Hello,

I am having trouble with historical options tick look up calls today (via the TCP API).

Example 1: I get an "Invalid symbol." error for AXP $40 11/19/11 Calls, which definitely exist and in fact are returned from the options chain symbol lookup API call:

HTT,AXP1119K40,,20110901 000000,1,,,0,R!FwI=,
R!FwI=,E,Invalid symbol.,
R!FwI=,!ENDMSG!,

Example 2: I get a "!NO_DATA!" error for AXP $45 10/22/11 Calls, which I know for a fact have quite a bit of tick data going back for months:

HTT,AXP1122J45,,20110901 000000,1,,,0,R!Sg==,
R!Sg==,E,!NO_DATA!,
R!Sg==,!ENDMSG!,

I am encountering these sorts of errors with a number of different symbols. I can provide a much longer list of issues if needed.

-Joe

To add some additional information... it appears that I can't look up any options tick data from prior to early September for any symbol.

-Joe

The history servers will return an Invalid symbol error for symbols that are valid but do not trade (or haven't traded in quite a while/ever).

Additionally, we limit tick data to the most recent 8 calendar days during market hours (09:30 - 16:30 EST).

Ah.. I see.

Can I assume there hasn't been any activity in 120 days if I get back an "Invalid symbol." error from the historical tick lookup APIs?

On the 8 calendar day restriction.. I assume you guys do this to reduce load on your servers during market hours?

-Joe