diff --git a/Control/AthenaCommon/python/AthOptionsParser.py b/Control/AthenaCommon/python/AthOptionsParser.py
index 9ba9cb1b4ba697943cb97ff3c89ed1add89684b8..86477bf33a7102736d66372faef88b8c37245c42 100644
--- a/Control/AthenaCommon/python/AthOptionsParser.py
+++ b/Control/AthenaCommon/python/AthOptionsParser.py
@@ -222,8 +222,8 @@ def getArgumentParser(legacy_args=False, **kwargs):
                             'endrun', 'stop', 'full', 'full-athena', 'all'],
                    help='perform double delete checking, disables the use of tcmalloc.')
 
-    g.add_argument('--tracelevel', metavar='LEVEL', nargs='?', type=int, choices=range(0,4), const=3,
-                   help='trace level for python configuration')
+    g.add_argument('--tracelevel', metavar='LEVEL', nargs='?', type=int, choices=range(1,4), const=3,
+                   help='trace level for python configuration (%(choices)s)')
 
     # --------------------------------------------------------------------------
     if legacy_args: