¿how can one deal with incomplete option chains?

I think @PoopyDeek is correct, as usual.

I trade thinly traded equity options and never encountered one without a bid/ask quote. Doesn't mean you can always sell at bid or buy at ask though, or even buy/sell at market. When I had DOTM calls/puts near expiration, often I couldn't find buyers/sellers and just had to let it expire, or combined it within a spread (gave it a negative price) to get rid of it .
 
Are you quoting outside of the US? Your profile says Mexico is that accurate? Small possibility that explains the problem. Most everything in AAPL with the exception of ATM Front is auto-quoted and much of it is simply reading the NBBO and copying it or skewing it if I have a big inventory, but dropping a quote leads me to believe it's a vendor concern.
Does what you see include anything other than quotes - like IV of Delta?
 
rtw said:
well, in the time i have been a member in this forum, mr. mcginnis has always been one of the regulars in the options section who are helpful and generous with their knowledge.


and i see the points you make but there are a lot of individual stock symbols where there are practically no quotes to work with (that is the case with symbols where only monthly contracts are available and a big percentage of those with weekly contracts).

and the method you propose would not be very practical. for example, if market makers are going to just leave one half of an option chain without consistent bid and ask quotes it will be the otm contracts. itm contracts have inherent intrinsic value and market makers will never let them be traded for less than that amount.

in addition, calls and puts are not perfectly symmetrical, during an uptrend mfing market makers will increase prices for all calls and will do the opposite during a downtrend or volatility spike.


i have been collaborating to develop a system to trade options automated. if i wanted to trade options on futures i need competitive bid - ask spreads and consistent quotes for the program to work with. unless i could find a way to approximate the models that market makers use to generate quotes i could never trade options on futures automated, or even by hand when market makers can't be bothered to generate quotes for those contracts.
More...

dude, show me one OTM equity option without an NBBO during mkt hours. You have no idea what you’re talking about. It takes no time to write macros to do exactly what I proposed. Vol-trading 101.

Most FOs, outside of index, do not consistently quote NBBO. It’s the best it’s ever been, but how can you not know this? Your island has internet?

lol you’re going to automate? C’mon.
 
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Here's a quick check and should explain what is happening. Your chain is massaged data coming from a vendor - next time you see nothing in the chain try to pull up a quote which - most likely - is pure OPRA data. No quote going out to OPRA and all kinds of bells, whistles and lights go off. If you can retrieve a non-chain option quote the vendor that generates your chain or the in-house technology that generates the chain has a concern. I'll bet you can get a fresh quote even if the chain has dropped it especially in a name like AAPL.
 
Errrrmagerd! Looks like manure! SMELLS like manure!
Then it goes through curious efforts to tell others to "ignore"... Oh, Irony!

Heya, Gutless! Still haven't found enough of your manhood to post under you own name, eh?
ET has been civil and constructive in your absence -- can't have that, right?
Well, it's Spring-come-early -- maybe it's just Winter bloat, right? Yeah. Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. Keep rolling....
 
I see Poop Dick has made his presence felt on yet another thread with his unique blend of condescension, aggression and social retardation.
 
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