StoneX Trading Options Trading Customer Reviews & Expert Rating

StoneX Trading is a good options broker if you want a relatively simple way to speculate on options without opening a specialist exchange-traded options account.

The big difference is that you are not buying and selling listed options directly on an exchange. Instead, StoneX Trading lets you trade the price movements of options through CFDs or spread bets, with access to a full chain of strikes and expiries.

For UK traders, spread betting is the main attraction. Options are already useful for taking a view on a market with a defined timeframe, and wrapping that exposure in a spread bet means any profits are generally free from Capital Gains Tax.

I tested the old City Index options platform by buying gold calls and found it very easy to use. That's where I think StoneX Trading's options offering works best. If, for example, you think gold is going up over the next three months, you can simply open the options ladder, choose your expiry and strike and buy a call.

It is also useful for longer-term directional trades because you don't have the same daily overnight financing charge that you would get from holding a conventional long CFD or spread bet. Instead, the time value and other pricing factors are reflected in the option premium.

Where StoneX Trading is less suitable is for sophisticated options traders looking for direct market access, individual equity options and advanced multi-leg strategy order tickets. For that, I would still use a specialist options broker.

Overall, StoneX Trading is best for UK traders who want an easy way to trade options on major markets, particularly if they want to do it through a tax-efficient spread betting account.

Pricing

Options pricing works differently from normal CFD trading because you are trading the option premium rather than simply paying a conventional spread on the underlying market.

StoneX Trading makes its money through the bid-offer spread and says it offers competitive institutional pricing across options on FX, indices and commodities.

The price of an option itself depends on several factors, including how far the underlying market is from the strike, how long there is until expiry and expected volatility. This is where the options Greeks – delta, gamma, theta, vega and rho – become important.

One thing I like about buying options is that your maximum loss can be much clearer. If you buy a call or put and it expires worthless, you lose the premium you paid.

That can make buying options an interesting alternative to holding a leveraged CFD position, particularly around volatile events. But options aren't necessarily cheaper – time decay and volatility can work against you even if you eventually get the direction of the underlying market right.

Market Access

StoneX Trading's options markets cover indices, commodities, forex and metals, with daily, monthly and quarterly contracts available.

There are thousands of strikes available through the options ladder, which means you have considerably more choice than simply deciding whether a market is going up or down. You can choose both how far away from the current market you want your strike to be and how long you want to give your trade to work.

However, this shouldn't be confused with the huge listed-options market you get through a broker offering direct exchange access.

If you want to trade large numbers of individual US stock options or build sophisticated multi-leg strategies, StoneX Trading isn't really designed for that. The old City Index review had the same limitation, and the current StoneX material doesn't show that this has fundamentally changed.

For straightforward directional options trades on major indices, currencies, commodities and metals, though, there is a good range.

Platform & Apps

Options are available through StoneX Trading's main platform and mobile apps, using an options ladder showing the available strikes and expiries.

I actually think this is one of the best things about trading options through StoneX Trading.

Options platforms can be horribly complicated. If you just want to take a view that the FTSE is going to rise or gold is going to fall, you don't necessarily want a screen covered in Greeks, probability distributions and multi-leg strategy builders.

The options ladder makes it relatively easy to find the underlying market, select an expiry and then compare the different strike prices.

You also get StoneX Trading's TradingView charts and Performance Analytics through its mobile trading platform, so you can analyse the underlying market and review your trading behaviour alongside your options positions.

The downside is that sophisticated options traders may find the platform too simple. If you regularly trade iron condors, butterflies, calendars or other multi-leg strategies, a dedicated options platform is going to be more appropriate.

Customer Service

Customer service is particularly important with options because they can get complicated very quickly.

When you are trading a straightforward call or put online, there isn't much difference from placing any other trade. But once you start dealing with different strikes, expiries and combinations of positions, it is quite easy to make a mistake.

This was one of the things I liked about the old City Index options service. Having access to actual people who understand trading is far more useful with options than being directed towards an automated help centre.

The current StoneX Trading options material confirms access to its support team and online chat, although it does not clearly confirm that the old City Index telephone options dealing desk or voice-brokerage service is still available. I therefore wouldn't carry that claim over into the new review unless StoneX confirms it.

Research & Analysis

StoneX Trading is strong on options research because you get access to analysis covering many of the underlying markets you are likely to trade options on, including indices, forex and commodities.

There is regular research from StoneX's analysts, alongside Market Intelligence and an economic calendar covering the major data releases and central-bank events that can move markets.

This is particularly relevant to options because it isn't enough to simply be right about whether a market eventually goes up or down. You also need to be right about when it moves.

If you buy a call expecting a market to rise but the move happens after your option has expired, your analysis may have been correct but your trade will still lose money.

Volatility is also particularly important because changes in expected volatility can have a significant impact on an option's premium even when the underlying market hasn't moved very much.

So I think StoneX's research works well alongside its relatively simple options platform. You can form a view on a market using its research and analysis, then use the options ladder to decide how much time you want to give that view to play out.