Delayed Stock Quotes & Options Chains

Basic Options Calculator

888options now offers free 20 minute delayed quotes which include Stocks, Options with Indexes, LEAPS®, and Historical Volatility information as well as a Basic Options Calculator provided by iVolatility.com.

Our Basic Options Calculator, powered by iVolatility.com, provides fair values and Greeks of any option using our volatility data and previous trading day prices. You may customize all the input parameters or enter a stock or options symbol and the database will populate all those fields for you. Try it now!

Q:

How does open interest affect my order? Should there be a certain amount of open interest to execute the trade? If not, what is open interest telling us? I have 8,500 shares of XYZ. If I were to write 85 contracts, do I get filled at the bid or ask?

A:

I doubt that open interest will have any affect on the execution of your order. Open interest is simply the number of outstanding contracts; it expands and contracts as investors and traders open and close positions. If you enter a market sell order, you will be filled at the best available bid price - if the quantity at that bid price is less than your order size, then you'll sell the number of contracts on that bid and the balance of your order at the next-best bid price, and so on and so forth.

The impact of selling 85 call contracts will probably have a similar effect to that of selling 8,500 shares, so if you feel the market would have problems digesting that many shares then it might be appropriate to spread that quantity out over the course of the trading day. In any case, if you're worried about the price you would receive upon entering a market order, you might consider the use of a limit order, where the limit is the lowest price you would be willing to accept.