Andy2

EDIT: I MAY HAVE MISUNDERSTOOD WHAT HAS TO BE TRADED WITH THIS DEAL, SEE POST BELOW.

I saw this offer this morning.

I know nothing about it, although I am going to study it. I have some funds available from Fidelity after investing some money with them for six months.

http://landing.optionshouse.com/united10k

Any input is of course appreciated. I have always been a mutual fund guy, so my knowledge of options is limited.

I am planning on reading this if it is of benefit to anyone else

http://www.investopedia.com/university/options/

I could not find any posts about OptionsHouse when I searched. Hope there is not an ongoing discussion.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Marginal value.

Andy2

Cause of $39.50 plus more risk than normal investments?

Wish I had seen this offer when I had some stocks in mind that I was sure were going way up or way down.

asterion

LON:SXX will drop to 14-15 GBPx ...

WineCountryUA

options are not for the causal investor. Not worth a few miles for the risk you will be assuming unless you are skilled in options (and even then it is questionable).

UnitedFlyGuy

Having been trading options for 12 years, I urge you to take caution and know what you're getting into.

My opinion: doing it for miles seems completely idiotic.

astroflyer

Make sure you read the fine print. Here's one of my favorite parts:
That ties up $5,000 for half a year.

Also:
It looks like they may be trying to rather aggressively value your miles for tax purposes.

This all looks like there's a few too many string attached for 10K miles. Churn a credit card...way less risk for way more miles.

Andy2

I saw an Options House pop-up this morning that mentioned stock sales, so I called to inquire about the offer and Tony in sales indicated that the miles can be earned by trading stocks rather than options.

Stocks I understand, options not so much. I trade stocks, so this deal becomes a little bit more interesting, especially for the many of us who have met the six month holding period for investments in the recent Fidelity offer.

I agree that it is still not the best offer in the world, but if a person is going to buy and sell stocks anyway, the commissions do not appear to be too high. Perhaps another alternative given the lack of good TD Ameritrade offers and the marketing silliness of Fidelity that encourages investors to transfer funds out of Fidelity and then back into Fidelity in order to get miles.

golfingboy

Argh! I already have an account with OH, so I guess I am ineligible

Andy2

I just sent them some money, but it takes a few days to process. Can you let us know how the platform and customer service is? Is it as easy to use as Fidelity & TD Ameritrade? I presume that a person can trade ETFs as well as stocks?

golfingboy

Customer service has been good to me, I always use the live chat and I was able to get all of my needs taken care of without jumping through hoops.

Yes, you can trade ETFs.

The platform works reasonably well for me, but it is definitely more targeted for advanced traders than many other platforms out there. It will take some time getting used to, but there are some pretty good tools that you can use. They give you a "virtual currency" so you can play with the platform and familiarize yourself with it before you start trading with your money.

I look at OH in some ways as the Southwest of online trading platforms, they are a bit more lean and barebone than other full service platforms out there who offers a lot more products aside from online trading.

Andy2

Thanks, Golfingboy. Maybe it is worth a try to express irritation at them treating new customers better than existing customers, and see if they will provide 10K United miles if you put $5,000 or more in the account.

reqfield

Hey guys, I finally got my 10,000 United Miles today. I funded by account a few months ago. I just looked at the terms of conditions and on the very last line of the small print it mentions: "OptionsHouse reserves the right to debit the fair market value of the promotional item from any account that has received the 10,000 United MileagePlus miles and has either closed their account or withdrawn assets below the minimum qualifying funding level within 180 days of original funding date."

But of course, I'm interested in user experience with this. I would like to withdraw my funds, because right now there are just sitting there and I am done playing in the stock market (lost money). Has anyone else withdrawn their funds from their OptionsHouse account after getting the miles, before the 180 day mark?

Thanks for any help and feedback!

Asiatraveler15

So booze, risky stocks, for miles.

Whats next?

Buy an ounce of weed and you get miles?

Throw $1,000 at The Bellagio and get miles?