Rose, bad deal on those calls...One thing I wonder: could you have just waited for the market to close, and then sold them in the after-market? Doesn't the options market stay open for a minute or so beyond 4 p.m.? That would have given you a print based on underlying close, I guess.
Well, trying to get an options order in and executed between 4:00 and 4:02 on expiration Friday is not exactly a sure proposition, as crazy as things are then - and even if it was recognized, it would effectively have been treated exactly the same as a "sell on close" order entered earlier in the day. In fact, Fido won't take "at the close" orders after 3:40PM anyways; you have to use a regular market or limit order if you want to sell between 3:40 and 4:02 on any trading day.
Sounds like instead what fido did instead was fill you "close to the close" instead of "at close".
Well, they claim (and I would guess it's true) that _all_ "at the close" orders are more accurately described as "send to the exchange and they will execute it as near to the close as possible, with no other guarantees" orders.
The Q got very crazy near the close and orders took a long time to fill
Updates so far: I contacted Fido, where the Options Connection rep entered an "investigation request", but also suggested I contact the "Market Surveilliance" group at the Pacific Coast Options Exchange, where my contracts were all executed. I did that (on Friday afternoon), and I found everyone there to be extremely helpful, responsive, and amazingly willing to listen to the specifics of my complaint. This morning I got a 7AM call back from someone in customer service there, saying the main QCOM options specialist there would call me back later today. Amazingly, he did just that, and I had a good discussion with him about the Q action on Friday's close. He is proposing specific "relief" that would go a long way to addressing my concern; I will wait until I'm sure that it's going to happen before posting more details (and his explanations, which make complete sense) here, but already I'm much further along with much less hassle than I expected to be.
-Rose- |
