Below is a screen shot for PCLN 1330 calls. No way did they reach a high of $2.49, the high couldn't have been much higher than the open which was $0.10. I have also noticed this before on other stocks. I figure someone puts in a bid to sell 1 contract at $2.49, then in another account buys it back for the $2.49. My guess this is done to get the transaction recorded in the quotes for some reason. Anybody else notice these odd daily price ranges? PS ... The screen shot is from Yahoo Finance but I get the same quotes from my broker so I don't think the quotes are wrong. :eek:
It looks like 100 traded (95 at 1.24 and 5 at 2.49). It says it's part of a spread trade - so it's possible that someone screwed up the prints and there's a pcln option with a 5 cent price that should be 1.25.
Looking through time and sales, it was the 1330-1320 call spread that traded at .03. Apparently there was a wide market at the time the spread traded through the COB (this was the C2 which is all electronic). The computer most likely took random prices that were in between the current market when assigning prices on the spread.
I catch weird prints all the time, you can route directly to c2 and pay outside the inner bid and ask. Not sure if your old enough to remember when people would route and qualify their order "keep it in the book" using Island or DATA ECNs with stocks to force a 52 week high or All Time High. The worst trades and fills usually come through Amex if your not using KCG, I see ISE and CBOE prints pass the inner-market all day long. I was trading TRLA the day the rumor hit that Zillow was going to buy out TRLA, my fill was bad, I paid $4 and $5 for a total of 40 contracts. When I throw out the orders, the spread was $2x $3.50 (stock was moving that fast) and I put my contracts out on CBOE at $8.9 and somebody took out 1500 at $8.9 even though 300 existed at $8.6, my order got filled with CBOE. The 300 contracts at $8.60 on GMNI were still on the offer, the 1500 were routed to CBOE, I don't understand why GMNI's 300 were still standing. Someone grabbed the 300 on GMNI and posted them on CBOE and sold them quickly, that's called arbitrage? With size I understand overpaying, when I see smaller lots going off on Apple's Weeklies at .10 to .40 difference with c2 and Amex, teaches me never to use those direct market centers. Wide Markets are screwy, last year the good old folks on Elite Trader taught me to stay away from wild spread options, you know the Bid $1.20 x $6.20 ask (MPAA) POST, ect type of garbage? The opening is when the spread can be a 50% difference, last week TSLA's Friday Openings on the $252.50 Call was $1.04x$1.45, fills on both ends passed by the first minute.
OK ..... thanks for the replies. When it comes to those PCLN 1330 calls there is no way that $2.49 high was marketable to Joe Public. Even a limit sell order at $0.50 placed Thursday evening would have expired unfilled on Friday.
You cant get caught up in the 2.49 price. This was a .03 spread that traded. If you had a .50 offer placed Friday, the price of the spread would have been done using prices below .50.