It unnerves every new options trader: you buy a call, and before SPY has moved at all, the position shows a small loss. It's not a glitch, a fee, or a bad fill. It's the bid-ask spread, showing up exactly as it should.

What's actually happening

You bought at the ask — the price sellers are offering. But your platform values the open position at the mark, which is usually the midpoint of the bid and ask. So the instant you're filled, your entry (the ask) is above the mark (the mid), and the difference — roughly half the spread — shows as an immediate unrealized loss. If the option is 1.20 bid / 1.30 ask, you paid 1.30 and it's marked at 1.25: down $0.05 (times 100), before anything happened.

Why it's not a real “loss” yet

It's the cost of the round trip, front-loaded onto the display. To get back to flat, the option's mid has to rise by that half-spread; to actually profit, it has to cover the whole spread you'll pay again on the way out. That's real — it's why fills and spreads matter so much to a scalper — but it's a transaction cost, not the trade going against you.

The instant red isn't SPY moving against you — it's the spread saying hello. You've simply pre-paid the round trip.

How to keep it small

Trade liquid, near-the-money strikes where the spread is a penny or two, and use limit orders near the mid instead of paying the full ask. Do both and that opening red shrinks to almost nothing — which, across many scalps, is the difference between a viable plan and one that bleeds on costs.