any of U cats trade OEX or SPX weekly options?

Discussion in 'Options' started by increasenow, Jan 19, 2010.

  1. any of U cats trade OEX or SPX weekly options?...it seems as if the OEX weekly options have more volume...hey, it's like expiration week every week!...looks cool...you ever traded them?...thoughts?
     
  2. crappy volume, not much open interest, and with oex, not many strikes. the best time for them was spring 2009. they were more liquid back then.

    i know few here trade them because IB had a problem with them a few weeks ago where they were untradeable for the entire day, and not a single person whined about it on ET.
     
  3. ess1096

    ess1096


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  4. tortoise

    tortoise

    NDX is the way to go
     
  5. I do, I trade both the SPX and XEO weeklys. For example this week I have a 340 contracts vertical spread on the XEO. They really do not have that much liquidity so choose your strikes very carefully because ajusting positions is not easy. The main thing I like with these is that you get to deal directly with the market maker and there aren't any of these incredibly annoying tiny (3-4 contracts) orders like on the RUT and especially the NDX. If you trade decent size and really hate partial fills because of tick-f*ckers (like I do), I think they do have their perks. I also love the fact that it gives you at least 4 cycles per month. Downside is of course difficulty of ajusting and also there are not that many strikes although it's getting better than it used to be.
     
  6. thanks...yea...seems the XEO is the way to go on the weeklys with more volume than the SPX weeklys...agree?...correct?...also, what time on Friday do the XEO weeklys expire?...have you ever traded them on Friday?
     
  7. tortoise

    tortoise

    340 contracts on the XEO weekly? That's a substantial chunk of the open interest on those puppies. Looks like there's almost no liquidity there, even compared to OEX. How much work do you have to put into getting filled?
     
  8. great question
     
  9. Yes it is a large chunk although usually I go for even larger (500 or more), I don't know if its still the case but I used to be the biggest trader on the XEO weekly's. You cannot leg into such a position, you send it as a spread and either the MM takes it or he doesn't. Either way you are fixed in 10 minutes, and I have never sent a size that he didn't swallow whole, no need for AON. The thing is that in such cases, my advice is not to compromise for a fill, you have 0 room for error so if the MM doesn't bite, wait for some other time. The "good" thing with weekly's IMO is that it's easier to get a positive e(x). On a regular monthly option, you will be hard pressed to find a trade that would give you 1% (gross) per week return on margin with 99% of expiring OTM, on weekly's you can.

    Weekly's come out on friday morning every week both for the XEO and SPX, except there are no weekly's on the week of the 3rd friday because obviously the regular monthly options have 1 week left to go. Note that it is different on weekly SPX futures options. There are also weekly's on the swiss, dutch and german markets (they have their own characteristics I can give you some other time). One thing you need to watch for is the expiry: The SPX weekly's expire with a special opening quote (ticker:SET) so you know around 11h am on the friday if the options will be OTM or ITM. The XEO however trades all day friday and settles on the friday closing price (like most options).
     
  10. you exeperience is quite amazing:
    1-do you mostly trade XEO or SPX weeklys?
    2-have you ever traded the SPX weekly on thursday and XEO weekly on friday?
    3-wow..since no weeklys on 3rd friday week..they CBOE are totally focusing on those that love expriations week volaitity
     
    #10     Jan 20, 2010