Sometimes I see no bids at all for OTM options for certain stocks, why is this? Specifically, is this a property controlled by the company itself? Is this broker related?
Yeah, it’s because you’re not bidding. Seriously. If you don’t want to bid then why someone else should? Or if you think you can get a good deal (and someone may sell you the option for your bid price) then place your bid. Nothing stops you.
View it another way. Your friend is offering you the opportunity to buy his home at 20% over assessed value. All you have to do is pay him 1% extra on top of the extra 20% to secure that once in a lifetime deal. Now go bid him .25% premium instead of 1%, maybe he’ll accept it.
Quite often there is a bid for these options, just no quoted bid. On less liquid options, you might see a quote of no bid at 1 or even no bid at 5. This doesn't meant there is no real bid. The "real' market can be quite tight. I was trading an out of the money leap put Thursday were the market was no bid at 2. The "real" market was .70-.85. If I put a .70 bid, others were happy to join me.
Check to see if the listing exchange has what is called a "derived order" rule. You won't show a market - even where there is interest when the exchange has a minimum size and maximum width policy. The rule, if they are still around post all the mergers. A customer wanting to buy 10@$1 bids $.50 for one in a max-width of $.50 market. The trading engine derives a $1 offer and the DPM has to eat them, plus if it's multiply listed you are pretty likely to get banged for 10.
Because those rat bastard market makers are counting on you to fat finger an order and hit a zero bid or lift some preposterous offer
or more likely to avoid a smart customer from hitting them and they are stuck in an asymmetric bet with an informed customer.