Ally Invest Options Fees
Are you looking to trade options with an Ally Invest account? If so, you should read this article, which goes over all the relevant options-related commissions and fees you will encounter with Ally.
Ally Invest Options Commissions
Commission on options trades is $0 base and $0.50 per contract.
Covered Options Trades
A covered call is one of the most basic options strategies where you sell a call option and simultaneously buy
an equivalent amount of underlying stock, which enables you to still participate in the stock’s upside until
it reaches the call’s strike price and also offers you some downside protection in the call premium you
collected. A covered call strategy on your Ally account would cost you a single option commission
($0.50 per contract).
Two-Legged Options Spread Trade Commission
One of the more popular and complex options strategies is a two-legged options spread trade. This strategy involves buying a call option while simultaneously selling a call option for the same stock but with a higher strike price. This allows you to participate in the stock’s upside up until it reaches the higher strike price of the call you sold while also lowering your overall cost because of the premium you received from selling the higher strike call option.
With select pricing, Ally’s commission on this spread trade (where you purchase a single contract of each
option) would be $1, consisting of a single $0 options commission plus $1.00 for the single contract of each
leg ($0.50 per contract). If this seems lower than you expected a spread trade would cost it’s because even
though you are trading two different calls with different strike prices, Ally only charges a single flat
options commission, but the per contract charge applies to each contract of each leg.
Best Options Brokers
Ally Invest Options Exercise and Assignment Fees
If you want to exercise an option, you should be aware that Ally, charges a $0 exercise fee and a $0
assignment fee. These fees are, obviously, extremely low when compared to other brokers.
Regulatory Options Fees
A smaller part of the trading costs you incur will come from regulatory fees that are charged on options sales
and passed through to the investor by the broker. These are relatively insignificant and amount to a few
pennies per contract: ORF (Options Regulatory Fee) is 0.0404 per contract (buys and sells) and
TAF fee is 0.00244 per contract (option sells only).
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