On trading AMD today: It was a fun day, I got to pick up some April 55's on the cheap and I sold all my March 45's at 4 7/8, above the high price of the day. Credit Dreyfus (http://www.edreyfus.com) I saw 4 7/8 bid, 5 ask on the quote and immediately entered an online order to sell all my 45's at 4 7/8. The order was rejected, because it said I would be "naked" on the March 50 calls which I was short.
Actually, I had enough AMD stock to cover the March 50 calls. As I called the trading phone line, I saw the price dropping until it was 4 3/8 bid, 4 1/2 ask. The broker at the other end recognized that the computer system was "marrying" my 45 calls to the short 50 calls, rather than to my stock. He said he would enter the order to sell at 4 7/8 and I would see the order on the internet. Imagine my surprise 5 minutes later when I saw an execution report on my screen. I never saw any trades above 4 1/2 after I talked to him. If you look at the quotation for AMD March 45 calls, you will see that the high for the day was 4 3/4, even though there was a bid of 4 7/8 when my order was rejected. So apparently the firm took my calls at 4 7/8 "off the books." I am extremely impressed. I didn't even ask for that, although I did complain that the bid was 4 7/8 when my order was rejected. Thank you, Lord.
My AMD stock has a chance of being called away tomorrow, probably about 1 in 100, but I picked up April 55's at 3 1/2 when the stock was languishing at 47-48. That, and the fact that WM (Washington Mutual) had a great day, and I'm fat, dumb and happy.
Petz |
