I'm not complaining about the system, just explaining it. I was an options market maker for many years.
Good points, but not completely true. You may find a spread that is offered at 0 edge. Not something a market maker would do, but if it is a position you wanted, you could put it on without giving up any edge. Quite often there are big traders of certain spreads. For example there is a customer who sells a certain type of spread every week. When I see it in the COB, I put a bid in below his current offer. When he comes down, I will get the trade before the MM as I have a standing bid in. The biggest problem is the way the CBOE cob is displayed on the web. It is not organized by edge, so you have to sift through a lot of junk.
Fuck I love this info... that's cool as shit you made markets... cost of staying neutral.. gauging where you change from positive to negative convexity.. Were you keeping a book on single stocks?
I agree on both points. I know some traders have access to platforms like WEX that enable point and click of those spreads you want to trade. I just think it is very slow and difficult for most retail traders to enter orders like you say without errors constantly to get executions the way you describe. I'm also wondering if the CBOE enables any kind of delay in what you see from non members over their website.
From summer of 1985 until early 2010 I traded AAPL. In the early years I also traded options near by, however not more than three or four others until MM became electronic. Then I traded around 12 including AAPL. I was small Independent trader. My badge was 1245 on the AMEX and M45 on the NYSE AMEX. It was fun. I really enjoyed the floor environment and the friends I made. 1245
wow i'm jealous... i'd love to have that experience.. i trade all kinds of flys and credit spreads, calenders etc.. on apple... and right at opex i trade outright premium.. you were as they call it.. a "local"
Yup. I was a member from 1984 to 1985 as a broker for a small firm. Before that a wire clerk working orders for off floor professional traders like Steven Cohen at SAC, back then he was at Gruntal & Co. I started on my own in Feb '85. There were no electronic trading back then. All brokers and open outcry. Also, most options were single listed, so there was less competition in the markets. It was a good time to trade. More edge. Much harder today.