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Strategies & Market Trends : Options -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TShirtPrinter who wrote (795)	1/7/2000 9:41:00 PM
From: Ritch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8096

Tony: If you place a bid over the ask, you should get filled unless you are getting quotes that are delayed or otherwise not valid. I would complain a little more strongly. I did notice something interesting today (may be on the same line as your problem Tony) on some of my option buy's. I put in an order for Jan 02 125's at 66. The ask was then at about 68. The stock started dropping and eventually the ask dropped to 66 1/8. I figured I would get filled any minute. Wrong! The ask stayed there for a while and went back up to about 67. A while later it again dropped to 66 1/8, stayed there a while and went back up. I thought I had this figured out, so I upped my bid to 66 1/8. Also, this time I watched the price action on the 120's and the 130's. This time the ask dropped to 66 1/4 and stopped. I watched in amazement as the 120's and 130's both dropped about another 1 1/2 while the 125's stayed at 66 1/4. Finally my order filled and the ask immediately dropped to 64 5/8! It appeared to me that they just didn't want to fill the order until they had to! I don't know what significance any of this has, but I thought it was interesting. :-) Anyone else experience something similar? Ritch

To: TShirtPrinter who wrote (795)	1/7/2000 10:27:00 PM
From: edamo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8096

tony...option executions most options are traded on multiple exchanges. i've found the majority of brokerages do not give priority to option orders. they tend to route to one exchange, where your order can stagnate, while other exchanges fill same type of order. i moved my account to wall street access, have had no problems, on ten or more contracts they will route direct to a floor trader, i can see real time quotes and exchanges, which in a fast moving market allows me to make adjustments in my order. early morning sometimes best to set a position, before volatility moves rapidly in either direction....but it entails more risk. i tend to decide my entry, monitor closely, fine tune, and live with what i am satisfied with! what brokerage do you use?

To: TShirtPrinter who wrote (795)	1/7/2000 10:47:00 PM
From: KFE	Respond to of 8096

Tony, It sounds like your order might have been entered during opening rotation. No order placed after the original opening match whether it be a limit or market order gets done until after the market maker/specialist in the options works his/her way down the series of the particular underlying. You will see the option quotes change during this time because they are on an auto-adjust system but no orders including market orders can be executed during this time. Once the market maker finishes all the opening market matches of all the series on the board then he comes back and opens the stock for general trading. Usually this takes about 5 to 15 minutes but with all the different options traded on QCOM it could take longer. When you trade options this is something that you must be aware of especially if you expect movement in the first half hour of trading. Regards, Ken

To: TShirtPrinter who wrote (795)	1/8/2000 7:16:00 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8096

Tony, I've had some problems occasionally on limit orders on options too, that didn't make sense. Sometimes the quotes at Fidelity were wrong. Other times the MM wasn't "playing", or Fidelity would give me the same falderol about the exchanges, when theoretically they're supposed to route it to the best exchange. You can ask them which exchange is best at the moment and ask to route it there. Not all options always trade on all exchanges. Those calls were a bargain especially early in the morning, I was looking at exactly those myself. I'll be interested to see what others say but if some filled at those cheaper prices then you have a right to complain strongly. If none filled, then possibly the MM were just refusing to sell them at that price because it was too great a bargain.