I have a quick question for those of you who also trade options. For reference, I am currently using IB as my stock/options/futures brokerage. Does anyone have an explanation as to why the options quote at the opening of trading every day takes 30 seconds to load? Every day, at the beginning of trading, I don't even receive an options quote on the QQQs until 30 seconds after open. Is this a problem with IB? or Is this a problem with technology in general since I am trading off the floor? or Is this typical of the options exchanges not making quotes until after the open? Any thoughts here would be helpful.
Not sure about the QQQs but with equity options there is a "rolling open". The first thing that needs to happen is that the underlying stock has to open. Since the NYSE has to price everything based on who shows at each post, this can take a few minutes. On the NASDAQ, it's electronic but everything still has to get priced once the market opens. I would think that since the QQQs are a composite tracking vehicle, that EVERYTHING making up the composite would have to price before the derivatives could be calculated.
Whether or not your specific example is a rotation problem, all of the consumer feeds choke up on the open. We have done extensive testing on this and no matter what they say; unless you have a very expensive feed without an internet connection, they are missing strikes and transmitting stale quotes. The best we can figure out is that the vendors have some priority set up whenever their servers are backlogged where they drop quotes on less active issues. They all deny this, but we have written specific programs to compare and analyze the issue, with before mentioned results.