  I notice that they are much less liquid than futures. When you look at the spreads, I often see bid and ask, and amounts, that can be wildly different from "last" - sometimes because the future has changed in price, sometimes not. I also see that often, despite bids that are not too far apart, there is no actually buying and selling taking place. So my questions are:  0 - How is it that there can be so few "last traded" even when there are bids?  0 - It appears after hours options are slim to non-existant. Is that normal?  0 - What are very outlandish ask/bids for? Stink bids people put in?  0 - What dangers exist when buying/selling? How do I know what the "real" value should be when there is little liquidity?  exploring ways to use it. The trading itself can be crazy but the valuations do get set.  Some thoughts - suppose you sell a PUT out of the money to collect some premium if you think the price will go UP. You can always buy a put of it starts to drop to cover your losses. You could even sell a call too, and could do the opposite if the price gets high, or if it stays between you get both. Interesting, but you can still lose if prices start going wildly one way to the other and you can't predict the move correctly. Just some thoughts on how this stuff works so I can understand the dynamics in my head (this is the writing version of talking to myself)  I notice that they are much less liquid than futures. When you look at the spreads, I often see bid and ask, and amounts, that can be wildly different from "last" - sometimes because the future has changed in price, sometimes not. I also see that often, despite bids that are not too far apart, there is no actually buying and selling taking place. So my questions are:  0 - How is it that there can be so few "last traded" even when there are bids?  0 - It appears after hours options are slim to non-existant. Is that normal?  0 - What are very outlandish ask/bids for? Stink bids people put in?  0 - What dangers exist when buying/selling? How do I know what the "real" value should be when there is little liquidity?  