Today was easy with BABA, you could sell 1000 contracts without messing with price. I made a mistake of putting out too much size on a smaller volume stock. The contracts just sat with 50 taken out. With BABA I could sell 500 contracts very easily, yesterday and today the Options have been super liquid. If you built up a big position on a stock with modest volume, how would you liquidate Puts deep in the money? Do you show your size, use a Reserve Book(100 on two ECNs) or piece out the order over the next few days. Thank's and hope your making money!
If you have an account at interactive brokers you call the big block desk in chicago and they shop it for you. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=979
There are no option ECNs. There is dark liquidity on the exchanges. Have you broker shop the order. There are numerous block desks. Avoid shopping for liquidity and then not using it. People will stop responding to the requests.
What is consider big block? For some very thinly traded options I actually own all of the OI in some strikes.
Not as much dependent on open interest as availability of the underlying. An institutional desk will quote tied to stock. For an ETF/ETN option look at the both the underlying and any future that matches. The industry has what is called a qualified contingent cross. 75% of trades of 1000 contracts or more are not straightforward trades. If you want to see the data do a google search for qualified contingent crosses and you'll see the data. If the option trades on more than one exchange the broker can algo an inter-market sweep order and remove the visible liquidity - then look at the reset to get a sense of size. Use your brokers help desk/trading desk. Sometimes one phone call can easily fin you a thousand contract tied to the underlying price. Open interest can be a great benchmark, but it can also indicate there just hasn't been any real interest in a name. The key is the liquidity of the underlying. The industry is built around the 10 up rule for retail, but in many names they allow dark liquidity. Use your broker's resources.
"A qualified contingent cross (QCC) is a type of block trade facility that was requested by the ISE and approved by the SEC staff in August 2009. The orders are multi-leg trades that involve both stocks and options. The QCC allows institutional brokers to cross these orders electronically without exposing them to the market, as long as they are for at least 1,000 contracts and the order is priced at or better than the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO).[1] The SEC approved ISE's proposal for the order type in 2009, but the launch was delayed after the CBOE filed a petition asking the SEC to review the matter more fully.[2] The SEC gave its final approval in February 2011 and ISE launched the qualified contingent cross on Feb. 28." QCC - Now available pretty much industry wide and on exchanges with fee caps MMs prefer them when they are above their cap as the cross get's done for free. It prints, but doesn't get exposed and this diminishes the information value.