I'm looking to buy a USO put (I just wanna gamble a bit) the spread is 4.40 (1500) * 4.90 (1500) I park an order to buy @ 4.50 for 1 contract, and all of the other 1500 contracts bid for move up to my spot. I think this is funny so I do this more a couple more contracts and the whole herd moves. Am I pissing the Market Markers off?
By the way it wont make a difference if the auto quote moves the bid up to your level. You're a pure retail customer and your order will have priority over the mm's via the rules of parity/priority. The other poster is correct you're just battleing the autoquote not the actual market makers
Actually, you can play with those bots to get the fill you desire. If you'd like to buy 1 lot, simply enter a limit sell to see how low the bot will go. Plant your order at the lowest sell price possible where the bot matches you. Then, in a single order, buy your own offer plus however many lots you really wanted. You'll pay the extra commission of the 1 buy/sell you matched against yourself, but the price improvement will likely be worth it. Just don't do it too often, else you may be investigated for trading against yourself. (It depends on the particular market and its rules.) -Raystonn
If you really want to piss people off, offer 1 contract at your price and when the bots move to match your offer take it but take your own contract plus however many more you want. You will piss off a bunch of people trust me.
Technically its not legal to trade with yourself. You also risk having your offer lifted by anyone else, which if you're really trying to buy that option sucks. The autoquote does not care, its also not designed to lose money for the market makers who have to honor the markets it spits out. The markets you posted are pretty wide so if it were me I would try entering orders near to the mid point and see if you can get a fill.
It's not legal, no. Your are exploiting a flaw in the mm's software and they don't like that at all. If the quote is wide there probably isn't any liquidity so the chances of you getting hit are probably zero and if you split the bid/ask you won't get filled either.
Not sure I would call it a flaw, nor do I think they care. Its a personal question, if you feel as a small retial guy that you want to trade wide markets and that risking having someone lift your offer when you're not really a seller is worth it, then go for it. I would suggest you find a similar product with better liquidity and tighter markets.