Type in your habits, get a number back, then sit down. The number is usually bigger than you expected.
- Honest calculators price your trades, contracts, margin balance, and wires against published schedules - Check the data date: a calculator on last year's PDFs is a history lesson - Check coverage: one that ignores exercise and assignment fees is useless to an options seller - Check the math: if you cannot see which fee lines made the total, you cannot trust it - The comparative number matters more than the absolute one; a $250 gap is actionable either way
BrokerMatch ($2.99 one-time) is the audit with the decision attached: fees priced, brokers ranked, cheapest one named.