GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro. In testing platforms and apps, our reviewers place actual trades for a variety of instruments.

As part of our data check process, we sent a data profile link to each broker summarizing the data we had on file and the data they provided us last year, with a field for entering any data that had since changed. For the brokers that filled out these profiles, we audited the information for any discrepancies between our data and the broker’s data to ensure accuracy.

As part of our review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones in a live meeting that took place in the fall. Meetings with broker teams also took place throughout the year as new products rolled out. Insights gathered from these calls helped steer our testing efforts to ensure every feature and tool was assessed.

Trading platforms tested

We tested 17 online trading platforms for this guide:

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About the Editorial Team

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT
Sam Levine, CFA, CMT

Sam Levine has over 30 years of experience in the investing field as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and writer. He also taught investing as an adjunct professor of finance at Wayne State University. Sam holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Chartered Market Technician designations and is pursuing a master's in personal financial planning at the College for Financial Planning. Previously, he was a contributing editor at BetterInvesting Magazine and a contributor to The Penny Hoarder and other media outlets.

Blain Reinkensmeyer
Blain Reinkensmeyer

Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.

Carolyn Kimball
Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is managing editor for Reink Media and the lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.

Steven Hatzakis
Steven Hatzakis

Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.

Disclosure: *The $4,000 bonus offer is available with a $500,000 to $999,999 deposit. Visit info.tastytrade.com/tasty-offer for full details, terms, conditions, and restrictions. Offer expires 03/31/2024. tastytrade, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC.

E*TRADE: *Other fees apply.

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