Porter,
Your appearance on this thread is appreciated. Especially, your willingness to answer questions. Many, like me, only dabbble in options, because it takes a lot of day-to-day time and effort.
To me, the Canadian options market seems very thin. These days, even Bre-X may have only a hundred trades a day, where most of the volume is often from a few specific trades. My guess is that, any buying and selling that does take place, ends up being with the specialist. If this is the case, without a specialist one would not be able to buy or sell options, unless there is another investor on the other side.
Therefore, having a specialist seems necessary to manitain any thinly traded option, or stock. If an exchange sponsored individual doesn't do it, is an independant trader expected to play the same role ??? I'm really not clear on this.
Additionally, in trading will first-come-first-served not apply for any bid or ask ?? How exactly will the boys "upstairs" manipulate trading ??
Thanks, my apologies if the questions seem naive. I don't trade options as often as I do stocks. I'm planning on taking the Canadian Options Course later on this year, so I'm aware there is a lot I don't know.
Cheers !!!
Jan |
