While costs are one consideration when choosing an options broker and trading platform, there are other factors to weigh. If you are a new trader, it will be helpful to have a broker that offers substantial educational offerings—such as articles, videos, and webinars. Intermediate and advanced traders will want a robust trading platform and a full suite of options-specific trading tools and resources. The commission structure for options trades tends to be more complicated than for stock trades. Until the commission cuts that swept the industry in the fall of 2019, most brokers charged a fee for each leg of an options spread plus a per-contract commission. The per-leg fees, which made 2- and 4-legged spreads expensive, have for the most part been eliminated industry-wide. We are also seeing some brokers place caps on commissions charged for certain trading scenarios.  Investors with fairly large portfolios can also take advantage of portfolio margining at some brokers. This is a practice that assesses the total risk inherent in a portfolio that contains stocks and derivatives. Investors with large portfolios can use portfolio margining to reduce the size of the margin loan.