Subject: Re: Buying Long Dated Calls
But the little outliers are usually the result of someone actually being in the middle of trying to trade one of those contracts. Thus the bid and ask you see at that level aren't the (mostly) smooth curve you generally see from market makers, but somebody's actual bid trying to execute in the middle of that range.

Good point. This would push the midpoint up and thus you think you should offer more than the actual midpoint.
You'd get a more accurate view by plotting the ASK, because you are assured you can get it at the ASK. The ASK is undoubtedly from a market maker.

FWIW, I just pulled the quotes from Etrade, for XSP 6/18/26 calls into my spreadsheet.
Here it is, with values only, no formulas/calulations, using the ASK price:
https://docs.google.com/spread...

The chart(s) at the bottom (below row 83) plot the interest rate vs. strike.
Also is the chart from an hour or so later.