Option liquidity isn't the same as liquidity on equities. You can find liquidity on illiquid strikes and expiry and you'll only pay a modest premium. A market maker can find liquidity almost anywhere in the chain to neutralize a position. So just because there's no interest on it, doesn't mean there's no liquidity (at the money). The caveat is when you're far from the money, you'll lose liquidity on any expiry. LEAPs in particular tend to be heavily traded, and you'd have no problems trading presumably liquid expiry the day they're issued. For my part, I'm really only concerned with where I expect liquidity to be on expiration. Think of it this way, when expiration looms, the market maker knows you MUST get out (or exercise / assign), so there will be less competition to jump at your order. On the other hand, a MM may well think you can rest an order for a month opening a LEAP--a month he could be collecting premium.