Bid/Ask and guaranteed execution

Discussion in 'Order Execution' started by marsman, Jun 19, 2016.

  1. marsman

    marsman

    Hi,
    this is an options related question regarding order execution:
    If a strike has an offer in the orderbook then on our screens the fields Bid or Ask, or both, are displayed with the offer prices.
    If there is no offer in the orderbook then Bid/Ask are empty to indicate that.
    Now, the question is: if there is an offer in the orderbook, can I get a guaranteed fill if my offer matches that in the book?
    Normally I would expect that, and also common sense says so, but just just wanted to be sure.
    Ie. whether a fill can fail?
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016

  2. There is a lot of misused terminology in your post, so it's not clear what you are asking.

    1. A strike price has nothing to do with bid/ask.
    2. "Offer" is the term used to mean the same as the term "Ask", but you seem to assign different meaning to these two terms.
    3. The phrase "Bid or Ask, or both, are displayed with the offer price" does not make any sense.
    4. The phrase "can I get a fill to exactly the price in the book" does not make any sense, because there is no single "price", but rather best bid and best ask.

    With the bid/ask as shown, you can buy immediately at $0.35, or sell immediately at $0.20. Alternatively, you can place a limit order, but the execution is not guaranteed.
     
    1245 likes this.
  3. marsman

    marsman

    When using limit order and if there is no change in Bid/Ask, can the execution of my order still can fail?

    Why has a strike nothing to do with Bid/Ask? Sure does it, I would say.

    PS: I edited the initial posting to fix some of the points you mention.

    PS2: By "offer" I mean the Buy and Sell offers, ie. the Bid and Ask prices in the book, and also my own offer price to buy or sell.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
  4. -- if the price of your buy limit order is at or above the best ask, you'll get an immediate execution
    -- if the price of your sell limit order is at or below the best bid, you'll get an immediate execution
    -- in all other cases involving limit order, it would be placed in a queue, and you'll have to wait until the market price moves and touches your limit order.
     
  5. marsman

    marsman

    That's also what I would expect. Thx for confirmation.

    Then, hopefully in a few minutes I'll be able to present a very lucrative trade for analysis...
     
  6. The strike price is fixed for the life of an option contract. The bid/ask prices continuously change.

    I look forward to it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
  7. marsman

    marsman

    Of course, and I think I haven't implied anything different.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
  8. marsman

    marsman

    Ok, here's one from the NASDAQ site: Underlying=DUST Expiration=2016-06-24 Type=Put-Short Strike=20:
    DUST_2016-06-24_K20.png
    It's ITM, and current spot of underlying is $10.08.
    But according to my calcs the PnL should be > +80% in just a week. Isn't it?

    Update:
    Hmm. it seems my program which did the calculation has a bug... Will recheck it...
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
  9. You've calculated the P&L on an unspecified trade. This makes no sense to me.
     
  10. marsman

    marsman

    Sorry, it was a completely buggy trade as the program had a bug.
    I must say, today is not my day, I made too many errors, sorry.... :(

    But now I quickly fixed it, and with a different strike of the same underlying it seems to find another good trade. This one:
    Underlying=DUST Expiration=2016-06-24 Type=Call-Short Strike=11.50 Bid=0.40 Ask=0.55
    Profit about 18% based on margin requirements of broker IB.
    Of course would need to be hedged if necessary.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
    #10     Jun 19, 2016