Is Auto Trading Right For You?

Auto Trading gives retail account holders the ability to execute your stock, option, or ETF automatically, based on your My Automated Advisor trade alerts.
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Learn About Symbols and Quotes

Provided by the OIC."Symbols and Quotes" (Options 102) will introduce you to the classification process of options, and how options are assigned their specific symbols. This course will teach the student how to go about deciphering and understanding displayed option symbols and quotes. Each chapter has a quiz at the end, which should be completed before moving on to the next chapter. At the conclusion of Options 102, you should know and understand the how and why of option symbols, and be comfortable reading and interpreting option quotes. [ Go To Class ]

FAQ of the Month

Q: What does liquidity mean?

A: Liquidity refers to the availability of stock near the last sale price. When the bid-ask on an option is wider than "normal," it usually means that the market-makers are not sure where they can reliably buy or sell shares of the underlying stock to hedge possible option transactions. Sometimes that means that the stock is more volatile, but not always. It is possible, for example, to have a volatile stock that is very liquid, meaning that there are usually lots of stock shares to buy or sell at prices near the last sale. In that case, the options' bid-ask would most likely be narrow. When the market in an option is narrow, it may mean that shares of the underlying stock can either be bought or sold in quantity near the last sale price or the option itself has a lot of buyers and sellers near the last sale price of the option. Usually if an option is liquid, the underlying stock is also liquid.

Content Provided by The Option Industry Council.