Why do similar options strikes and contracts vary so much - using AAPL as an example

[ACUK]

I was looking at AAPL options:

• Nov23-160 Call rose in price by 5% in the past 4 days
• Dec23-160 Call lost 0.29%
• Mar24-160 Call made 6.7%

Why would 1 month in the middle lose while the others gained? (All options have similar high open interest, high volume and Implied Volatility)

 

[newwurldmn]

How are you looking at price increase?

mid to mid or based on last price?

 

[ACUK]

Based on last price

 

[sridhga]

I was looking at AAPL options:

• Nov23-160 Call rose in price by 5% in the past 4 days
• Dec23-160 Call lost 0.29%
• Mar24-160 Call made 6.7%

Why would 1 month in the middle lose while the others gained? (All options have similar high open interest, high volume and Implied Volatility)

You considered deep ITM options. What was the liquidity like for those expiries?

 

[newwurldmn]

Based on last price

the last price could have been traded at different times.

 

[smallfil]

I was looking at AAPL options:

• Nov23-160 Call rose in price by 5% in the past 4 days
• Dec23-160 Call lost 0.29%
• Mar24-160 Call made 6.7%

Why would 1 month in the middle lose while the others gained? (All options have similar high open interest, high volume and Implied Volatility)

You are forgetting that volatility affects the options prices. High volatility leaders to higher options prices, low volatility to lower options prices. What you have are multiple expiration dates which would affect the options prices differently. Time decay is largest, the closer to the expiration date. Also, the number of buyers and sellers of each call option would affect the option price.

 

[ETJ]

@newwurldmn is spot on. Last means last trade. It could have 5 seconds ago, 5 minutes ago or even longer. To get a better sense look at the current b/a. It's not a Greeks issue it's a time and even possibly date issue.

@newwurldmn knows his stuff!

 

[ACUK]

@newwurldmn is spot on. Last means last trade. It could have 5 seconds ago, 5 minutes ago or even longer. To get a better sense look at the current b/a. It's not a Greeks issue it's a time and even possibly date issue.

@newwurldmn knows his stuff!

Thanks for that, I will look at bid/ask values.

What would a possible date issue be?

 

[murray t turtle]

I was looking at AAPL options:

• Nov23-160 Call rose in price by 5% in the past 4 days
• Dec23-160 Call lost 0.29%
• Mar24-160 Call made 6.7%

Why would 1 month in the middle lose while the others gained? (All options have similar high open interest, high volume and Implied Volatility)

%%
MANY reason$;
last price=low volume,= a mess sometimes
bad data,
goofballs using a market order to enter.
NOV 23 $160 call is NOT a HI volume call @ all today7-21-23, 1;55 CST
I used a market order to exit qqq all one time with a good profit but Options Xpress, tech trouble took several hours to do it/amazing slippage/but in my favor
IF all bought or sold say/ noon that day= no way would your example hold, limit orders