September 15, 2011

If you are interested in trading options inside your Roth IRA, pay attention to this review. OptionsHouse.com is one of the leading options trading firms that allows you to hold a Roth IRA with them. Let’s dig in to why OptionsHouse is a great place to hold your Roth IRA.

OptionsHouse was Built for Options Traders

The company was founded with the specific target market of options traders. They don’t even market the ability to invest in mutual funds. Your trading needs to be focused on options contracts and stocks for OptionsHouse to benefit you.

OptionsHouse was Built by Options Traders

Imagine if one of the largest professional options trading houses in the world decided to build a retail trading platform based on their experience from Wall Street. Wouldn’t you expect the best out of that platform? That’s essentially what you are getting with OptionsHouse. How good is the trading platform? The company was ranked as the #1 firm for options traders by Barron’s and given a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 in 2011.

Investment Options

As mentioned, you need to be interested in two types of trading to use OptionsHouse.com . option contracts and stocks. These investments require more knowledge of investing and are more risky than an index mutual fund. We recommend you try out OptionsHouse.com’s virtual trading before jumping in with two feet. Once you feel comfortable, start with a small amount of money and be absolutely sure to set limit orders above and below your positions so you don’t go broke when a trade goes bad.

Fees and Contract Rates

With a niche product focus you might expect higher commissions, but that is simply not the case with OptionsHouse.

Stock Trades:

Your stock trades will only cost you $4.75 per trade. That is practically unbeatable when compared to other brokerage firms.

Options Contracts:

With options you have two tiers of commissions. You can get 5 contracts for $5 trade cost (plus $1 a for every contract above 5) or simply pay $8.50 per trade plus $0.15 per contract. This works out to where if you trade up to 10 contracts, you pay just $10. Above 10 contracts it makes more sense to pay the slightly higher trade fee with the lower contract charge.

Mutual Funds:

The company will charge you a $9.95 fee to buy/sell shares in a mutual fund.

Can I Trade Options in a Roth IRA?

With OptionsHouse.com you can do the following inside of a Roth IRA:

• buy and sell stocks
• invest in mutual funds (although this is not heavily advertised)
• buy call and put options
• sell covered calls
• sell cash-secured puts

Pros and Cons of Investing with OptionsHouse

• If you want options, the platform was designed for your success.
• If you want inexpensive stock trades, you’ve found them.
• If you want a mobile platform for options trading, OptionsHouse has it.
• If you want to use a small percentage of your portfolio to play in options, this is a fine place to do it.

• If you want to invest in mutual funds, you can, but the platform wasn’t built for that. You won’t get the in-depth research you will find at other brokerages.
• If you are uninformed about the risks of options trading, you should get educated first.
• There is a $20 fee to close your Roth IRA.

What are you waiting for? Get started today and open an account with OptionsHouse.com !