(This post was updated on February 8, 2010.)

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 is 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 a call option on MSFT as follows:

MSQ Feb 2010 Call 30

As indicated above, the day is optional. PSM will calculate the options expiration day if you do not specify it, and will display it as part of the ticker symbol. So when entering the option as above, PSM will change it to display

MSQ Feb 20 2010 Call 30

Note that some options (such as some index options in particular) do not follow the standard "Saturday after the third Friday" rule for expiration day, so the expiration day for those must be specified in order to get quotes.

If you are having trouble getting quotes for an options ticker, please verify that the expiration date of the option has been specified correctly. In some cases, such as DIA, there may be two options expiring in the same month, one on the regular options expiration day, and one at the end of the month.

This new options symbology is supported starting with PSM 9.1, and of this writing only for TD AMERITRADE, DTN IQFeed, and Yahoo.

Please note that there have been several important updates since the official 9.1 release, so be sure you are running the latest version of the software.

It looks like Yahoo has updated their web site with their new options symbol format. Unfortunately they have not yet updated their CSV data download script (which is what PSM uses for fast data downloads) so you will not be able to get options quotes with their new format until this is fixed.

We have reported this issue to them.

Assuming this is fixed by Yahoo, we will have support for translation from our neutral format to their new options symbol format in the upcoming 9.1 software release.

BTW, if anyone is curious about the new Yahoo options symbol format, it looks to be:

[option root][expiration year][expiration month][expiration day][P/C][strike price]

The strike price looks like it is multiplied by 1000 so there is no decimal point, and it is fill-justified with zeros out to 8 digits. So for example a strike price of 12.5 would be shown as 00012500.

In any case, we think our neutral format above is much easier to read and write, and we hope our customers agree, so it will be the preferred format to use starting with the upcoming PSM 9.1 release.

I finally found Yahoo's official explanation of the options tickers:

http://biz.yahoo.com/opt/symbol.html

Both TD AMERITRADE and DTN IQFeed will be switching to their new options ticker formats this weekend. PSM 9.1 is currently undergoing final testing and will be released Sunday night.

Got a reply from Yahoo, and basically it is that "options are no longer supported" by their csv data download script, which also means that users of their Yahoo Finance web site who don't use PSM can't download data to spreadsheets either. While we are still hoping they will change their mind and fix this quickly, we will be looking for workarounds this week.

My bad, it looks like TD AMERITRADE will not transition their servers until next weekend, February 6-7. In the meanwhile, TD AMERITRADE users should continue using the old options ticker format.

It looks like we can't calculate expiration day automatically for all options because index options don't follow the "Saturday after the third Friday" rule. So for the next build (9.1.3) we're going to have it only calculate the expiration day if you don't specify it when entering the option. This will allow people with index options to specify the expiration day and not have it incorrectly auto-corrected by the software.

For those that are dying to get quotes from yahoo, here's a test plugin for Yahoo options support in advance of a full build.

http://www.personalstockmonitor.com/_downloads/psm/beta...

Just download, extract the dll, and put it into the PSM plugins folder. Keep in mind that you have to use our new "neutral" ticker format to specify the options, otherwise it won't work. (For example "MSQ Feb 2010 Call 25")

Downloaded and installed plugin as directed into the plugins folder and restarted PSM but it still has no effect on the options prices.

Further to my last post on this I went to 'preferences' and then 'plug-ins and tried adding the PSM quote.dll. I got a message to the effect that I had to restart for the changes to take effect which I did. Now when I open PSM (though the quote.dll does not appear in the list of plug-ins in preferences) all stocks are constantly updating though it is set for 5 minute intervals. What have I done wrong please and how may I correct it?

There will be a complete new build posted in a couple hours that fixes this.

I have updated to version 9.1.4. So far, though the constant updating has stopped there are still no options updates.

Are you using the correct ticker symbol format? It has worked in all my tests. If you are having trouble with this, please specify the ticker symbols you are trying to retrieve.

I would have over 30 symbols but a few examples are:
WLU Jan 2012 Call 35
QCT Mar 2010 Put 32
YBT Jan 2012 Call 17.5
typing these in brings up the above form but with the addition of the expiry day.
It appears in the list and the 'Lock' symbol appears for about 1 second disappears for 7 seconds and repeats this for some time before returning to a question mark with no data returned. Is it possible for existing plug-ins on my version to affect the outcome? Incidentally, I don't have to type the code in to achieve the same result - the software does it automatically if I get it from the Yahoo options chains.