Roger, I have observed the same thing with my trades. And believe it or not, it is even worse with options. Just the other day, I had a stop order in on some options. The stock essentially didn't move (maybe a quarter of a point or so) but the option proceeded to collapse in value for a very brief time, just long enough to hit my stop order. Of course, I ended up stopped out at the low price of the day, all while the stock was not moving. And this on a very very boring NYSE stock with almost no volatility.
When I try to buy an option at the end of the day, I don't get it (even if it's a market order) unless it's a trade I shouldn't have made. Supposedly according to my broker, on options the dealers have 2 minutes to execute the transaction, so they can wait for the price to change in their favor, or just wait out the clock if it's near to 4 PM. Believe me, however ripped off you feel like, it's 10 times worse with options. Sometimes it makes me really sick, how they rip off the public. And the government actually likes this because "you shouldn't be trading options anyway". |
