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How Option Makers Are Trying To "Close The Door" On Afternoon Last Day Option Trading"

This is something new that is affecting retail option traders which I have never really paid attention to before. I guess I am always learning. Option makers are taking steps to steer option traders away from chasing the option market from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the "last-day-Friday-afternoon-options". It's only noticable on certain stocks like Exxon. I just came apon this after writing a blog about trading friday morning one day Call options on Exxon. Look at the "bid-and-ask" on this series of Calls on Exxon at 1:11.p.m. Look at how wide the spread is. Sixty one cents! That's crazy wide and if your stuck in a postion that you want to get out of at a fair price well good luck. Placing in a sell ticket by spliting the difference between the bid and ask would probably cause the bid to drop. This would force you to lower your asking price once again. In other words the liquidity is not there. This is in spite of it's mornings option trading being bris...
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The Power Of "One-Month-Out-Options" For Short Term Gains.

It helps when the markets rally on a Monday but that's a secondary issue.
This blog is about stocks in the seventy dollar price range with options on them staggered in thirty day intervals. Is trading in options which trade in only in thirty day intervals better than options on stocks in the same price range that expire every Friday? My experience is that options on stocks that trade every thirty days tend to attract less interest which in turn means that they are less susceptible to "market-maker" manipulations. Yet this isn't really a point I want to debate. Now this, a look at the seventy series of Calls on "Carmax" at the end of the trading session today.
Bid 5:70 ask 5:90. Only two options traded on the day. Let's now look at it's five day chart.
So it jumped a touch but nothing to crazy. Now this, I did a blog last Friday, my previous blog where I showed what the same options were trading at on that day. Here is the printout I want to show.
A 10:39 a.m. readout on Friday morning showing only three option contracts traded with a last trading price traded of $4.07. Is there a lesson here to be gained? Yes, thinly traded "one-month-out" options can be successfully traded. What appreciations are there to be gained? Well there is less market maker manipulations. When you put in a closing sell ticket for only one, two or three contract and if the trend of the stock is upwards you will get a fill without going through the game of watching option makers wiggle the "bid-and-ask" in their favour. One month out options, played correctly are also less stressful to hold because the premiums built into an options price for it's time value will not disappear as quickly as the premiums built into one week out options. That's just the way I see it.

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