(877) 223-3344 toll-free
 optionsfirst@scottrade.com
Fax: (314) 543-6264
Hours: 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (CT), Monday-Friday

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Follow the steps below to login to your OptionsFirst account for the first time.

• Click Here to login to the OptionsFirst platform.
• Enter your username.
• Click “Forgot your password”. This will enable you to create your password.
• Fill out the form fields.
• You will be prompted to provide a security question.
• Provide the answer to your security question.
• You will then be prompted to enter a new password and confirm the new password.

You will then be directed back to the login screen to re-enter your username and new password.

If you still have trouble logging in, please call Customer Service toll free at (877) 223-3344.

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Follow the steps below to login to your OptionsFirst account after your password has been selected.

• Click Here to login to the OptionsFirst platform.
• Enter your username and your password in the spaces provided.
• Click the “Login” button.

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Make sure you have entered the correct password. If you think you have forgotten your password, click "Forgot your password?". This will enable you to create a new password.

Fill out the form fields.

You will be provided the security question you selected when you created your login.

Provide the answer to your security question.

You will then be prompted to enter a new password and confirm the new password (passwords are case sensitive.) You will then be directed back to the login screen to re-enter your username and new password.

If you still have trouble logging in, please call Customer Service toll free at (877) 223-3344.

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In order to open an account with OptionsFirst you must be the legal age in the state in which you reside.

In addition, you will need to provide a valid e-mail address, all of the required information in the account application and agree to the terms and conditions of the account.

Also, before you open your account you should take the time to read and understand the Options Clearing Corporation’s (OCC) “Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options”.

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We currently offer Individual, Joint, LLC, Trust and IRA accounts.

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Yes. Visit the Open an Account page to download the forms you will need to complete.

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Click the “Open an Account” link located in the upper right hand corner of this page. Follow the steps on this page to complete the application process.

After we process your application, someone will contact you with your account number and login information.

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Yes, you can rollover an existing 401(k) into an IRA account with OptionsFirst.

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At this time we are unable to accept foreign accounts. Please check back with us in the coming months for any update to this policy.

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In cash accounts, customer trades must be fully-paid for on or before settlement date which is the day after trade date for option transactions. Cash accounts are not allowed to initiate or hold uncovered short positions.

In a margin account, customers are allowed to borrow money to fund transactions. Margin accounts may also utilize acceptable collateral to finance requirements and debit balances. Margin accounts may also (if approved) hold complex positions including uncovered short positions. Margin should only be used by sophisticated investors who understand that losses can exceed their original investment.

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The initial deposit required to open a cash account is $500.00. The initial deposit required to open a margin account is $2,000.00. There is no minimum balance requirement at OptionsFirst to maintain an account.

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For your protection, OptionsFirst is a member of SIPC, which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $100,000 for claims for cash). Explanatory brochure available upon request or at www.sipc.org.

Additionally, our clearing firm holds Excess SIPC Insurance of $200,000,000 in the aggregate, over all customer accounts, subject to a maximum limit of $900,000 per customer in respect to cash. This “Excess SIPC” protection is in addition to the protection provided by the Securities and Investors Protection Act, which is administered by SIPC and is subject to certain conditions and limitations, details of which are available upon request.

NOTE: SIPC and Excess SIPC provide coverage against loss of securities and cash, not against market depreciation, fluctuation in market value of your securities or a trading loss.

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To deposit a check into your account, write your account number and phone number on the check and make the check payable to Scottrade, Inc. Send the check to:
Scottrade-OptionsFirst
P.O. Box 31542
St. Louis, MO 63131-0542

The typical clearing time for personal checks under $25,000 is the deposit date plus one business day. For personal checks over $25,000, the typical clearing time is the deposit date plus five business days.

NOTE: Only checks made out to Scottrade from the account holders bank account are acceptable. We do not accept third-party checks, or endorsed checks made payable to the customer. We do not accept money orders. If you have any questions regarding a check deposit, please call us at (877) 223-3344.

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You can transfer your assets from a brokerage, bank, mutual fund company, IRA or other qualified plan, by submitting an Account Transfer Form to your local branch office.
This form can be found at Account Transfer Form

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Incoming Wire Transfer

Use the information below to arrange an incoming wire transfer with your bank or other financial institution. The cut off time for incoming wire transfers is 12:00 p.m. (CT). Settlement for a wire transfer should be the same day but timing, circumstances and contra parties can delay this settlement by one to two days.

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To wire funds into your Scottrade account:

JP Morgan Chase
277 Park Ave
New York, NY 10172
ABA: 021000021
Acct: 066600030
Beneficiary: Penson Financial Services
FCT: Customer’s name
FFC Account Number: Customer account number with OptionsFirst
Swift: CHASUS33 (only for foreign wires)

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To wire funds out of your Scottrade account:

Note: Funds are available the day after your trade settles. $20 fee for wiring funds out. Scottrade requires a written authorization to wire funds from your account. We will accept a hand written authorization or you can use our Authorization to Wire Funds form located on OptionsFirst forms Center. You can mail or fax a written authorization to the OptionsFirst department. Our fax number is (314) 543-6264.

Please include the following information in your instructions:

Name and address of receiving institution
ABA # of receiving institution
Title of receiving account
Your account number at receiving institution
Your full address

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Please call Customer Service toll free at (877) 223-3344. We will have a check sent to the address associated with your account.

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Your account balance is available in several places when you login to your OptionsFirst account:

• The entry page once you have logged in is the “Account” tab.
• If you are not on the “Account” tab, click on the tab located in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
• The top section of the screen is called “Account Details”. It displays your current Cash Balance, Option Buying Power (excluding commissions) and other account details.
• You can also see your Account Value in the upper right corner of the Account tab (In the area with the gray background).

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As soon as your account has been approved and funded, you can trade.

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Yes, you can have more than one account at OptionsFirst.

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OptionsFirst takes your privacy seriously. Please read our Privacy Policy.

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OptionsFirst charges a flat rate of $7.00 per stock trade. Option trades are charged $7.00 per ticket charge, plus $1.25 per contract.

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For spread trades, there is a $7.00 ticket charge and then $1.25 per contract.

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There are no commissions incurred for cancelling an order. As long as a modified order remains unfilled, no commissions will be charged to your account.

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If an order is entered and partially filled, then subsequently modified, one ticket charge will be applied to the partial fill and another to the subsequent order. The contract charge is applied per contract in the order.

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When you sell a stock or option, we include a fee which appears on your confirmation slip. This amount covers a transaction fee which we must pay to a regulatory agency based on the volume of securities sold. The current rate is $5.60 charged for every $1,000,000 in sales (rounded up to the next penny). This fee is listed on your official trade confirmation. (For example, you sell $100,000 worth of stock. The fee would be your trade principal for those shares ($100,000) multiplied by 0.0000056, which equals $0.56.)

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OptionsFirst charges a $17 fee if you exercise or get assigned an option.

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You can BUY stock, calls, puts and option (debit) spreads. You may also, Short Sell stock, SELL covered calls, cash secured puts, equity credit spreads, index credit spreads and naked calls/puts. You must be approved for each level of trading.

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You can trade covered calls, long options, cash secure puts, equity debit spreads, index debit spreads, and credit spreads on European-style cash settled indexes.

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The following orders are not allowed at this time. Pink Sheet and Bulletin Board stocks, mutual funds, and weekly and quarterly options.

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We do not allow trades to be placed through e-mail. Please call (877) 223-3344 and ask to speak to our Trade Desk.

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The following is required when placing a trade with our Trade Desk: buy or sell, quantity, underlying stock symbol, month and strike, calls or puts, price (market or limit), opening or closing, GTC or day order.

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You must first have available funds or margin in your account to place an order. The OptionsFirst trading platform allows you to place trades from almost every logical place on the site including your positions, prior orders, the option chain and some of the idea generation and risk management tools we offer.

A full description of how to place an order in these areas can be found in Quick Start within the trading tool.

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1. Roll your mouse over the Order Ticket tab. (The tab is located in the bottom left corner of the Trading Tool screen.)
2. Select the type of order you would like to place: Stock, Option, or Spread.
3. Fill out the Order Ticket.
4. For Stock and Single Option orders see steps a-e. For Spread Orders go to step 5:
1. Click the “Preview” button.
2. Preview the order.
3. If it is acceptable click the “Place Order” button.
4. If you wish to revise your order, click the “Revise” button and continue with step 3 above.
5. If you wish to cancel your order, click the “Cancel” button.
5. For Spread orders, fill out the Order Ticket for as many legs as you wish to trade (up to four legs). Make sure you indicate whether you want to “Buy” or “Sell” by selecting the appropriate order for each option leg listed in the Order Ticket.
1. Click the “Preview” button to review the order in the Order Summary at the bottom of the ticket.
2. If the order is acceptable, click the “Place Order” button.
3. If you wish to revise your order, make the changes in the Order Ticket, and continue with step 5a.

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1. Click on the “Chain” Tab (at the top of the Trading Tool) to get to the chain view. (The chain view is a list of all the options available for a particular symbol.) Make sure that the appropriate company is showing in the Option Chain. If not, enter the appropriate ticker symbol in the Quote Lookup box. From the Option Chain, click on the bid or ask price of the option or stock that you wish to trade.
2. A menu will appear on the screen. Select the appropriate “trading action” from the pop-up menu.
3. If you select a trading action from the chain, several of the fields will be pre-filled on the order ticket. Make sure these match your intentions and that the correct Quantity is entered, and verify that the Price and Expiration Date are correct.
4. Review the Order Summary on the top left side of the Order ticket, to make sure your order is as you expect.
5. Click the “Preview” button.
6. Preview the order.
1. If it is acceptable click the “Place Order” button.
2. If you wish to revise your order, click the “Revise” button and continue with step 3 above.
3. If you wish to cancel your order, click the “Cancel” button.

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As soon as an order is placed, it is entered into your Orders window in the Account tab. A Good-Til-Cancel order (GTC) may be filled immediately or may take several days or longer to fill, if at all. To check the status of an order:

1. Click on the “Account” tab in the top left corner of the Trading Tool.
2. Find the Orders section of the page, at the bottom of the screen.
3. The column of the Orders section, entitled “Status” indicates the order status.

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The bulk of our orders are placed on an exchange within seconds because we use an electronic trading platform. In some cases, where there are complicated orders, we may have to provide open call service which is slower than electronic trading. In addition, system response and access times can vary due to numerous factors. Please read our Brokerage Account Agreement to make sure you understand the risks involved in electronic trading.

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A “Day Trade” is the opening and closing of a position in the same option or security during the same day. The purchase or sale of a security held overnight does not create a “Day Trade”. A sell to close (Buy-in) of an existing position will be treated as liquidation and the subsequent repurchase (sale) will be treated as the establishment of a new position.

These trades will not be subject to the rules affecting Day Trades. Any other trades in the overnight position will be considered a Day Trade and subject to the Day Trading rules.

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An account is considered a Pattern Day Trading Account if it has more than three Day Trades in five business days. Industry regulations require that pattern Day Traders must maintain a minimum of $25,000 of margin equity. Accounts that have less than $25,000 of margin equity will be issued zero Day Trading Buying Power (DTBP) on the date the call is issued.

In other words, if the account closes the day with equity of less than $25,000, the next day the account will have zero day trading buying power. There will be no changes to Overnight Buying Power (ONBP). Buying power for Pattern Day Traders is limited to four (4) times their margin maintenance excess for equities and one time for options.

Cross guarantees among accounts are prohibited. Day Trading Calls are incurred when an account holder exceeds his or her Day Trading Buying Power at any point during a trading session.

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OptionsFirst offers the following advanced price types, on stock or single-leg option orders:

Limit on Close (LOC):
An order that will execute at the market close if the closing price is at or better than the submitted limit price.

Limit on Open (LOO):
An order that will execute at the market open if the opening price is at or better than the submitted limit price.

Market on Close (MOC):
A market order that will execute at the market close.

Market on Open (MOO):
A market order that will execute at the market open.

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The OptionsFirst trading tool can be used on a Mac but only with Mozilla Firefox v1.5.0.4 or later. OptionsFirst is not compatible with Safari or Opera.

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For optimal results, OptionsFirst works best with Internet Explorer v6.0 Service Pack 2 or higher and with Mozilla Firefox v1.5.0.4 or higher.

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The Minimum System Requirements to run the OptionsFirst platform are as follows:

Processor: 1 Ghz or better
RAM: 512 MB
Monitor: 1024 x 768 monitor resolution or higher

Operating System:
PC:Microsoft Windows 98, XP, Microsoft Vista, or ME
MAC: OSX with Firefox

Software:
PC: Internet Explorer version 6.0 Service Pack 2 or higher.
PC or MAC: Mozilla Firefox version 1.5.0.4 or higher.

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If you are having trouble logging in:

• Make sure you are using the username assigned when you opened your account.
• Make sure you do not have “Caps Lock” on (sometimes indicated by a small light on the keyboard next to or on an icon of a padlock with a capital “A” in it.)
• Make sure you have entered the correct password. If you think you have forgotten your password, click “Forgot your password?”. This will enable you to create a new password.
• Fill out the form fields.
• You will be provided the security question you selected when you created your login.
• Provide the answer to your security question.
• You will then be prompted to enter a new password and confirm the new password (passwords are case sensitive.) You will then be directed back to the login screen to re-enter your username and new password.
• If you still have trouble logging in, please call Customer Service toll free at (877) 223-3344.

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