I upgraded . Already have a line of service . <| sep |> Well as I mentioned above that I don ' t mirror his trades so my return is based on my own trading . I really only moved from a covered call heavy portfolio to a option only portfolio relatively recently but i ' ve been profitable between 25 % per month doing straight options . I wont be retiring to the Bahamas anytime soon As for the size of nest egg you ' d need , well I ' d only point towards Tastytrade as a guide in that they refer to accounts under 25 K USD as Tastybite accounts and therefore are limited in the trades they can make . In my opinion the Option Alpha Style is similar enough to Tastytrade ' s philosophy that the same account size rules would apply . As for commissions , everyone loves the pretty user interface of Think or Swim but I just use Interactive Brokerswhich is fine , once you learn the system . Overall though commissions are important but they are unlikely to makebreak your overall profitability . As for the dues , if you want to trade options on your own then do it . If you want to observe another trader make trades with their own money then pay the sub for a few months . If you feel like you have learned everything you are going to learn then stop paying the sub . easy as that .