Sam252

Hi IG, this is the second day that the options chain is broken! Please can someone sort this out so it doesnt happen again! Thanks

@AndaIGplease may you help. Thanks.

Yes this is very annoying. I placed a few deals, then moments later I cannot trade and the market has moved against me! Will IG compensate me?! I traded Options on the S&P which are most liquid, so have no idea why the problems.

Hi Kodiak. excellent information, answers everything and thanks for sharing so quickly. Thanks. Sam

@AndaIG please see above two posts. Not sure if I sent this to you correctly or just to myself. Thanks.

Hi Anda, You can see from the screen shot below, data provided by the CBOE, that my price calculation is not far off and it does little to explain how the settlement price in my IG account ended up being 31.46. You will notice the final ask price of 24.80 near enough matches my calculations of 24.83. The settlement price in my IG Account of 31.46 is baffling me at this current time. Thanks

Hi Anda, The S&P500 opened at 4704.83 at GMT 2.30pm today. My November monthly options that expired yesterday and the settlement value based on todays market open were not priced as expected. The S&P 500 4680 Call settled at 31.46 and based on a S&P 500 market open value of 4704.83 I would expect the Call to settle at a value of 24.83. The settlement price of the call assumes a market open price of 4711.46 (31.46 + 4580 strike). Please may you confirm how this open has been valued for the purposes of settlement? Perhaps I am calculating it wrong, but based on market open today (based on previous correspondence), I am not understanding this. I used the 1 sec chart on the S&P 500 to see what the open price was. Thanks

Hi Anda, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, appreciate it. This is fair straight forward then, the settlement price is as of market open (GMT 2.30pm) at market open on the expiration date (3rd friday of the month). How does this differ for weekly SPX options? Thanks again

Hello IG Support, Please may you provide exact confirmation as to what time the settlement price is determined for S&P 500 options? On your IG 'info' tab you state that the expiry is on the Friday and the last dealing date is 21.15pm on the preceding Thursday. If you take the FTSE 100 options as an example, the valuation point for the options is GMT 4.35pm, which is the spot price determined by the 5 min auction period on the LSE following market close at GMT 4.30pm. I assume there is an auction period on the NYSE that these options are traded on? I need to understand the exact time of valuation for the purposes of settlement; the dealing cut off time or settlement time isn't relevant to me, rather the exact point in time the S&P 500 options are valued for purposes of settlement. Thank you

Thanks Anda for getting back to me so quickly, much appreciated. So if I understand you correctly, following a 5 min auction which starts at market close at 4.30pm, it is the spot price at 4.35pm that the options are valued for the purposes of settlement? Thanks

Hi IG (or anyone that can help me!) I have called a few times today to no avail. I am trying to get a clear and definitive answer as to when exactly the FTSE 100 weekly options are valued on expiry? The system states that the dealing deadline is 16:29 but it does not say when the option is valued for the purposes of settlement. I had one person tell me it was at 'market close' but they could not confirm what time this was exactly or what market even, and just kept saying 'market close'. The LSE closes at 4:30pm but the futures market that the options are priced against as I understand it closes at market close in the US (currently GMT 2100hrs). I am just after the time exactly that these options are valued for the purposes of settlement. I am not after the dealing deadline or even the settlement time when I can expect proceeds available in my account. Thank you in advance. Sam

Hi IG, I tried calling, waiting on hold for 30mins then the line was dropped, called again and it happened a second time after 20 mins. Suffice to say I have given up. I'm disappointed you still have dreadful waiting times to get through to your dealing team - please sort it out! Senior management are clearly failing in this regard. Question ref dealing on options: You cant seem to be able to do it online, but can I place a limit order on an call/put option on the S&P 500 based on the price of the underlying, so that the order will be filled when the S&P 500 hits a specific price? I suspect this should be pretty straight forward to facilitate. If you have to do this over the phone it clearly wont work as the waiting times can literally take all day to get through to someone! Thanks

Yea that is frustrating. Hopefully IG will make it available in time. I don't understand why they haven't done it yet when other platforms can do it such as Saxo. Perhaps it has something to do with the viability based on client demand and average account values. Who knows..

Thats correct yea, I just only have Jun and September options available. On the US 500 for example, I can still buy May. You see the same?

As I understand it you would get your balance in the P/L plus the margin used to purchase.

Agree. I have asked for the Nasdaq options to be made monthly, but i guess that fell on deaf ears as I am just one client. I am not too sure how many products are traded against the market or against IG. I guess it is down to how profitable a product would be for IG and if it wins for them more times than not they would make it available. Other platforms such as Interactive Brokers have really good tools for being able to design an options strategy, but the IG platform is sufficient enough for what I am doing. Saxo Bank provides a lot more, but while you could open an account through a company and let the returns grow free of tax, you would pay UK tax on withdrawals as income (assuming you are a UK resident like me). As I only want to trade on the S&P its good for me. Out of interest, what are you wanting to trade? perhaps I can help.

Agree. Getting my account wiped out is something I am mindful of. To mitigate this I have applied the following: 1) Must have min 20pc margin between the strike price and market price at time of taking the position. Previous trades I have averaged around 23pc margin. 2) I have three years worth of premiums in cash. I add to positions monthly and compound last months returns, and then will rebalance at the end of the year. 3) dont be greedy for the premium If I get wiped out in one month, maybe i get wiped out for the next two consecutive months, but that would represent a considerable drawdown in the market - it is unlikely to continue. In such instance, I would probably take a separate long position in the index. If the market crashes like this, my odds for success historically improve. I am trying to review what would be a suitable hedge - perhaps you can help? Unfortunately, I don't think the IG Options are priced favorably where I could buy a PUT to hedge but keep a sufficient margin with the index while maintaining a decent premium as my return (it then becomes questionably if its worth the time and just buy the index with some leverage for the long term and roll over the futures). Hence why I am looking at this like an insurance salesman, reviewing the statistics and the odds, Im not concerned about the volatility of the Put, just the likelihood of it expiring out of the money based on the fundamentals of the market and the strike price. Back testing 1-month rolling returns on the S&P it breaches -20% approximately once every 10 years. Would be most grateful to hear your feedback. Thanks.

I was looking for anyone that has become confident with an options strategy on IG. Perhaps anyone out there would like to exchange ideas? Being able to use leverage on IG and the tax advantages of spread betting, it seems there is great value in using Options on IG for the markets they cover. I have been shorting monthly out of the money PUT options on the S&P 500 to earn circa 6-8% return monthly. Typically the strike price ranges from 23-25% below the current market price. Historic volatility on this index shows it rarely breaches this level of drawdown in any 30-day period, and the success rate is comfortably high enough that any losses can be offset by a long term discipline to sticking with the strategy (3-4 years minimum). In effect, it's not investing or trading, it's selling insurance. Be good to connect with a serious market participant willing to share ideas!