Fan: at the risk of offending you, which isn't my intention, even an unsophisticated trader should be able to look at a put & call of the same strike and time and tell if there is a discrepancy. e.g The Bid price of the call minus the ask price of the put SHOULD equal the stock price minus the strike. If it doesn't, then the real problem comes up. Which option is out of line and why. If the call is overpriced it may suggest a conversion is in order or vice versa for the reverse.
Not offended at all. It's my understanding that conversions and reversals are very short lived and don't really present any kind of opportunity for a home based trader. Maybe I'm wrong?
For just one time only, I'd very much like to post the prices and IV's for an underlying's most liquid strikes. And propose a simple bull call spread, or even a condor to get more strikes involved. And then see how the folks here would leg into the trade and why. Because to be honest, I'm not sure what I think might be an out of line price that I should pounce on is accurate. I'm thinking of using MSFT as an example because it has a tight spacing of strikes around ATM. Hope you guys might be willing to go for this.