Recent content by hschwartz

Apex is what became of Penson- I believe IB has a much larger capital base and (I'd guess) better rates and lower fees in general. Apex might offer better cust support since it's nearly nonexistent with IB- so it depends on how often you think you'd need help. Might also be important to find...

2.4million in-the-money SPY calls were candidates for early exercise ahead of today's 78cent ex-dividend event for the widely held SP500 ETF. Total dividend proceeds available to the long-call holders was nearly $170million. As expected, call volume in SPY on Thursday was several times the...

here it is for today (45mins to go) Option Volume Breakdown @ALL graph Total Equity Index ETF AMEX 3.82m 1.85m 56k 1.91m ARCA 2.38m 1.42m 11k 948k BATS 770k 540k 0 230k BOX 845k 518k 178 327k BXO...

Hi I worked up a grid of whats out there with as much pricing as I could get. Its here as a google doc. I haven't updated it in about 6mo but it should be a pretty good guide. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Av_n-2OrkbNWdHFLU2tudXZyVTl0YXA0alVyQ2pPM3c comments welcome

Hello all- w/30mins left to trade, FB options volume hit half a million contracts- a new record by more than 120K. Option prices suggest a big move- the 1day atm straddle is bid $4! My guess is at least a 10% move. We set up a survey to collect expectations of the price move (close to...

Try this- http://www.futuresindustry.org/volume-.asp

OptionAlert (03:57:46 PM): Contract Details USO Sep-12 34.5 Call, 6/28 Symbol = USO 120922C00034500 Volume = 98 contracts (6 trades) Open Interest = 2613 contracts (nochg) Closing Bid/Ask/Price = $0.33 / $0.35 / $0.34 (30.2% IV +0.5) Closing Delta = 16% Prior Day Bid/Ask/Close = $0.46...

The dividend is already priced into the puts, but in-the-money calls will drop by the amount of the dividend, so long-call holders normally exercise their calls on the last day before the stock goes ex-div.

the weekly's imply a reaction about 3x the typical magnitude of CSCO non earnings moves- or about a 17% chance of a move lower than 18.5- so it's a long shot (and thats why the puts are cheap)- actually I see them 6cent at 8cent right now.

you learned (the hard way I suppose) how the BOX operates under a unique 'inverted maker-taker' pricing model. This means taking liquidity earns a rebate, while adding liquidity actually incurs the cost. This is the opposite of how most exchanges with a maker-taker model operate, but it seems...