As many of you who are options traders are probably already aware, February 12, 2010 is the mandatory cut-over date for using explicit data elements in the options symbols for OPRA. This means that on or before that date, most data providers will be changing how they display their options symbols as well.
Personal Stock Monitor must also be updated to handle these upcoming changes. Because the internal options symbols for each data provider will be different, we have come up with a neutral option symbol format that will be converted internally by the software for each data provider as necessary. The format will be as follows:
[root ticker] [month] [day - optional] [year] [put/call] [strike]
In most cases the root ticker will simply be the underlying stock ticker. So for example, you will be able to enter an option on MSFT as follows:
MSFT Feb 2010 Call 30
As indicated above, the day is optional. PSM will actually recalculate the options expiration day in any case, and will display it as part of the ticker symbol. So when entering the option as above, PSM will change it to display
MSFT Feb 20 2010 Call 30
This new options symbology will be supported starting with PSM 9.1, and of this writing only for TD AMERITRADE and DTN IQFeed. Yahoo has not yet published what their new options format will be, but when they do, we will add that support for it to the software as quickly as possible.
