Far fewer UK-accessible brokers offer exchange-traded options than most comparisons suggest. We can verify four: Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited, Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd, tastytrade, Inc. (a US broker-dealer — there is no FCA-authorised "tastytrade UK") and IG's US options and futures account (introduced to tastytrade, with your money and assets held in the US by Apex Clearing Corporation). Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Trading 212 offer no options at all, in any account. FSCS cover is not uniform across this market: it applies to Interactive Brokers and Saxo, and to neither tastytrade nor IG's US options and futures account. Options cannot be held in any UK Stocks & Shares ISA — HMRC excludes "futures or share options" from qualifying investments, so no ISA manager may permit covered calls or anything else. HMRC's pension rules do not prohibit options in a SIPP, but the scheme administrator decides, and most do not allow them.
Quick comparison table
These are the providers we can verify offer exchange-traded options to UK retail clients today. Each row was checked against the provider's own current published pages on 17 August 2026. Where a fee is not published in a form we could verify, we have left it out rather than estimate it.
| Provider | Legal entity you contract with | Exchange-traded options for UK retail? | Published commission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers | Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited | Yes — US, UK and European listed options | Tiered plan: USD 0.65 per US options contract is the top band, not a flat rate — it applies to contracts of USD 0.10 premium or more, up to 10,000 contracts a month, and falls for lower-premium contracts and higher monthly volumes. There is a USD 1.00 minimum per order, and exchange, clearing and regulatory fees are charged on top. On a single-contract retail trade the order minimum and third-party fees dominate, not the 65 cents. |
| Saxo | Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd | Yes — options from 20+ exchanges across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific | USD 2.00 per contract (Classic), USD 1.00 (Platinum), USD 0.75 (VIP). European contracts EUR 0.75; UK contracts GBP 3.00 / 2.00 / 1.00 by tier. No minimum ticket fee is published. |
| tastytrade | tastytrade, Inc. — a US broker-dealer. UK residents open a US "international account"; there is no FCA-authorised UK entity. | Yes — US-listed options and futures | USD 1.00 per contract to open, capped at USD 10 per leg; USD 0 to close. Exchange, clearing and regulatory fees apply on top. |
| IG — US options and futures account | Account opened via IG Markets Limited. tastytrade acts as introducing broker and Apex Clearing Corporation, a US firm outside the IG group, holds your money and assets. | Yes, but US-listed only. IG withdrew its own DMA US listed futures and options for UK clients on 27 October 2025. | USD 1.00 per contract to open, USD 0 to close, capped at USD 10 per leg on equity and ETF options (SPX, RUT, VIX, OEX, XEO, DJX and XSP are excluded from the cap). Micro futures from USD 0.85 to open and USD 0.85 to close. |
Verified against each provider's own published pages on 17 August 2026. Fees, entities and product ranges change — check the provider's current pricing page before you open an account. Links to every page we used are in sources and methodology.
IG also offers spread bets and CFDs on options through IG Index Limited (FRN 114059) and IG Markets Limited (FRN 195355). Those are over-the-counter derivatives, not exchange-traded options: they are FSCS-eligible, but they are a different product with a different tax treatment, and they are not what this table is comparing.
Regulation, compensation and wrappers
This is the column that matters most, and the one most comparisons get wrong. An earlier version of this page showed "FSCS: up to £85k" against every broker in the table. That was wrong for two of them, and it is the correction we most want readers to see.
| Provider | Regulator | If the firm fails | Financial Ombudsman | Options in an ISA | Options in a SIPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited | FCA, firm reference number 208159 | FSCS — up to £85,000 per person for investment claims | Yes | No — HMRC excludes futures and share options from ISA qualifying investments. (IBKR does offer an ordinary UK Stocks & Shares ISA and Junior ISA; they simply cannot hold options.) | Indirectly. IBUK does not open SIPPs itself: an FCA-authorised SIPP administrator opens a master account and the SIPP holder trades a sub-account. Equity options are among the products those sub-accounts can trade, but each administrator sets its own permitted list and many exclude options entirely. |
| Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd | FCA, firm reference number 551422 | FSCS — up to £85,000 per person for investment claims | Yes | No — same HMRC rule | No. Saxo's SIPP is limited to non-leveraged investments, options included, and its account documentation does not list options among the instruments you can trade. Get it in writing from Saxo if you are told otherwise. |
| tastytrade, Inc. | US SEC and FINRA; NFA for futures. Not FCA-authorised. | No FSCS. SIPC instead — up to USD 500,000 per account category, of which no more than USD 250,000 for cash. SIPC does not cover futures contracts or funds held in a futures account. | No — not an FCA firm, so no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service | No — it is a US brokerage account, and no ISA could hold options in any case | No |
| IG — US options and futures account | IG Markets Limited is FCA-authorised (FRN 195355), but your cash and positions are held by Apex Clearing Corporation, a US SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member | No FSCS. IG's own customer relationship overview for this account states that money and investments held by Apex "are not protected by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme ('FSCS')", because assets held with Apex fall outside the FCA's client money rules. SIPC applies instead — up to USD 500,000 in cash and securities. | Complaints about IG Markets Limited's own conduct can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service; the custody relationship with Apex is US-regulated | No — same HMRC rule | No |
What FSCS actually does. The FSCS pays up to £85,000 per person, per firm, on investment claims where the firm failed on or after 1 April 2019. It compensates you when an authorised firm cannot return your money or assets. It never covers market losses — a losing options trade is not an FSCS claim under any provider.
SIPC is not a substitute for FSCS. Different limits, a different currency, US insolvency law and US courts, and no Financial Ombudsman Service to escalate a complaint to. If you would not be comfortable pursuing a claim in the United States, that is a reason to stay with an FCA firm holding your assets under the FCA's client asset rules.
Why every ISA cell says No. It is not a commercial choice by the platforms. HMRC's guidance for ISA managers lists what qualifying shares do not include: "nil paid rights (purchased in the market by the manager), warrants to subscribe for shares (but see shares and securities in investment trusts), futures or share options." Covered calls, cash-secured puts and every other option strategy sit outside the qualifying-investment list, so no ISA manager may permit them.
Why the SIPP answer is "ask your administrator". HMRC does not prohibit options in a registered pension scheme — its Pensions Tax Manual confirms that "investments held for the purpose of a registered pension scheme include futures contracts and options contracts". The constraint is the scheme administrator's own permitted-investment list, not tax law, and most mainstream SIPP administrators exclude derivatives.
UK brokers that do NOT offer options
Three of the biggest names in UK retail investing turn up constantly in options comparisons — including, until this update, on this page. None of them offers exchange-traded options in any account, in any wrapper.
| Provider | What it actually offers | Share dealing charge |
|---|---|---|
| Hargreaves Lansdown | Shares, funds, ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, plus VCTs and LTAFs. No options, futures, CFDs or other derivatives — not in a Fund and Share Account, not in an ISA, not in a SIPP. | £6.95 per deal at 0–19 deals a month; £3.95 at 20 or more |
| AJ Bell | Funds, shares across 24 international markets, ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts. No options, futures or CFDs. | £5.00 per online share deal; £3.50 if you dealt 10 or more times in the previous month |
| Trading 212 | Shares, ETFs, CFDs and cash. It said in 2024 that it intended to add options; as at August 2026 it has not launched them. | Commission-free share dealing |
A correction worth stating plainly: earlier versions of this page said Hargreaves Lansdown permitted covered calls inside an ISA and that AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown permitted limited option strategies inside a SIPP. Both claims were wrong — neither platform offers options at all, and the ISA claim was impossible in law as well. Those lines have been removed. See our corrections policy.
By trader profile — which broker fits
Serious retail options trader (10+ trades/month, US + UK)
Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited. The broadest market access of the four — US options, UK equity options, European and Asian contracts — inside an FCA-authorised entity with FSCS cover. The commission story is more complicated than the headline 65 cents: budget for the USD 1.00 order minimum plus exchange, clearing and regulatory fees, which is what a one-contract trade actually costs. The TWS platform is powerful and unfriendly in equal measure; UX is the real barrier, not price.
Options income strategy (cash-secured puts, covered calls, the wheel)
tastytrade is built specifically for this, at USD 1.00 to open (capped at USD 10 per leg) and USD 0 to close. The trade-off is not a fee: you are opening an account with a US broker-dealer, so you have no FSCS cover and no Financial Ombudsman Service — SIPC applies instead, under US law. If that trade-off is not acceptable to you, Interactive Brokers and Saxo run exactly the same strategies inside an FCA client-asset relationship. Either way these are General Investment Account strategies, so CGT applies on gains.
UK and European contracts rather than US
Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd. Options across 20+ exchanges in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, including FTSE 100 index options, at USD 2.00 per US contract on the Classic tier (less on Platinum and VIP) and EUR 0.75 on European contracts. FCA-authorised, FSCS-covered, and generally a gentler platform than TWS.
SIPP-wrapped options for retirement
Treat this as a hard question, not a product choice. HMRC does not prohibit options in a registered pension scheme, but the scheme administrator sets the permitted-investment list and most exclude derivatives. The only route we can verify is Interactive Brokers via a third-party FCA-authorised SIPP administrator that opens a master account and permits option trading in the sub-account — and several well-known administrators explicitly do not. We could not verify that options can be traded inside the Saxo SIPP, and Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell do not offer options at all. Ask any administrator for their permitted-investment list in writing before you transfer a pension.
If the ISA is your priority
Then options are not your tool. No UK Stocks & Shares ISA can hold options — HMRC excludes "futures or share options" from qualifying investments, so this is not a matter of finding the right platform. If the wrapper matters more to you than the strategy, put the money in an ordinary Stocks & Shares ISA at whichever mainstream platform suits you and leave options in a General Investment Account, or leave them alone. Our ISA platform comparison covers that decision properly.
The big trap: tax on US options
Most UK retail options trading is on US-listed options (S&P 500, AAPL, TSLA, etc). UK tax position:
- Inside a GIA: options gains are subject to UK CGT (18%/24% depending on income band, 2026/27).
- W-8BEN required: reduces US withholding tax on any dividends from assigned shares. Brokers usually require this on account opening.
- Inside a SIPP: generally tax-free in the wrapper. HMRC's own rules do not prohibit options in a registered pension scheme, but the scheme administrator must permit them, and most do not.
- Inside an ISA: not possible at all — no strategy, no exceptions. HMRC's guidance for ISA managers puts "futures or share options" among the investments that "are not qualifying investments" for a Stocks & Shares ISA. That includes covered calls on shares you already hold inside the wrapper.
See UK options tax worked examples for case-by-case calculations.
Things to verify before opening an account
- Which legal entity you are actually contracting with. A UK-facing website and a UK phone number do not mean a UK entity. Read the client agreement for the entity name, then check it on the FCA Register at register.fca.org.uk. Two of the four routes on this page put you in a relationship with a US firm.
- Whether FSCS actually applies to that entity — and to your assets. £85k for investment claims, separate from the £120k deposit cap. Being introduced by an FCA-authorised firm is not the same as having FSCS cover: if your money and securities are held by an overseas clearer, they can sit outside the FCA's client money rules and outside the FSCS, as they do on IG's US options and futures account.
- Margin requirements. Selling options requires margin — confirm what's required for each strategy.
- Pattern Day Trader rules. FINRA's $25,000 pattern-day-trader minimum was abolished from 4 June 2026 (Regulatory Notice 26-10) and replaced by intraday margin requirements; firms may phase the change in until 20 October 2027, so a US broker may still apply the old day-trade count during 2026/27. tastytrade and Interactive Brokers dropped it on day one. Check your broker's margin page rather than assuming either way.
- Tax-form support. Does the broker provide an end-of-year UK tax summary (capital gains, dividends, foreign tax credits)? Materially affects your Self Assessment work.
What this page is NOT
This is not a "best broker" ranking. We don't earn commission from any of the brokers listed. The right broker depends on your trading style, account size, tax wrapper preferences, and personal UX tolerance — not on any one universal "winner." Fees change. Regulation changes. Verify everything against the broker's current website before opening an account.
Sources and methodology
Every commission, entity, regulator and compensation statement on this page was checked against the provider's own current published pages on 17 August 2026, and against HMRC and FSCS guidance for the wrapper and compensation rules. Where a provider does not publish a fee in a form we could verify, we have left the number out rather than estimate it. We do not have commercial relationships with any broker. See how we make money for our full no-affiliate funding model. The methodology page documents sources.
Provider sources
- Interactive Brokers — options commissions and Stocks and Shares ISA; approved SIPP administrators.
- Saxo — listed options commissions, listed options product page and Direct SIPP account information.
- tastytrade — pricing and international accounts.
- IG — US options and futures customer relationship overview (the FSCS and Apex statement) and costs and charges.
- Hargreaves Lansdown — charges and investment range.
- AJ Bell — dealing account charges and investment range.
- FINRA — Regulatory Notice 26-10 (end of the pattern-day-trader designation and the $25,000 minimum from 4 June 2026, with a firm phase-in to 20 October 2027).
Related options guides
How UK Tax Drag holds itself to account
Every page is reviewed against the editorial standards, written from primary sources and sourced openly, with corrections listed in the changelog. No affiliate revenue. No sponsored content. No paid placements.
UK Tax Drag is an independent publication by Finsolve Consulting Limited, not affiliated with or endorsed by HMRC, GOV.UK or any government body.