ChoiceTrade: Free Options Trades During Expiration Week

Online broker ChoiceTrade recently announced that they are now offering equity and ETF options trades for zero commission during options expiration week. Expiration week is the week ending with expiration Friday — the week before the third Saturday of each month. Summary of details:

* Zero-commission option trading, once a month, for one week during options expiration week
* A maximum of 500 option contracts can be traded, per household, at the zero-commission rate each month.
* Program includes single-leg and multi-leg trades (spreads).
* Only equity and ETF options qualify.
* Index option trades do not qualify for zero commission option trades. Index option trades will be charged at the normal options commission of $5 per trade, plus $0.55 per contract.
* An account is eligible if the account holder has been qualified to trade options.

I’m not an expert on options trading, but I do know that some folks try to avoid trading as the expiration time nears. Here’s a post from TraderMike about why he doesn’t trade the last two days before expiration (Jim Cramer avoids Fridays). That still leaves Monday through Wednesday, though.

Regular price for options trades is $5 per trade, plus $0.55 per contract. ChoiceTrade recently revamped their website in August with a better web-based trading system, in addition to a platform-based system as well. Rated 4-stars by Barron’s. I’ve mentioned them before as they offer competitive $5 stock/ETF trades including unlimited shares and penny stocks (many brokers don’t).