Jason,
Thank you for the reply.
To me, high volume equals liquidity. While an absence of volume may not necessarily indicate a lack of liquidity, high volume certainly implies liquidity.
High volume stocks do not necessarily translate into high volume options. This is certainly the case with index options, especially where the underlying future is a “mini”. For example, the e-mini S&P – magnificent volume on the future, negligible on the options.
Open Interest. Partly correct. Futures volume for example can exceed open interest. Therefore, open interest can actually understate volume/liquidity and therefore, may not be as reliable as you infer. An extreme example is the Bund. Volume can exceed open interest, open interest can exceed deliverable bunds .
I agree that low volume/high open interest indicates liquidity but where an option hasn’t traded recently, from where do you derive an implied for a theoretical value, and hence an indication of price?
Hope you now have a better idea how options works.
Grant.