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To: nihil who wrote (72882)	10/21/1998 11:31:00 AM
From: Geoff Nunn	Respond to of 176387

nihil, I wonder what the possibility is that small orders on the options exchanges are executed electronically. The exchange markets generally have made significant moves in this direction, and away from the more labor intensive approaches of the past. I see no reason why options trading should have escaped the trend. On the NYSE, for example, small limit and market orders are routed to a computer system (Superdot). When match-ups of buy and sell orders are found, they are crossed automatically. It is only relatively large orders that are sent to the trading floor. Each brokerage firm decides what its cutoff will be. Don't hold me to this but I seem to remember Quick & Reilly had a policy of sending any order of less than $20,000 to Superdot. The possibility that small options trades are handled differently from large ones may perhaps explain why there are conflicting accounts on this thread concerning how competitive the system is, and whether it is possible to get intra-spread fills. Thanks for taking the time to express you views. I find you are addressing issues that are of interest to me, and believe your views to be well thought out. Geoff