RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:What's with the crazy volumes today?If the contracts are not unwound by the contract holder the brokers and exchange process them as market at close order. They expire at market close. Can't roll to the next trading day. This requires lining up bid/ask volumes to clear which can be volatile. Usually it isn't. Normal retail is not typically involved in any options at expiry and their broker and options exchange will close them out if they just forget for example. Normal retail doesn't get involved in indexes vs underlying futures or options at all. That's more big boys banks and hedge funds.
Heywood_Silvers wrote: Hi Max, It is possible my conjecture is incorrect. However, if you had multiple parties that were all of a sudden looking to get into SBB on Friday, why would they wait until the last hour when the prices had already started to rise instead of biting earlier in the day when they were lower? The volume doesn't strike me as being your normal retail investor who is eyeing the price closely and then felt forced to buy at the last minute lest the price continues higher the following week.
Normal retail doesn't pile in at the last minute regardless of price action. Just my two cents worth. Like I said, I expect SBB is a ways from full capitulation, so retail will likely be patient as they look to acquire more shares.