I'm looking for a stock option clearing firm in Chicago that allows you to enter orders as a customer and not as a market maker
My first post on this board was a question about the risks and characteristics document for options. The reason I did not understand one of the presented risks was that I did not know that market makers/perfessionals could execute orders past the retail customer's deadline. Would using a clearing firm as a customer allow me to execute orders with the same deadlines as the professionals? Got a ballpark how much capital makes for "significant capital"? Thanks, Ray
Yes, I am wondering about that estimate myself. I didn't even realize that you don't need to be a market maker to do transactions directly with them... Not sure what you mean by past deadline. You mean when the market closes?
Ray, By 'execute' do you mean exercise? If yes, please let me know where you learned to use the word 'execute.' I've seen it too many times and I'd like to trace its origins. It's the wrong word. I have not been a MM for 9 years, but when I was on the floor, if we had any out trades (mis-matched. i.e., I though you sold me 20 and I thought I bought 2) on expiration Friday, and if that resulted in an increased quantity of any option that finished ITM, we were allowed to exercise when we checked for those outtrades Saturday morning. But there was no intention of allow cheating. We were not allowed to exercise options that finished OTM but which - after a news release - were likely to be ITM on Monday morning. Why would you want to be able to exercise Saturday morning. You don't have any out trades. You don't have a position change. No clearing firm would give you permission to exercise after the Friday deadline. And if your only reason for wanting that ability was to cheat - then you can forget it. Today, with electronic trade checking, there is no longer any reason to have an out trade, and I cannot verify that MMs have the right to exercise after the deadline. What's going on here? Mark
still looking for clearing firms that allow you to trade stock options as a customer and not a market maker in the chicagoland area
I was actually wondering the same thing as the original post. As a former futures trader in Chicago, there seems to be several clearing firms here that clear futures and actually have an office that you can go there and trade. Does this not exist for stock options in Chicago? The only place I can actually find is this one (http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1892483&highlight=cornerstone+mto#post1892483) Although it appears as if their orders are entered as market maker orders and not customer orders. Are there not firms that you can go to and trade and have your order entered as a customer? I know there is such thing as a customer order, just not sure if firms in Chicago exist where I can enter orders as a customer. If anyone can shed any light on this I would appreciate it, as it would possibly make my possible journey from futures to stock options a little easier.
Hi, wondering what is the difference btw entering a option order as customer or market maker. buy on the bid easier?
I don't necessarily mean exercising but possibly opening or closing as well. Which I suppose is why I used "execute orders". As far as I know, most brokerage firms use the term "execute/execution" as a term for any trading transactions completed (stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, etc). And the term "order" for the conditions of the transaction. So in the case of an option clearing firm, I thought "execute" would mean opening, closing or exercising. I could be way off base here. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I wasn't really looking to exercise on Saturday morning, or cheat. I just wanted to level the playing field. Although, I'm not sure the pros have an advantage now. I had thought that I read pros could trade options up until 5pm Eastern, but now I can't find where I read that. What is the latest ANYONE can exercise an option? The CBOE site seems to indicate that exercise deadlines are brokerage dependent. My brokerage (Fidelity) has a 4:20pm Eastern time deadline. If others can exercise later than that, they have a potential advantage. - Ray