This is some f**ked up shit Asking price for almost all the options is $10.00. Bid is zero. WTF Schwab uses the midpoint between bid and ask to determine the account value at the end of the day. LOL We are short a bunch of VIX calls, across multiple expiration dates. All well OTM. The lowest strike that we are short is a 30 call. But Schwab has them all valued at $5.00. Has not triggered a margin call. Schwab rep said he "filed a ticket"
When the options market is closed, don't the B/A spreads go apeshit, like futures? Why not wait until tomorrow morning after 9:30AM EST to see how the table looks?
Another proof that this useless and corrupt Market Maker and Specialist system needs to be abolished and replaced with a system similar to the "mining system" in crypto trading.
What time did you look at these prices? Remember VIX options trade almost 24 hours a day. At times, during the overnight session, MM's will quote a very wide market. This can happen intermittently throughout the session. This wouldn't be a Schwab issue.
The screenshot was taken around the time that I posted the message, i.e., about 9:30 PM eastern time in the USA. I recognize that this was probably an issue caused not by Schwab, but rather by their data vendor, i.e., whoever is providing their live quotes. But the data must be wrong. It does not make sense that every strike and every expiration has a bid of zero and an ask of $10.00, including strikes that are far out of the money. That's not a "wide market." It's meaningless numbers, or some sort of default value. Those are not real quotes. The problem was fixed this morning when I logged in.
Not a data issue. I watch the overnight session in the SPX and VIX options. At times there are no quotes at all for some series (especially the back months) and at other times I will see "stub" quotes that are extremely wide with no bid.
Okay, well, I think we are sort of saying the same thing, that those numbers are not valid quotes. But I think it's a little ridiculous that Schwab is using those numbers to calculate the account value. It put an artificially low value on the account. It did not trigger a margin call, but I'm pretty sure it had a direct impact on how much I could withdraw using a margin loan. Maybe there's something I don't understand about the federal regs. All I'm saying is that those figures do not represent a real bid and ask for those options, so I think it is inappropriate to use the midpoint to determine the account value and how much margin is available.
%% TYPICAL bid \ask spread in low volume options; most likely you could get in for$10+ no exit bid\LOL. According to that trader FSU who knows, its a stub quote. The 00.51 bid /ask $9.00 proved a another clue. Its a bit like the early option trader who picked up the phone , wanted to sell; other end of phone said '' to who?'' Midpoint bid/ ask value seems like that was auto removed from liquid stuff/LOL, as your guts guessed; but dont really know on that low volume stuff QQQ options did have some same patterns like that.