Wheel screen says wait: SPCX spot feeds differ 3.40%

The setup in 30 seconds

This morning’s wheel screen says wait. Eddie’s live watchlist contained 21 names. The first ticker attached to the latest ten Tips produced eight distinct exclusions, leaving 13 eligible names. At the 9:51 a.m. ET snapshot, none had a 30–45 DTE put that cleared every market gate with a trustworthy cross-check of the stock price. SPCX supplied the only contract that reached the final comparison. Its September 4 $100 put looked liquid enough on both option feeds, but the underlying marks did not agree: $114.37 at Cboe versus $118.32 at Nasdaq, a 3.40% gap. Yahoo’s chart endpoint returned a rate limit and no FMP credential was available. Without a reliable spot value, we cannot print a breakeven cushion or call the return math verified. The morning live-entry window ends at 10:30 a.m. ET; this edition contains no trade ticket.

What the screen found

The screen required 30–45 DTE, delta from 0.15 to 0.30, at least 500 contracts of open interest, and a spread no wider than 8% of midpoint on both option feeds. It also required at least 12% annualized return-on-collateral comparison math, roughly 8% breakeven cushion, matching contract identity and two reasonably consistent stock marks. A failure at any gate stopped the candidate.

Why SPCX still did not qualify

The option contract itself was readable. The September 4 $100 put had 36 DTE, delta 0.2833 and 775 contracts of open interest. Cboe showed $7.90 bid / $8.40 ask, a 6.13% spread. Nasdaq showed $7.80 / $8.30, a 6.21% spread, with the same open interest. Both option markets were inside the 8% limit. In plain terms: buyers and sellers were close enough, and the same contract appeared on both feeds.

The stock-price check failed. Cboe’s delayed file showed $114.37 while Nasdaq’s quote showed $118.32 at the snapshot. The 3.40% gap was above the house tolerance. That difference changes the measured distance to the $100 strike and any breakeven cushion. In plain terms: a four-dollar disagreement in the stock is too large to hide behind a precise-looking option midpoint.

The named fallback could not settle the issue. Yahoo returned HTTP 429 for every eligible ticker, and this runtime had no FMP credential. A provider can lag, especially just after the open, but we did not guess which mark was fresher. The conflicting values are printed side by side and the setup is dropped. In plain terms: the screen protects the reader by withholding the ticket rather than choosing the more convenient price.

The re-screen plan

• Confirm spot first: require two stock marks inside the house tolerance before calculating cushion.
• Keep the contract gates: OI at least 500, spreads at or below 8% on both feeds and delta from 0.15 to 0.30.
• Rebuild every number: refresh the stock, expiry, strike, bid, ask, IV and calendar instead of carrying this snapshot forward.
• Publish only the complete case: technical, volatility, valuation and event checks begin only after the market gate passes.

What could go wrong by forcing it

1. False cushion: choosing the lower spot would make the strike look farther away than Nasdaq’s mark suggests.
2. False precision: a midpoint and annualized figure can appear exact even when their stock-price base is disputed.
3. Bad timing: early-session feeds can update at different speeds, so a ticket built too quickly may already be stale.