my margin account I do not have

Open an account with TOS. TDA is kind of strict with who they give options access to.

i dont have TD but generally just resubmit in alittle while, with higher information. (annunal income etc) im not saying to lie, but askew it perhaps. Its not really a line of credit, just ensures you can pay back the margin.

lol mjoke you are telling him to lie.

For legal reason, do not lie about your income. if something were to go haywire (for whatever reason) and they sued (they are unlikely to ever bother) then you are in trouble.

you can try telling them about level access you have gotten from other brokers and that you will switch unless they approve you. if you don't trade much, however, they are unlikely to care about you and you will have to eat shit until you can get approved later in life when you build more income.

The chances of anything going 'haywire' while buying calls/puts is very unlikely. As long as your just playing with the amount of cash in your account, there is nothing to worry about. Furthermore, any broker that denies you level 2 access for options is highly unlikely to give you access just because you ask. I've had to switch around a myriad of brokers just so I could buy options with my own money. Broker restrictions for options are mostly bull. As others have said, TOS is the only for sure place I know that will not restrict you too what you can buy.

TOS broker has different requirements.

I think you are mixing up what a margin account is and options access. As long as you have at least $2000 (I think) with TDA you can have a margin account. If you applied for it you probably already have a margin account.

What you were rejected for was options access. TDA bases it off the money you have and experience. I have well over 25k with TDA, just as much in other accounts, and 5 years of trading experience and they still denied me for anything above level 1 (selling covered calls). Second time I applied I stretched the truth and was still denied. I really don't get TDA, I can negotiate $7 trades with them, but can't buy a put or call. That is why I opened up a separate TOS account solely for trading options. It is smart to have at least two brokers anyways in case there are technical issues with one and there is a trade you need to get in.

Hmm I don't know why you wouldn't be approved for margin. Where the money is shouldn't matter. Definitely check out TOS though. Think it took me about a week for them to approve everything.

I think there is potentially some confusion regarding a margin account and options clearance levels.

IME, brokers basically give away Margin Accounts because they charge interest on the money they lend and they can create margin calls at the end of the day.

Options level two on the other hand, brokers can be held liable if they allowed you to trade these leveraged positions without the proper experience (or at least a faking of this experience)

A margin account simply means they are lending you money while option levels dictate the amount of skill and trust they have in you as a trader. Did they ask you about your income like someone mentioned or did they ask you about your experience and investment goals? The latter is for options clearance.

TD Ameritrade are more strict about their option levels then ToS, that is correct. I heard that if you get an account directly with ToS they will allow you to bypass that option levels completely but I am not sure if that still exists in this politically correct world. There are some small perks to being directly involved with ToS but they don't outweigh all the benefits of being with TDA.

I would suggest putting a quarter of your total investing capital into a ToS account or whoever else interests you, and 'embellish' your past experience simply to trade options. You really don't want to be trading leveraged positions until you know what you are doing, so just take a little money to try it out.

If you cannot split your account into 1/4 then you will likely by overleveraged and undercapitalized in the options world anyways

I love TDA, don't get me wrong, but for options TOS is your best bet. Like I said it is good to have 2 accounts.

I switched from E*Trade to TD Ameritrade did not lie and got approved for Level 3 options.

They are so much better than E*Trade in every way.