Remember, a stock option contract is the option to buy shares; that's why you must multiply the contract by to get the total price. You almost doubled our money in just three weeks! You could sell your options, which is called "closing your position," and take your profits—unless, of course, you think the stock price will continue to rise Say we let it ride.
This is leverage in action. So far we've talked about options as the right to buy or sell the underlying. This is true, but in actuality a majority of options are not actually exercised. Options belong to the larger group of securities known as derivatives. A derivative's price is dependent on or derived from the price of something else. Options are derivatives of financial securities—their value depends on the price of some other asset. Examples of derivatives include calls, puts, futures, forwards , swaps , and mortgage-backed securities, among others.
Options are a type of derivative security. An option is a derivative because its price is intrinsically linked to the price of something else. If you buy an options contract , it grants you the right but not the obligation to buy or sell an underlying asset at a set price on or before a certain date.
A call option gives the holder the right to buy a stock and a put option gives the holder the right to sell a stock. Think of a call option as a down payment on a future purchase. A potential homeowner sees a new development going up. That person may want the right to purchase a home in the future but will only want to exercise that right after certain developments around the area are built.
The potential homebuyer would benefit from the option of buying or not. Well, they can—you know it as a nonrefundable deposit. The potential homebuyer needs to contribute a down payment to lock in that right. With respect to an option, this cost is known as the premium. It is the price of the option contract. This is one year past the expiration of this option. Now the homebuyer must pay the market price because the contract has expired.
Now, think of a put option as an insurance policy. The policy has a face value and gives the insurance holder protection in the event the home is damaged. What if, instead of a home, your asset was a stock or index investment? There are four things you can do with options:. Buying stock gives you a long position. Buying a call option gives you a potential long position in the underlying stock. Short-selling a stock gives you a short position. Selling a naked or uncovered call gives you a potential short position in the underlying stock.
Buying a put option gives you a potential short position in the underlying stock. Selling a naked or unmarried put gives you a potential long position in the underlying stock. Keeping these four scenarios straight is crucial. People who buy options are called holders and those who sell options are called writers of options. Here is the important distinction between holders and writers:.
Speculation is a wager on future price direction. A speculator might think the price of a stock will go up, perhaps based on fundamental analysis or technical analysis. A speculator might buy the stock or buy a call option on the stock. Speculating with a call option—instead of buying the stock outright—is attractive to some traders because options provide leverage.
Options were really invented for hedging purposes. Hedging with options is meant to reduce risk at a reasonable cost. Here, we can think of using options like an insurance policy. Just as you insure your house or car, options can be used to insure your investments against a downturn. Imagine that you want to buy technology stocks. But you also want to limit losses. By using put options, you could limit your downside risk and enjoy all the upside in a cost-effective way.
For short sellers , call options can be used to limit losses if the underlying price moves against their trade—especially during a short squeeze. In terms of valuing option contracts, it is essentially all about determining the probabilities of future price events. The more likely something is to occur, the more expensive an option that profits from that event would be.
For instance, a call value goes up as the stock underlying goes up. This is the key to understanding the relative value of options. The less time there is until expiry, the less value an option will have. This is because the chances of a price move in the underlying stock diminish as we draw closer to expiry.
This is why an option is a wasting asset. Because time is a component of the price of an option, a one-month option is going to be less valuable than a three-month option. This is because with more time available, the probability of a price move in your favor increases, and vice versa.
Accordingly, the same option strike that expires in a year will cost more than the same strike for one month.
This wasting feature of options is a result of time decay. Volatility also increases the price of an option. This is because uncertainty pushes the odds of an outcome higher. If the volatility of the underlying asset increases, larger price swings increase the possibilities of substantial moves both up and down. Greater price swings will increase the chances of an event occurring. Therefore, the greater the volatility, the greater the price of the option. Options trading and volatility are intrinsically linked to each other in this way.
On most U. The majority of the time, holders choose to take their profits by trading out closing out their position. This means that option holders sell their options in the market, and writers buy their positions back to close. Fluctuations in option prices can be explained by intrinsic value and extrinsic value , which is also known as time value.
An option's premium is the combination of its intrinsic value and time value. Intrinsic value is the in-the-money amount of an options contract, which, for a call option, is the amount above the strike price that the stock is trading.
Time value represents the added value an investor has to pay for an option above the intrinsic value. This is the extrinsic value or time value. So the price of the option in our example can be thought of as the following:.
In real life, options almost always trade at some level above their intrinsic value, because the probability of an event occurring is never absolutely zero, even if it is highly unlikely.
Call options and put options can only function as effective hedges when they limit losses and maximize gains. In such a scenario, your put options expire worthless. If the price declines as you bet it would in your put options , then your maximum gains are also capped. Therefore, your gains are not capped and are unlimited. The table below summarizes gains and losses for options buyers. Call options and put options are used in a variety of situations.
The table below outlines some use cases for call and put options. As mentioned earlier, traders use options to speculate and hedge. To maximize their returns, traders track options prices and employ sophisticated strategies, such as a strangle or an iron condor. Here is a quick introduction to some of the strategies that are fairly simple but effective in making money. You can find out more about options strategies here.
As the name indicates, going long on a call involves buying call options, betting that the price of the underlying asset will increase with time. Therefore, a long call promises unlimited gains. If the stock goes in the opposite price direction i. In a short call, the trader is on the opposite side of the trade i.
A covered call limits their losses. In a covered call, the trader already owns the underlying asset. Thus, a covered call limits losses and gains because the maximum profit is limited to the amount of premiums collected.
Covered calls writers can buy back the options when they are close to in the money. Experienced traders use covered calls to generate income from their stock holdings and balance out tax gains made from other trades. For a look at more advanced techniques, check out our options trading strategies guide. If the stock does indeed rise above the strike price, your option is in the money. If the stock drops below the strike price, your option is in the money.
Option quotes, technically called an option chain or matrix, contain a range of available strike prices. The price you pay for an option, called the premium, has two components: intrinsic value and time value. Intrinsic value is the difference between the strike price and the share price, if the stock price is above the strike.
Time value is whatever is left, and factors in how volatile the stock is, the time to expiration and interest rates, among other elements. This leads us to the final choice you need to make before buying an options contract. Every options contract has an expiration period that indicates the last day you can exercise the option. Your choices are limited to the ones offered when you call up an option chain. There are two styles of options, American and European, which differ depending on when the options contract can be exercised.
Holders of an American option can exercise at any point up to the expiry date whereas holders of European options can only exercise on the day of expiry. Since American options offer more flexibility for the option buyer and more risk for the option seller , they usually cost more than their European counterparts. Expiration dates can range from days to months to years. Daily and weekly options tend to be the riskiest and are reserved for seasoned option traders.
For long-term investors, monthly and yearly expiration dates are preferable. Longer expirations give the stock more time to move and time for your investment thesis to play out. As such, the longer the expiration period, the more expensive the option.
A longer expiration is also useful because the option can retain time value, even if the stock trades below the strike price. If a trade has gone against them, they can usually still sell any time value remaining on the option — and this is more likely if the option contract is longer. How to trade options in four steps. Open an options trading account. Learn More.
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