I want to buy a few call options, in my 401(k), for a specific security. I'm aware of the risks inherent to option trading, and this will be a small part of my overall strategy.
Here are my questions:
If I see in my brokerage window a call instance for a given strike price and expiration date with a volume of 0, does it mean that there is none to buy?
Same question for "OpenInt", which I suppose stands for open interest. If I see a number of, say, 50, does it mean that there are buyers for 50 contracts? Or is it sellers?
Is there a most efficient number of contracts to trade?
Is there a minimum amount of $ under which it makes no sense to buy calls? E.g., would it be rational to buy calls with say $1,000? How about $10,000?
Why do I see options (on GLD in this example) that are said to be in the money by my broker until strike price of 167, and out of the money starting at 168, when the price of gold is above $1,700? Is that net of some fees?
Thank you.
JDelage