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

To: rx4pain who wrote (9390)	2/2/2001 8:20:09 PM
From: mtnlady	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10876

Let's say the bid is 7 and the ask is 8. My ask at 8 is not hitting. What is your experience with market orders? How much are you charged (on average). 8, 8 1/4, 8 1/2? The scary part is if you have a market order out there and the stock starts to move up. The market maker can let your market order 'ride up' and 'hit it' at their convience and there is little you can do about it. I REALLY don't like at market orders with options because I don't trust the powers that be at all...

To: rx4pain who wrote (9390)	2/3/2001 9:52:15 AM
From: Bridge Player	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 10876

<< I've sat in amazement as my limit orders at the ask sit for 30-40 minutes >> Usually when this happens to me it is because my order was not routed to the exchange with the lowest asking price. At the risk of stating the obvious, most quotation services, including quotes supplied by your broker, reflect a composite quote from all of the option exchanges that trade that particular option, i.e. they will show the highest bid price and the lowest ask price. Unless you are trading with a firm that allows you to route your order to a specific exchange, or specify same thru a real live person (trader), you have no control over which exchange your order is actually routed to. If there is a slight difference in quotes between exchanges, which is the normal condition, your order to buy at 5 1/2 limit may sit for an extended period at an exchange where the ask is 5 5/8 with nothing done, while at another exchange the option is actively trading at 5 1/8 to 5 1/2. And all while your quote service continues to show 5 1/2 as the current asking price. Apologies if this is obvious to all, not intended to be condescending.