Thanks for the lecture but I fully understand what liquidity is....

Thanks for the lecture but I fully understand what liquidity is. It certainly represents a lot more than what bids in a screen attest to. The options are a derivative. If one was to Sell volume at a discount to the intrinsic value then I'm sure further buying would come in because of the arbitrage opportunity. Saying the options average 50 cents in the screen is IMO irrelevant.

There's still 3 and a half months to expiry so there would be no trouble in selling that sort of volume. It's irrelevant to me because I would have sold them previously anyway but as I said I would like the predicament of those currently in this situation.

You failed to mention the part where I said about a lot of these long term holders having the position in their own names where they are entitled to the 50% CGT discount.

I'd rather sell them at a couple of cents discount to their intrinsic than make a further investment by exercising (nearly 10 times the original in this example) then selling and paying double the tax. That was my point. Taking a screen shot of the options market doesn't mean a lot. I'm sure when the stock was at 80 they were probably 68 and trading at a discount but taking the discount looks good if the stock is going in the wrong direction, especially if one is entitled to the CGT concession.