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

To: Derrick Burry who wrote (1460)	1/30/2000 8:13:00 PM
From: Porter Davis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1598

>> not sure what a 2 lot order is that they are claiming.... I guess I should have been clearer. Two contracts. Two out of almost 7000. Let me explain a little more about error accounts. Mistakes happen more than you'd imagine...clients say calls when they mean puts or they pick the wrong month or series or even the wrong country (several of our stocks are interlisted). Order traders can make mistakes when they are busy They may over- or under-buy, particularly when getting multiple fills. Anyway, you get the point that error accounts are a necessary fact of trading. Bear in mind that errors can sometimes go the firm's way. The same firm that claimed on me both Wednesday and Thursday, both times for 2 contracts, came to me on Friday and asked me to kill a trade I had made with them. Against my better judgement I agreed, then as I was writing up the cancellation, the trader was frantically signalled to come to the booth. It turns out that as this was taking place, the underlying stock had risen about two dollars, and it was now profitable for the firm to keep the error. The trader came back to the square and sheepishly said he was wrong, it was a good trade and they would keep it. Yeah, right. It just goes to show you what a one-way street it is with this firm. They make millions and hang you out to dry for every penny. A small disclaimer: I have not and will not name this firm, so don't ask. Also this is just my humble opinion, based on twenty years of dealing with them. These sure are incredible times for options trading in Canada. Pity they're going to shake up the deck with the move to Montreal. I'm sure things will work out OK in the end, but it is a huge disruption. I think the TSE's paying Montreal to take over the derivatives business in this country will rank as high on the bonehead move list as the Edsel. My two cents. Happy trading. Porter