Wild Cards

One of the best time-saving features of Aspen Graphics is the pound sign (#) wild card. The wild card by itself always displays the front month futures contract, so you never have to update your pages and windows. Even better, your color rules, formulas, and alarms are updated automatically as well.

The pound sign enables you query by wild card. Like using the expansion macro, the actual syntax of a symbol is not important to creating a wild card symbol. The pound sign macro is like the expansion macro in that you can substitute it for a symbol’s expiration or its strike:

Where the expansion macro gives you a list of symbols, a wild card symbol gives one symbol. When you use the pound sign macro with a strike modifier, you can create a symbol for the at-the-money strike, or the option that is two strikes in-the-money. The beauty of wild cards symbols is that you can do this without knowing where the underlying instrument is trading. Not only that, a wild card symbol that specifies the at-the-money call will continue to display the at-the-money call no matter where the market moves. This makes wild cards particularly useful in quote windows and formulas. The Owild page gives you examples of uses for the options wild cards.

Using the Pound Sign

Perhaps the simplest application of the pound sign macro is its use in displaying the at-the-money strike. To display the at-the-money call, use the symbol root, the pound sign macro, and an instrument specifier, as follows:

SP#C

When you use a single pound sign, as shown above, Aspen Systems assumes the expiration is the lead-month, and the strike is at-the-money. You can also use the pound sign more creatively with the expansion macro and strike modifiers.

Using the Pound Sign with the Expansion Macro

A common application of the pound sign macro is to use it with the expansion macro to view the calls or puts for a specific out-month contract. The pound sign specifies a particular out-month contract. To view futures calls or puts on a specific out-month contract, you enter the symbol root with a pound sign and delimiter, as follows,

where the # is the wild card, and [n] indicates the wild card delimiter, which is optional, and @ is the expansion macro. The last element can be C, P, or CP, for calls, puts, or calls and puts, respectively. For example, to display all the calls for the first out-month contract of the Standard and Poors future, you would type SP#1@C. Then, of course, you press Enter. In both cases, the wild card is delimited with a 1. The 1 always corresponds to the first out-month. To illustrate this functionality, assume the current date is 1/1/04 and consider the following table:

This table shows how Aspen Systems interprets the pound sign macro used with the S&P 500 future. Now, let’s return to our example option symbol,

SP#1@C

In this symbol, SP is the symbol root, #1 specifies the first out month, the expansion macro specifies a list of all strikes, C specifies calls. If the current date is 1/1/94, this option symbol will display a list of all call strikes on the June S&P 500 future. To view the second out-month contract, you would enter SP#2@C, to view the third, SP#3@C, and so on. You can list calls and puts by entering CP at the end of the symbol.

Pound Sign and Expansion Macro Combination Examples

The following table contains a variety of wild card symbols that use both the pound sign and expansion macros. These combinations enable you to display option symbols without knowing an option’s strike. When you use wild cards and macros in building your option strategies, as contracts roll, the option quotes displayed on your quote page also roll automatically, without requiring you to reenter each option symbol. The following are just a few examples of possible combinations.

Using the Pound Sign with a Strike Modifier

You can also use the pound sign macro with a strike modifier to view a particular strike. When you use strike modifiers, a symbol can contain two pound signs. The first pound sign specifies a particular expiration. The second functions as the strike modifier. To illustrate how the strike modifier works, assume the S&P future is trading at 447 and read the following table.

Notice the at-the-money strike is the same as the first strike out. The reason for this is the underlying is trading at 447, which is closer to 445 than 450.

If the underlying moves to 460, the entire paradigm shifts. With strike modifiers, Aspen Systems automatically moves with the market.

To view futures calls or puts on a specific out-month contract, you enter the symbol root with a pound sign followed by a strike modifier, as follows:

where the # is the wild card, and [n] indicates the wild card delimiter, which is optional, the second # specifies a strike, and <modifier> is the strike modifier, which provides the information necessary for displaying a particular strike. For example,

SP#2#-2C

displays the S & P 500 future call that expires in the second out month and that is two strikes out of the money.

Pound Sign Strike Modifier Combination Examples