ajtj99's Market Pulse

[Math Junkie]

Well OK, but the only thing "they" could do during the early part of the window was to make it impossible to sell the option at a profit. The options interest that is still outstanding at the close tomorrow night will cost the options writers money if they are in the money at that time.

Take the 297,953 QQQQ puts at $36 that are outstanding right now. Since each options contract is for 100 shares of the underlying security, wouldn't that represent 29,795,300 shares of QQQQ that the options writers could be forced to buy at $36/share at any time prior to expiration at tomorrow's close? If so, the cost to the options writers would be nearly thirty million dollars for every dollar by which QQQQ is below the strike price at the time the option is exercised. That seems like a pretty powerful incentive to try to prop the price up until then.

Of course, wanting to prop it up, and being able to, are two different things. <G>