Well, I dodged another bullet, but I'm running out of tricks.
Friday started out as sort of a sleepy day; sure, a little flurry on the opening with ABX up about a buck and some good options trading, but then things settled down. Ballard was drifting down from its opening price and was trading around $153 as we got to the shank of the trading session, then WHAM!--out comes the news of Ballard's proposed 3for1 split and it took off like a pop-bottle rocket. I was offering 500 shares at $156.50 in the electronic book...as soon as I saw the news on the wire I raced to find the order number to cancel it. Before I could type in all the information, it traded. Based on the $177.50 close, that was a $10,000+ inducement for me to learn the 'quick cancel' feature on that stupid machine. Thank god I only had the one order in the book. Now, I'm glad Ballard decided to split the stock (I've been praying for it, actually), but I've got two problems. Why did they announce it at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon? Why not before the opening or after the close so there could be an orderly opening? More important, why only 3for1? Why not 5for1? Bring the stock down to the $30 range, a good price for speculative traders. It would also provide clean strikes for us during the transition period. What is a 170 strike divided by three? A mess, that's what. Oh, well, nothing's ever easy. Put volatility went up five points. (80,75)
As I mentioned, ABX had a nice move up to $32. Bullion still looks like it wants to go higher, and I expect Barrick to follow. Vols evened out a little after the strong two-day rally. (42,42)
Bell still is trading a ton of options--we seem to have the vols dialed in just right. Good buying and selling across the board. These are optimum conditions for traders. (24,25)
Someone asked about using full-service broker vs. a discount broker. I can tell you they are all treated the same on the trading floor. We have strict rules about quoting and honouring our markets, and all participants have equal access. The only difference would be the amount of time between your placing an order and the time it hits the trading square. I can't comment on this specifically (because I don't know), but I suspect that dealing with a firm that does a lot of options business would be better, whether full-service or discount.
Monday's opening in Ballard should be interesting. I survived Friday's rocket-ride, but I'm delta short and I expect a gap opening on the upside Monday. Feels like I'm bear-hunting with a switch.
Happy trading.
Porter |
