Oct

30

Optiona 101 Part 20

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Principle #5:
The Maximum Price for a Call Option is the Price of the Stock. (The Maximum Price for a Put Option is the Strike Price.)
While stock prices may theoretically be unlimited, the same is not true for an option. Option prices are tied to the price of the stock and that stock price defines the maximum price of a call option. For example, assume that a stock is trading for $50. What is the maximum value for a $50 call? The maximum price it could ever be trading for is the same as the stock, $50. How do we know this is the maximum when we haven’t said anything about the amount of time remaining on the option? It turns out that it doesn’t matter. If the $50 call had a zero strike price (theoretically the lowest and best strike possible) with unlimited time remaining, it would be trading for the price of the stock. By now you’ve probably guessed that arbitrage is the reason. Let’s assume that the $50 call is trading for $51 with the stock at $50. Arbitrageurs would buy the stock and sell the call for a net credit of one dollar:

Buy stock = – $50
Sell $50 call = +$51
Net credit = $1

By selling the call for $51, the arbitrageur has effectively been paid $1 to buy the stock. In the worst-case scenario, the stock crashes to a price of zero, the short call expires worthless, and the arbitrageur keeps the dollar. What if the stock rises? Because the arbitrageur sold the $50 call, he also has the potential obligation to sell the stock for $50. If he is forced to sell the stock for $50, he will end up with an additional credit of $50 from the sale for a total credit of $51, which is the maximum profit from this arbitrage.

No matter what happens to the stock’s price, the arbitrageur is guaranteed a minimum of one dollar profit, which is exactly the amount over the theoretical value of this hypothetical $50 call. The arbitrageur’s actions put buying pressure on the stock and selling pressure on the call until the stock is priced higher than the call. At that point, the arbitrage opportunity is gone and the option is priced less than the stock. (For those investors who have used the covered call strategy, you may have realized that your broker will only let you enter the trade for a net debit. This pricing principle shows why. The covered call strategy entails the purchase of stock and the selling of a call. Because the call option can never be more valuable than the stock, the covered call can only be executed for a debit.)

Maximum Value for Puts
For put options, the maximum value is the strike price. If you have a $50 put, the most it could ever be worth is $50, and that only happens if the stock’s price is zero. Whenever you exercise a put, you give up the shares and receive the strike price. Because of this, the best you could ever do is surrender stock that is worthless and receive the strike price. And that means nobody would ever pay more than $50 for the $50 put.

How would the market correct for it if the put option’s price did happen to exceed the strike price? Let’s assume that the stock is $50 and the $50 put is trading for $51. An arbitrageur would simply sell the put and receive $51 cash. By selling the put, he has the potential obligation to buy the stock for $50, which he can always do by using the $51 cash. Of course, he would receive stock in exchange for the cash, which he can always sell in the open market. The worst that could happen is for the stock’s price to fall to zero in which case the arbitrageur would still make a one dollar profit. If the stock should rise above $50 at expiration, then the put will be worthless at expiration and the arbitrageur is left with the $51 credit.
So $51 is the best that the arbitrageur can do and $1 is the worst. In other words, no matter what happens the arbitrageur is guaranteed to make money all from the fact that the put was sold for a higher price than the strike price. Arbitrageurs will continue selling the overpriced put until its price falls below the $50 strike, at which point the arbitrage opportunity disappears.

We could extend this argument a little further and say that the maximum price for a put prior to expiration is the present value of the exercise price. The reason, of course, is that the arbitrageur earns interest on the cash balance from the sale of the put. While call and put prices can rise in value, these limits are not without boundaries. There are limits. Principle #5 shows us what those limits are.

The maximum price for a call option is the price of the stock. The maximum price for a put option is the strike price.
Pricing Principle #6:
For Any Two Call Options (or Any two Puts) on the Same Stock with the Same Expiration, the Difference in Their Prices Cannot Exceed the Difference in Their Strikes.

This relationship demonstrates that for any two call options, the difference in their prices cannot be greater than the difference in their strikes. This assumes that both options cover the same stock and have the same time to expiration. Say we see the following option quotes one day on the same underlying stock:

April $50 Call = $10
April $55 Call = $4

We know from the first pricing relationship that the $50 call should be worth more than the $55, and we see that it is. However, Principle #6 says that there cannot be this much of a difference. The difference in strikes is $5, yet the difference in price is $6. The difference in prices has exceeded the difference in strikes, which is a violation of this principle.

How will the markets correct for this? An arbitrageure will buy the relatively cheap asset and sell the relatively expensive one. In this case, he will buy the $55 call and sell the $50 call for a net credit of $6:

Buy $55 call = $4
Sell $50 call = +$10
Net credit +$6

Now check the rights and obligations. The arbitrageur has the right to buy stock for $55 and the potential obligation to sell of $50, which would create a $5 loss as a worst-case scenario. However, he was paid $6 to take the $5 loss, which leaves a $1 arbitrage profit. This profit would occur for any stock price above $55.

If the stock falls below $50 at expiration, both options expire worthless and the arbitrageur keeps the full $6 credit. If the stock closes between $50 and $55 the arbitrageur makes something between $1 and $6. For example, with the stock at $52, the arbitrageur will be assigned on the short $50 call and be required to deliver stock worth $52 and receive only $50, thus creating a $2 loss. He can pay for this loss out of his $6 initial credit, which leaves him a net gain of $4. No matter where the stock price may be at expiration, the arbitrageur is guaranteed to make at least $1 and as much as $6.

An easier way to understand Pricing Principle #6 is to think back to the pizza coupon examples. Assume two coupons are identical except that one allows you to pay $7 while another lets you pay $10. Now let’s say the market places a $1 value on the $10 coupon. What’s the maximum value of the $7 coupon? We know the $7 coupon must be worth more than the $10 coupon so it is worth more than one dollar. But we also know that the maximum value is $4, because the $7 coupon gives you a $3 advantage over the $10 coupon, so that is the maximum value it could ever have over the $10 coupon. For example, assume pizzas are selling for $20. The holder of the $7 coupon has a $13 advantage, while the $10 coupon holder has a $10 advantage. The difference in these two advantages is $3. Work through this scenario with any price for the pizza and you will see that there is always an exact $3 advantage.

To be continued….

Oct

29

Options 101 Part 19

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Now we find that there are two components to an in-the-money call option’s minimum value (we’ll learn in Chapter Five that there is a third). The first is that all in-the-money call options must be worth the intrinsic value, or S – E. The second is that their value must also include the present value of the interest that could be earned on the strike price, or E – Pv (E). In other words, there is an interest rate component to a call option’s price.

To understand this second formula, E – Pv (E), we need to calculate the present value of the exercise price is $50/1.05 = $47.62. So the formula E – Pv (E) equates to $50 – $47.62 = $2.38 and is what we calculated previously. In other words, the difference between the exercise price and its present value is today’s value of the interest that could be earned on the exercise price. (Again, if the interest that can be earned is $2.50 then today’s value is $2.50/1.05 = $2.38.)

Therefore, prior to expiration, all in-the-money call options must be worth at least the sum of these two components: (S-E) + [E – Pv (E)]. If we remove the brackets, the expression reduces to S – E + E – Pv (E). The – E and + E cancel out, which further reduces the expression to S – Pv (E). And that’s exactly what Principle #4 tells us. Pricing Principle #3 stated that an in-the-money call option must be worth S – E. But if time remains on the option and interest rates are positive then the option’s value must be a little bit bigger than S – E. How much bigger? By the amount of interest that could be earned on the exercise price.

What would happen if a call option’s price didn’t reflect this minimum value? Let’s say the one-year $50 call option is trading for $7 in the open market rather than the $7.38 minimum value we calculated. Once again, arbitrageurs would come to the rescue. Arbitrageurs would short the stock and buy the call for a net credit of $48:

Short stock = +$55
Buy $50 call = -$7
Net credit = +$48

The arbitrageur would hold on to this credit and allow it to earn interest. The $48 would grow to a risk-free value of $48 * 1.05 = $50.40. At the end of the year, the arbitrageur can exercise the $50 call to cover the short position and spend $50 from his credit balance, thus leaving him with a 40-cent arbitrage profit. While 40 cents may not sound like much, you must remember that arbitrageurs would short enough stock and buy enough calls so that their final profit is potentially tens of thousands of dollars or more. And remember, this is risk-free money so that makes the above transactions all the more worthwhile.

Even though the arbitrageur is shorting stock to take part in this arbitrage, he is never at risk of rising stock prices since he owns the $50 call and is therefore assured of never spending more than $50 to buy back the short stock. Of course, he could make more money if the stock falls during the year, which would allow him to purchase the stock back at a price cheaper than $50. But at a minimum, the arbitrageur will make 40 cents. Here’s a good question to see if you understand the time value principle of money: Why does the arbitrageur make a 40-cent profit when only 38 cents were originally missing? The answer is that the 40-cent profit is made at the end of the year so the present value is 0.40/1.05 = 0.38, which is exactly the amount of missing value in the call today.

We just saw the effects of Pricing Principle #4 on in-the-money options. If you are considering an at-the-money or out-of-the-money call option there is no intrinsic value but there is still an interest rate component to their prices.

For example, with the stock at $55 what is the minimum value for the $55 call? It is $55 – Pv ($55) = $2.62. With interest rates at 5%, the one-year $55 call must be trading for at least $2.62 otherwise arbitrage is possible. The $2.62 figure is today’s value of the interest that could be earned by waiting for expiration to exercise. If you bought the stock today, you must pay $55. But if you buy the option, you can wait until expiration to pay $55 and therefore earn interest on the balance. If the option were priced for exactly $2.62, you would have $55- $2.62 = $52.38 in cash left over by purchasing the option over the stock. This balance would grow to $52.38 * 1.05 = $55 in one year, which is the exercise price.

If the result from the formula S – Pv (E) is negative then there is nothing we can say about the minimum value for the call in terms of cost of carry. For instance, according to the formula, the one-year $60 call must be worth $55 – Pv ($60) = -$2.14. Because this is a negative number, there is no arbitrage that can be carried out due to interest rates. However, if interest rates were sufficiently high, say 10%, the $60 call must be worth at least $55 – Pv ($60) = 45 cents. If this option were priced for exactly 45 cents you would have $55 – 0.45 = $54.55 remaining by purchasing the call over the stock. This balance would grow to $54.55 * 1.10 = $60 exercise price in one year.

Whether we’re considering in-the-money, at-the-money, or out-of-the-money calls, they all must be worth at least S – Pv (E) otherwise arbitrage is possible. Obviously, if you are looking at short-term options or if interest rates are low, there will not be a very big interest rate component. But if you’re dealing in longer-term options, high priced stocks, or if interest rates are high, the minimum values for calls may be much higher than you’d expect.

For instance, a new investor may be looking at a two-year, $310 call on a $300 stock and find that the price appears surprisingly high. If interest rates are 5%, you now know that this call must trade for at least $300 – $310/1.052 = $18.82. At first glance, this may seem a very high price to pay for an option that is 10 points out-of-the-money. But it is merely a reflection of the interest that you will earn by not paying the $310 strike price for the stock today. If that minimum value is not there, arbitrageurs will be sure to correct for it.

Minimum Value for a Put Option Prior to Expiration
Prior to expiration, a put option must be worth at least the exercise price minus the stock price, or E – S. Principle #3 showed us that a put option must be worth exactly E – S at expiration. But prior to expiration, we can only expand on that principle slightly by stating that a put must be worth at least that much. In other words, the put option must be worth its intrinsic value plus some additional value for the time remaining. Unlike the call option though, we cannot state a minimum amount for that time value.

The reason for this is that long call arbitrage involves short stock, which can earn interest. The arbitrageur is long the call and is fully hedged to short stock and earn interest. For the long put, however, the arbitrageur has the right to sell stock. He could fully hedge a long stock position but that means he would have to buy stock and that creates a cash outflow, which counteracts an arbitrage.

Prior to expiration, all call options must be worth at least the present value on the cost of carry of the exercise price. All in-the-money put options must be worth the intrinsic value plus some time value.

To be continued….

Oct

28

Options 101 Part 18

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I noticed that the stock was bidding $83 5/8, which means that his calls should be worth $83-5/8 – $50 strike = $33-5/8 rather than the $32-1/4 they were bidding. They were missing $1-3/8, or $1.375 worth of intrinsic value! What do you suppose we did? Hopefully you said short the stock and exercise the calls. Doing so brought in an additional 20 contracts * $1.375 * 100 shares per contract = $2,750 less some commissions for shorting the stock and exercising the call.

As you start trading options, you’ll find that 20-cent (or greater) discrepancies occur all the time near expiration. You’ll even find lesser, but still viable, discrepancies with as much as a week until expiration.

To capture this missing intrinsic value, some of the newer, more progressive firms have an order called “exercise and cover,” which automatically uses the technique we are describing. It allows you to quickly submit an order to sell the shares and then immediately exercise in order to capture any missing intrinsic value on your option. If you are trading even a few option contracts, this method of capturing intrinsic value near expiration day can be quite profitable. Depending on the commissions you’re paying and the number of contracts you’re closing, it pays to check what your difference will be between the outright sale of the option versus trying to capture any missing intrinsic value. In many cases, you’ll find that it is worth paying the extra commissions. Serious money can be hiding there, and you now have the tools to reclaim it.

Pricing Principle #4:
Prior to Expiration, All Call Options Must Be Worth At Least the Stock Price Minus the Present Value of the Exercise Price, or S – Pv (E). Put Options Must Be Worth More Than the Exercise Price – Stock Price, or E – S.
The previous pricing relationship stated that all options must be worth either zero or their intrinsic value at expiration. Is there anything we can specifically say about option prices prior to expiration? The answer is yes. Bear in mind that our previous pricing principle also applies prior to expiration and all options must be worth at least their intrinsic value. If not, arbitrage would be carried out exactly the same way as discussed for Principle #3. However, Principle #4 shows that prior to expiration we can make a stronger claim as to the minimum value. The strength of our claim depends on whether we’re dealing with calls or puts. Let’s start with call options.

Pricing Principle #4 tells us that all call options must be worth at least the stock price minus the present value of the exercise price. This may sound a little complicated, but it’s not so difficult once you understand what we mean by the present value. To do so, we to talk about the financial concept of the time value of money.

The Time Value of Money
One of the most important fundamental financial concepts is called the time value of money. Simply put, the time value of money states that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This originates from the simple fact that a dollar today can be invested and earns the risk-free rate of interest. If someone owes you $10,000 in one year and offers to either pay you today or in one year, you’d rather have it today because you could invest that money at the risk-free rate and have more money in one year. The two payments are not the same. If $10,000 today is worth more in one year then it follows that $10,000 in one year must be worth less today. How much less? That depends on the risk-free interest rate.

Let’s say you deposit $10,000 into an account that pays 5% interest. You will have $10,000 * (1.05) = $10,500 in one year. We call this the future value of money. The future value of money shows us how much a dollar today will be worth in the future at a stated interest rate. In this example, the future value of $10,000 in one year is $10,500 if interest rates are 5%.

Now let’s work the same problem backwards. If someone owes you $10,500 one year from now and interest rates are 5% then you should be willing to accept $10,500/(1.05) = $10,000 today. In this example, we say that the present value of $10,500 due in one year is $10,000 if the risk-free rate of interest is 5%. The present value of money shows us how much a future payment is worth today at a stated interest rate.

In other words, it should make no difference to you to wait one year and receive $10,500 or collect $10,000 today. The reason is that you can take the $10,000 today, invest it at 5% for one year, and still have $10,500 a year from now. No matter which choice you take, you’d end up with $10,500 in one year. The two choices are identical and it is the time value of money that allows us to line up the different cash flows at different points in time and arrive at that conclusion.

It’s important to understand that if we are using the risk-free rate then we must be dealing with guaranteed future payments. You would be indifferent between taking $10,000 today and $10,500 in one year assuming the $10,500 payment in one year was guaranteed. If the person owing you the money is financially unstable and on the verge of bankruptcy, you would probably be willing to take substantially less than $10,000 today to settle the debt.

Another way of expressing the present value concept is to say that $10,500 discounted at 5% for one year is $10,000. So the discount value and the present value express the same idea. Sometimes, as a simple notation, you might see Pv ($10,500) = $10,000, where “Pv” is used to denote the present value. We will use this notation throughout the book.

If the $10,500 were due in two years, then we must discount by 1.05 twice. Mathematically, we could go straight to the answer by dividing $10,500 by (1.05 * 1.05), which is 1.052. Doing so, we find that $10,500/1.052 = $9,523.80. To check the answer, $9,523.80 invested for one year at 5% is $10,000. If we invest $10,000 for another year at 5% we end up with $10,000 * 1.05 = $10,500. Therefore, if you are guaranteed to receive $10,500 in two years then you should be indifferent between that or accepting $9,523.80 today.

We can use the time value of money concept to place even tighter restrictions on our call option prices prior to expiration and the fourth pricing principle shows us how to do just that. If there is time remaining on the option then the call option’s price must be worth at least the stock price minus the present value of the exercise price, or S – Pv (E).

This formula is probably best understood by considering the previous principle that showed us an in-the-money call option must be worth exactly S – E at expiration. In other words, if the call is in-the-money at expiration, the call holder could receive the stock (+S) by exercising and paying the strike (-E). Therefore the value of the call must be S – E. However, prior to expiration that same exercise price must have a value of Pv (E) since the exercise will not take place until the future. The value of the call today must therefore be at least S – Pv (E).

The formula S – Pv (E) defines a minimum value for all call options and not just in-the-money calls. Let’s run through some examples using in-the-money, at-the-money, and out-of-the-money to be sure you understand how this formula affects option prices. We’ll begin by considering the in-the-money call.

Assume you are looking at a one-year $50 call option with the stock trading for $55. You know there is $5 intrinsic value, so the option must be worth at least $5 (Principle #3). But because there is time remaining we know there is a higher minimum that it must be worth (Principle #4). Because you have the $50 call, you do not need to exercise it until the very end in one year, which means you can hang on to your $50 cash for one year and earn $50 * .05 = $2.50 interest. If you could earn an additional $2.50 in guaranteed interest in one year then that must have a value today of $2.50/1.05 = $2.38. This means that our $50 call has $5 intrinsic value ($55 stock – $50 strike) but it also has an additional value today of $2.38 (the present value of the interest that is earned), which means the $50 call value today must be worth at least $5 + $2.38 = $7.38.

In some texts, you may see the notation Ee-rt to denote the present value of the exercise price, where E = exercise price, e = the mathematical constant 2.7183…, r = rate, and t = time. The use of the mathematical constant e is just a way to accounting for continuously compounded interest and doesn’t make a big difference in the calculations. To keep things simple and more understandable, we’re going to use Pv (E) to mean the same thing.

To be continued…

Oct

27

Options 101 Part 17

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Expiration Values for Put Options
At expiration, put options must be worth either zero or their intrinsic value, which is found by taking the exercise price minus the stock price, or E – S. For example, assume the stock is $53. The $60 put must be trading for $60 – $53 = $7 at expiration. If the stock is above $60 at expiration, the put will expire worthless since there is no reason to exercise a put and collect $60 when you can just sell the stock in the open market for more money.

If a put option is in-the-money (stock is below the strike price) at expiration and not trading for the intrinsic value then arbitrage is possible. Assume the stock is $53 but that the $60 put is trading for only $5 thus there is $2 of intrinsic value missing. Arbitrageurs would buy the stock and buy the put for a net cash outlay of $58:

Buy stock = -$53
Buy $60 put = -$5
Net debit = -$58

The arbitrageur would then immediately exercise the put and receive the $60 strike price thus making an immediate, guaranteed minimum profit of $2 for no cash outlay, which is exactly the amount of missing intrinsic value. The missing intrinsic value can only be restored if the stock price rises to $55 or if the put price rises to $7 or some combination of the two. Notice that the above transactions (buying stock, buying puts) will place buying pressure on the stock and the $60 put, which are the forces necessary to restore intrinsic value.

So at expiration, options can only be one of two values: zero or intrinsic value. Now you see why all in-the-money options must retain intrinsic value at expiration. It is not a matter of courtesy or tradition by the market makers; it is forced through the process of arbitrage.

All options must be worth either zero or intrinsic value at expiration.

Theory Versus Reality
Okay, hopefully you’re convinced that an option must always trade for at least its intrinsic value. Arbitrage is the theory that supports that conviction. However, the reality is that there are really two prices for an option – the bid and ask. The theory holds only for the asking price and not for the bid. For instance, assume that a $50 call option is close to expiration with the stock at $55. Because the option’s price is approaching a pure intrinsic value of exactly $5, the market maker will not bid $5 for it. Instead, the market maker may bid $4.80 so that he can sell it for the $5 intrinsic value and make a 20-cent profit. If you sell this $50 call at the bid, there is 20 cents worth of missing intrinsic value. Most traders have observed this near expiration and just accept it as part of the way the system works. However, there is a way to get it back and it is similar to how the arbitrageurs do it.

Here’s how to do it: If you are ever selling a call option that is bidding below intrinsic value, all you have to do is short the stock and then immediately exercise the option. Since you already own the call, you do not need to purchase it like the arbitrageurs do. However, the idea is the same. By selling the stock and exercising the option, you can gain back the missing intrinsic value.

Using our example, let’s say you wish to sell 10 contracts of the $50 call that is bidding $4.80. If you sell at the bid, you’ll receive $4,800. But if you short the stock and exercise the call, you’ll get a net credit of $5,000:

Short stock = +$55,000
Exercise call = -$50,000
Net credit = $5,000

This represents a $200 difference from selling at the bid price of $4.80. The reason is that the bid price is missing 20 cents worth of intrinsic value, which equals 0.20 * 10 contracts * 100 shares per contract = $200. So in this example, for the commission of shorting the stock, you can pick up an extra $200.

You’re probably thinking that this sounds good but with one problem. What if you don’t have the $50,000 to exercise the call? The answer is you do have it. You’ll get it from the $55,000 credit you’ll receive from shorting the stock. The fact that there is intrinsic value in the option tells us that the value of the stock must be greater than the strike. Therefore, shorting the stock will always provide enough funds to pay for the exercise.

Also, there is no margin requirement on the short stock position since you own a long call with a lower strike price, which protects you from any upside movement in the stock. The point is that there is absolutely no reason to not grab the extra $200. For two small commissions – one to short the stock and another to exercise the option – you can restore your intrinsic value in the call option. Most firms today charge very low commissions to buy or sell stock but charge significantly higher commissions to buy or sell options. In most cases, you’ll find that commission to short the stock and exercise the option will still be cheaper than the commission charged for selling the call. Exercising an option is normally charged as a regular stock transaction so it is usually worth your while to short the stock and then exercise the call to collect the missing intrinsic value.

If you have a put option with missing intrinsic value, you simply buy the stock and then exercise the put. For example, assume you have 10 $50 puts with the stock at $45 near expiration. The market maker might only bid $4.80 for this put even though it is theoretically worth $5. You can capture the missing 20 cents of intrinsic value by purchasing the stock and then immediately exercising the put:

Buy stock = -$45,000
Exercise put = +$50,000
Net credit = $5,000

By exercising the put, you collect the exercise price of $50. And because you only paid $45 for the stock, your net gain is the $5 difference. Once again, you may be wondering where you’ll get the money to pay $45,000 for the stock. The answer is that you will receive it once you exercise the put. Because the OCC guarantees that the transaction will go through, there is no reason for your broker to not allow it. In this example, for one small commission to buy the stock, you picked up an extra $200 for closing your $50 puts.

In the previous two examples, we assumed there was 20 cents worth of missing intrinsic value. How realistic is this figure? It’s actually quite common, and sometimes you’ll find the options are missing much more. For example, Table 2-4 shows Cyberonics (CYBX) call and put quotes taken on expiration day June 18, 2004:

Notice that the stock was asking $37.60, which means the June $20 call should be worth $17.60. The bid price is only $17.30, which is 30 cents too low. Now look at the June $25 call, which should be worth $12.60 but is only bidding $12.10, which is 50 cents too low. The June $30 call is also bidding 50 cents below intrinsic value. The asking price for all of these strikes is greater than the intrinsic value, which is why you cannot arbitrage the prices. However, if you already own the call, you can short the stock and exercise to capture the missing intrinsic value.

Now look at the June $40 puts. With the stock at $37.60, these should be worth $2.40 at expiration but they are only bidding $2.25, which means they are missing 15 cents of intrinsic value. As with the calls, the $2.70 asking price more than reflects the intrinsic value, so you cannot arbitrage these prices. But if you already own the put, you can buy the stock and immediately exercise the put to collect the full intrinsic value.

How bad can these discrepancies get? One day in 1999 while working on an active option trader’s team, a client called in to sell 20 of his Juniper Networks (JNPR) Feb $50 calls. Table 2-5 shows the quotes and you can see that the Feb $50 calls were bidding $32-1/4 (this is when stocks and options were still quoted in fractions).

To be continued…..

Oct

26

Options 101 Part 16

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Put options are also more valuable with additional time. The reason is that stock prices are equally likely to rise and fall. A $50 stock, for example, is equally likely to rise or fall by $5. Because put options act like all options but in the opposite direction, puts must also be more valuable with additional time.

Will longer-term options always be more expensive than short-term options? The answer is yes and the reason is arbitrage. Let’s assume the July $32.50 call is $4.90 but that the August $32.50 call is $4.75. In other words, a longer-term option is trading below that of a shorter-term option, which is something we said should not happen. Arbitrageurs would sell the July $32.50 call and receive a $4.90 credit, and then use $4.75 of that credit to buy the August $32.50 call, thus taking in a credit of 15 cents:

Sell July $32.50 = +$4.90
Buy August $32.50 = -$4.75
Net credit = 15 cents

Now think about their rights and obligations. They have the right to buy stock for $32.50 and may have to sell it for $32.50, which is a wash. If that happens, the arbitrageurs keep the 15-cent credit. However, it is also possible that the July contract expires worthless (the stock falls below $32.50) and the arbitrageur still owns the August contract, which could rise in value after July. This means that the arbitrageur is guaranteed to make at least 15 cents and could potentially make much more. This is a riskless opportunity for which the arbitrageur paid no money. As the arbitrageur buys the August calls and sells the July calls, he will put buying pressure on August and selling pressure on July, eventually making August more expensive than July. At that point, the arbitrage opportunity disappears. A similar set of transactions occurs for put options.

With all else being equal, more time to expiration means higher option prices.

As before, you don’t need to understand this arbitrage process to trade options. Just understand that there is a very real force that assures us that longer-term options (calls or puts) will cost more than the shorter-term ones assuming all other factors are the same (same underlying stock and same strike price). That part you do need to understand.

Square-Root Rule
While options get more expensive with increases in time, there is another mathematical boundary that option prices closely follow. That is, it takes about four times the amount of time in order to double the at-the-money option’s price. For example, if a one-month at-the-money option is trading for $1 then the four-month at-the-money option will be roughly $2. While it may seem that doubling time will double the option’s price it actually takes a quadrupling of time. If you get more into the mathematics of option pricing, you will find that option prices are proportional to the square root of time. If time increases by a factor of four then the option’s price doubles – a factor that is exactly the square root of four. If you double the time on an option, then the option’s price will rise by the square root of two, or about 1.41 times. If the one-month at-the-money option is worth $1 then the two-month at-the-money option is worth $1.41.

This means that if you are a buyer of an option, it is a progressively better deal for you to buy time. While options get more expensive over time, they get cheaper per unit of time. In our example, the one-month option costs $1 per month. The four-month option costs $2 for four months of time, or 50 cents per month. So while the four-month option is more expensive in total dollars, it is actually cheaper per unit of time. Think of it like buying soft drinks by the case at the grocery store. A case of Coke will cost more in terms of total dollars but is cheaper per can (per unit). The square-root rule implies that buyers should buy more time as they become progressively a better deal. Sellers should sell short-term options. With all else being equal, buyers are better off buying one four-month option rather than four one-month options. The opposite is true for sellers.

Exercise
Go to www.cboe.com and check out option quotes on several stocks. Are longer-term options always more expensive than shorter-term options? Explain in your own words why this happens.

Principle #3:
At Expiration, All Options Must Be Worth Either Zero orTheir Intrinsic Value.
At the end of the first chapter, we said that any intrinsic value must remain with an option at expiration. This means that if an option is in-the-money at expiration the price must be the difference between the stock price and the exercise price, or S – E. For example, if the stock closes at $53 at expiration, the $50 call must be worth exactly $3 since there is $3 worth of intrinsic value and no time value left. Because a long option cannot have negative value then all at-the-money and out-of-the-money calls expire worthless.

To restate it differently, a call option can only be worth one of two values at expiration: It is either worth the intrinsic value (intrinsic value + zero time value) or it is worth nothing (zero intrinsic value + zero time value).

Using our previous example, if the stock is $53, then how can we be sure the $50 call must be worth $53 – $50 = $3 at expiration? Once again, the answer is arbitrage. In order to understand the basics of the arbitrage, think back to the pizza coupons. Imagine that pizza coupons do have value and are traded in the streets (the marketplace). Now assume that pizzas are $15 and a $10 coupon is available, which means the coupon has $5 intrinsic value. However, let’s assume the coupon is trading for only $4. Can anything be done to capitalize on the missing $1 intrinsic value? The answer is yes. The way the market corrects for this missing value is that enterprising individuals would buy the pizza coupon for $4 and then take it to the store and buy the pizza for $10. They would have spent a total of $14 to get the pizza ($4 for the coupon + $10 for the pizza). Then they’d walk out in the street and sell the pizza for $15, thus making a $1 guaranteed profit. This $1 profit is exactly the amount of the missing intrinsic value. As individuals figure this out, they will compete in the market for these coupons thus raising its price. At what point will the competition for coupons stop? When the price of the coupon reaches $5 (or more), which means that the full intrinsic value is now reflected in the price of the coupon.

At expiration, all in-the-money options must trade for their intrinsic value; otherwise a similar set of transactions would take place in the market by arbitrageurs. For instance, assume that the stock is $53 and the $50 call is trading for $2 in the final minutes of trading, which means there is $1missing from the intrinsic value. An arbitrageur would short the stock and buy the call for a net credit of $51 to his account:

Short stock = +$53
Buy $50 call = -$2
Net credit = $51

Because he’s shorted the stock, he has an obligation to buy it back and can do so by exercising the call and paying $50 out of the $51 credit he received. This leaves him with a guaranteed minimum profit of $1 for no out-of-pocket expense, which is exactly the amount of missing intrinsic value. Of course, if the stock price falls below $50, the arbitrageur would just let the call expire worthless and buy the stock in the open market to close out the short position. This would result in a profit greater than one dollar. So whether the stock price rises or falls, the arbitrageur is guaranteed a minimum profit of one dollar. As with all arbitrages, the arbitrageurs’ actions restore the proper pricing relationship. In this example, the above transactions (shorting the stock, buying the call) will put selling pressure on the stock and buying pressure on the call until the full $3 intrinsic value is restored.

To be continued….

Oct

23

Options 101 Part 15

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We’ve shown in two ways that lower strike calls and higher strike puts must always be the more expensive strikes. That’s a pretty bold statement to make. While it may make sense as a practical argument, will these relationships always hold? The answer is yes. The reason is due to a process called arbitrage. Arbitrage is a process where “free” money can be made, and that is a powerful incentive to keep a watchful eye on prices. Traders who search for these opportunities are called arbitrageurs (or arbs, for short). How does arbitrage work? Assume for a moment that the $32.50 call in Table 2-1 is $4.90 but that the $35 call is, instead, priced at $5.00. In other words, the $35 call is priced higher than the $32.50 call, which is something we said cannot be possible in the real markets. This is the perfect setup for an arbitrage opportunity since the more valuable call ($32.50) is cheaper than the less valuable one ($35).

In order to exploit this situation, arbitrageurs generally buy the underpriced option and simultaneously sell the higher-priced option. Although simply buying the underpriced option or selling the overpriced one individually will provide a theoretical edge, it is not enough to complete the arbitrage. In this example, the $32.50 call is a cheaper relative to the $35 call; however, just buying the $32.50 call does not guarantee a profit because that option could still lose if the stock’s price falls below $32.50 at expiration.

In order to capitalize on the mispricing, arbitrageurs would buy the $32.50 call and spend $4.90. Then they would immediately sell the $35 call and receive $5.00 for a net credit of 10 cents to their account:

Buy $32.50 call = – $4.90
Sell $35 call = +$5.00
Net credit = 10 cents

A net credit of 10 cents may not seem like a lot of money but arbitrageurs do things on a very big scale. They may send hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars worth of trades to take advantage of such a discrepancy. The sale of the $35 call more than pays for the $32.50 call so the arbitrageur has zero money invested. In other words, the sale of the $35 call more than financed his purchase of the $32.50 call. In fact, he was even paid 10 cents to take this trade. Now think about the arbitrageur’s rights and obligations.

The arbitrageur now has the right to buy stock for $32.50 (since he bought the $32.50 call) and may have the obligation to sell for $35 (since he sold the $35 call), which means he could potentially make a $2.50 profit. But because he got paid 10 cents to execute the trade, his maximum gain is $2.60, which occurs if the stock price is greater than $35 at expiration. However, it’s also possible for the stock price to fall below $32.50 at expiration so that both options expire worthless. That’s okay too since the arbitrageur always keeps the 10-cent credit. (Remember, when you sell an option, the money you take in from the sale is yours to keep no matter what happens to the stock or option.) He might make as much as $2.60 but cannot earn less than the 10-cent credit. If the stock price closes somewhere between $32.50 and $35 at expiration then the arbitrageur’s profit will fall somewhere between 10 cents and $2.60.

The arbitrageur cannot lose and has therefore capitalized on a trade that resulted in a guaranteed profit for no out-of-pocket expense – and that’s the definition of arbitrage. We must include the phrase “for no out-of-pocket expense” otherwise the purchase of a government bond would qualify as arbitrage since it produces a guaranteed return. The difference between arbitrage and a bond purchase is that you must spend money on the bond and wait in order to get that guaranteed return. With arbitrage, you are paid to take the guaranteed trade.

Arbitrageurs will continue to execute the above trades – buy the $32.50 call and simultaneously sell the $35 call – as long as the opportunity is there. Unfortunately for the arbitrageur, their actions also guarantee that the opportunity will eventually disappear. As they buy the $32.50 calls they put upward pressure on its price. As they sell the $35 calls they put downward pressure on its price. Eventually the $32.50 calls will be more expensive than the $35 calls and that’s when the opportunity disappears. It is the arbitrageurs who guarantee that lower strike calls will always be more valuable than higher strike calls (and that higher strike puts will be more valuable than lower strike puts).

With all else being equal, LOWER strike calls and HIGHER strike puts must be more valuable.

Arbitrage is a high-stakes game involving computerized programs that search and execute the proper trades to exploit any mispricings. As a retail investor, you will never be able to participate in arbitrage. The speed at which arbitrage is carried out is too fast and complex for the tools and software that retail investors have to work with. In addition, the arbitrage opportunities that do arise are usually for pennies and retail investors pay too high of a commission to make arbitrage worthwhile. The big brokerage houses such as Merrill Lynch, Solomon Brothers, and JP Morgan are the ones doing the arbitraging. In fact, around 1995 there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about a Japanese firm engaged in triangular arbitrage. Triangular arbitrage is a currency arbitrage that is executed by purchasing one currency, converting it to another, and then immediately converting it back to the original currency. The speed at which these transactions is lightning fast and the article went on to say that this firm paid $23 million dollars to gain one second quicker access time to currency quotes. That’s how big the stakes are and how fast the game is played. (So don’t get any ideas of logging into your brokerage account and participating in arbitrage.)

There are many who feel that arbitrage is “unfair” because there’s something that doesn’t seem right about being able to make free money from the market. But the arbitrageurs provide an important economic function in that they make sure the relative prices stay fair for the rest of us. You don’t need to understand the process of arbitrage to trade options. However, you do need to understand that lower strike calls and higher strike puts will always be more expensive. That’s a big key to understanding many strategies.

Exercise
Go to www.cboe.com and check out option quotes on several stocks. Are lower strike calls always more expensive than higher strikes? Are higher strike puts always more expensive than lower strikes? What about for different expiration months? Explain in your own words why this happens.

Principle #2:
More Time Means More Money
Another principle of option trading is that longer-term options will be more expensive than shorter term ones. As before, this assumes that all other factors remain constant; we must be talking about the same underlying stock and strike price.

Take a look at Table 2-3, which shows the July and August call options from Table 1-1. Notice that the July calls are more expensive that the August calls. Why are the August calls more expensive? (Hint: For any strike, think about which is more desirable.)

Table 2-3
Call Options
Strike July August
$32.50 $4.90 $5.50
$35 $2.70 $3.60
$37.50 $1.05 $2.10
$40 $0.35 $1.10

You guessed it. The markets realize there is an advantage in having time on your side since the price of the option has a better chance of increasing in value. Think about stock prices. If you buy a stock today for $50, is there a better chance for price appreciation after one day or after one month? Obviously, you have a better chance for the stock to increase in value over a one-month period. That’s all this principle is saying. The market realizes that there is a better chance for the August $32.50 call to rise in value when compared to the July $32.50 call and so will place a higher value on it.

Since all other factors between the two calls are the same, the only difference between the July call for $4.90 and August call for $5.50 is the value of the additional time. Why 60 cents extra value? That’s a question for which we will never know the answer. That is up to the market to decide; it’s up to people like you and me. Every day we place orders to buy and sell options, we’re either putting upward or downward pressure on their prices. At the time these quotes were taken, the market was placing 60 cents extra value on the August $32.50 call over the July $32.50 call. We can be sure that longer-term options will always cost more than shorter-term options but we cannot be sure by how much. All we can be sure of is that with all else constant (same underlying stock and strike price), longer-term options will cost you more money.

To be continued….

Oct

22

Chapter 2 Options 101 Part 14

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Option Pricing Principles
We’ve just been introduced to real call and put options and now understand how to interpret their prices when looking at quotes. But did you notice in Table 1-1 that some options are more expensive than others? Why is that? And is there a pattern we should understand? This chapter takes you through some of the most important pricing principles of options. Understanding these principles is essential for mastering option strategies.

Principle #1:
Lower Strike Calls (and Higher Strike Puts) Must Be More Expensive
If you look at the prices in Table 1-1, you’ll notice that the lower strike calls are more expensive than the higher strikes. This will always be true assuming, of course, that all other factors are the same. That is, we must be looking at strikes on the same underlying stock and expiration month. For example, Table 2-1 shows the call prices for July from Table 1-1. Why do the prices get cheaper as we move to higher strikes?
July Call Options
Strike Price
$32.50 $4.90
$35 $2.70
$37.50 $1.05
$40 $0.35
Table 2-1

There are many mathematical reasons why this relationship must hold and we’ll look at one shortly. However, you already know enough to figure it out intuitively by thinking back to the pizza coupon analogy. Imagine that you walked in to buy a pizza and found the following two coupons lying on the counter:

Notice that both coupons control exactly the same thing (one large three-topping pizza) and have the same expiration date. The only difference is that the coupon on the left allows you to buy the pizza for $10.00 while the one on the right gives you the right to buy it for $20.00. If both pizza coupons allow you to do exactly the same thing but one just allows you to do it for a cheaper price, then obviously you would choose to pay the cheaper price. You should pick up the coupon that gives you the right to buy the pizza for $10.00.

The same thought process occurs in the options markets. For example, both the $32.50 call and the $35 call in Table 2-1 allow the trader to buy 100 shares of eBay, so there are absolutely no differences in what those two coupons allow you to buy. However, the $32.50 allows you to buy the 100 shares for less money. Traders realize the benefit in paying $32.50 rather than $35, so they will compete in the market for that coupon. It is a more desirable coupon, so traders and investors will bid its price higher than the $35 coupon. The same process happens all the way up the line. Each successively lower strike is bid to a higher price. Or conversely, each higher strike is bid lower than the strike below it. When you get into strategies, there will be times when you need to figure out which call option is more valuable. You can always find the answer by asking yourself which is more desirable. The answer to that question is the one that has the lower strike price. As our first Pricing Principle states: Lower strike calls must be more valuable.

This same reasoning drives many decisions in the financial markets. If it is more desirable then it must cost more with all other factors constant. Consider government bonds. Why are government bond yields lower when compared to the same face amount and maturity as a corporate bond? The reason is that government bonds are guaranteed; corporate bonds are not. So if a government bond and corporate bond both mature to $10,000 at the same time, which would you rather have? Again, there is no difference in what either of these bonds promise. Both promise $10,000 to be delivered to you at the same time. However, there is a big difference in the ability to carry out that promise. The government bond is far more secure so it is more desirable to investors. Investors will therefore pay a higher price for the government bond. And when bond prices rise, yields fall. That’s why government bonds will always have a lower yield than corporate bonds of the same face value and maturity.

When first attempting to understand option prices, you must remember that “more desirable” equates to more money with all other factors the same. If you do, you’ll understand many aspects of strategies that many traders must memorize

Now let’s take a look at why higher strike puts are more expensive. Table 2-2 is a listing of the July put options from Table 1-1:
Table 2-2

July Put Options
Strike Price
$32.50 $0.20
$35 $0.50
$37.50 $1.40
$40 $3.20
With the put options, the reverse appears to be true and the higher strike puts are more expensive. Why does this pattern occur? The reasoning is similar as it is for calls but you must remember that put options allow you to sell stock. If all prices were the same, which put option would you rather have? In other words, which strike price is more desirable? Obviously, it is more desirable to sell your shares for $40 than for $37.50, so traders will bid the prices of the $40 puts higher than that of the $37.50 puts and the $37.50 puts will be bid higher than the $35 puts and so on down the line. Higher strike puts will always be more expensive than lower strike puts with all other factors the same (same underlying stock and expiration).

To better understand the relationship between put strikes and price, think about insurance. If you have a $30,000 car and want to insure it for the full value, you will pay a certain premium. However, if you accept a $500 deductible and only want insurance for the remaining value, you will pay a lower premium. If you accept a $1,000 deductible, you will pay even less. In exchange for assuming some of the risk, you will pay a lower premium. In other words, the higher the value of your car insurance, the higher the premium you will pay.

This same relationship holds for put options. In Table 2-2, if a trader owns 100 shares of eBay and buys the July $37.50 put, he is attempting to insure the stock for more than its current value of $37.11. For that coverage he will pay $1.40 premium. However, if he chooses to assume some of the risk, he can pay a lower premium. How can he assume some risk? He can choose lower coverage by selecting a lower strike price. For instance, if he chooses the July $35 put, he will pay on 50 cents for the coverage. But in exchange for that lower premium, he is assuming the first $2.11 in damage since the protection on his stock does not start until a stock price of $35.

As we’ve written before, put options can be thought of as a form of insurance. If you want high coverage (high strike prices) you will pay a larger premium for that. If you choose to accept some risk (lower strike prices) you will pay a lower premium. In other words, high strike puts cost more than low strike puts.

There’s another way to understand why lower strike calls and higher strike puts must be more valuable. We can do so by looking at different strikes from a probability standpoint. Let’s assume that a stock can only move between $0 and $100 with all prices equally likely at expiration. If you own a $50 call, then there is a 50% chance that you will have intrinsic value at expiration. In other words, the $50 call acts as an asset to “catch” all stock prices to the right of the strike. Obviously, the more prices it can catch, the greater the value of the call. What can we do if we want to catch more strikes? We can shift to a lower strike price such as the $25 strike as shown in the following diagram:

If we lower the strike from $50 to $25, you can see that we have far more area to the right for the stock price to land at expiration as shown by the white arrows. This shows that the $25 call must be more valuable than the $50 call because it allows the trader to potentially catch more intrinsic value. The reverse reasoning shows that higher strike puts must be more valuable since they catch more stock prices to the left of the strike price.

Stick with whichever method helps you to understand or visualize why lower strike calls and higher strike puts must be more valuable.

To be continued…

Oct

21

Options 101 Part 13 Answers

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1) Call options give buyers the:
b) Right to buy stock
Long options always give the buyer some type of right. You will never incur an obligation by purchasing an option. Call options give buyers the right, not the obligation, to buy stock. If you buy a call, you can purchase 100 shares of the underlying stock at any time for the strike price.

2) Put options give buyers the:
d) Right to sell stock
Put buyers have the right, not the obligation, to sell stock. The put owner can sell 100 shares of stock and receive the strike price at any time through expiration.

3) Option sellers:
d) Both b and c
ellers receive a premium for accepting an obligation. The seller of a call has the potential obligation to sell shares of stock for the strOption sike price while the put seller has the potential obligation to buy shares of stock for the strike price.

4) One option contract generally controls how many shares of stock?
d) 100
When options are first issued, they generally control 100 shares of stock.

5) You bought an Intel $25 call. The “$25” figure is called the:
c) Strike price or exercise price
The price at which you are contracting to trade shares of stock is the exercise price. It is also called the strike price because that’s where the deal was “struck.”

6) The intrinsic value of an option represents the:
b) Immediate benefit
For call options, the intrinsic value is found by taking the stock price minus the strike price, assuming it is a positive amount. For put options, we take the strike price minus the stock price, assuming it is positive. With the stock at $55, a $50 call has $55 – $50 = $5 of intrinsic value. A $60 call has no intrinsic value since $55 – $60 = negative $5. Likewise, a $50 put has no intrinsic value since $50 – $55 = negative $5. The intrinsic value represents the amount of “immediate benefit” to the owner. If the stock is $55, the $50 call owner is better off by $5 since he can pay $50 for the stock rather than $55. The $60 put holder can sell his stock for $5 more than the current market price of $55 so he is better off by $5 as well. Whenever you are trying to figure out the intrinsic value, think if there is an immediate benefit in owning that option. If there is, it has intrinsic value. The intrinsic value is also the amount that the option is in-the-money.

7) You are long an ABC $40 call. How much will it cost to exercise the call?
c) $4,000
Each contract controls 100 shares of stock and you have the right to buy it for $40 per share. Therefore, it will cost 100 shares * $40 per share = $4,000 to exercise the call. In return, you will receive 100 shares of ABC.

8) If you are “long” options:
a) You are not required to ever buy or sell the stock
If you are long options, whether calls or puts, you have rights. This means you are not required to ever buy or sell stock. You can buy or sell stock if you choose. It is your option to do so.

9) Which of the following is true?
b) Long positions exercise, short positions get assigned
Long positions have the rights. It is the long position that decides whether or not to exercise. If the long position exercises then the short position must oblige. The short position has the obligation.

10) XYZ is trading for $74. The XYZ $70 call is trading for $4.50. What are the intrinsic and time values?
a) $4 intrinsic, 50 cents time
There is an immediate advantage in owning this call since it gives the buyer the right to pay $70 for a stock that is trading for $74. Specifically, there is a $4 advantage so that is the intrinsic value. The remaining 50 cents of value is due to time.

11) ABC is trading for $107. The ABC $110 call is trading for $4. What are the intrinsic and time values?
c) $0 intrinsic, $4 time
There is no immediate benefit in holding this call since it gives the buyer the right to pay $110 for a stock that is currently trading for $107. Therefore, there is no intrinsic value to this option. However, this does not mean the option has no value. Because time remains on the option, the stock does have a chance of rising above $110. All of this option’s value is due to the fact that time remains on the option.

12) An option is bidding $3 and asking $3.20. What does this mean?
d) Both a and c
The bid represents the highest price that someone is willing to pay. In other words, it represents the highest bidder. The asking price represents the lowest price at which someone will sell. Because someone is willing to pay $3, this means we can sell to that person if we wish to sell this option. Likewise, because someone is willing to sell for $3.20, we can buy the option for this price.

13) The bid and ask represent the:
c) Highest bidder and lowest offer.

14) Microsoft is trading for $29 and the $30 put is trading for $2.50. This put is:
a) $1 in-the-money
Put options give the holder the right to sell stock. Because this put allows the holder to sell for $30 when the stock is trading for $29, there is a $1 immediate benefit in holding this put. Therefore, this put is $1 in-the-money.

15) ABC stock is trading for $47. You just purchased an ABC $45 call for $3. If the stock remains at $47 at expiration, what is the amount, if any, you will lose on this option?
b) $1
This call has $2 intrinsic value and $1 time value. If the stock is $47 at expiration, this option will be worth the $2 intrinsic value so the most you could lose is the $1 time value. Remember, the key to this question is that the stock remains at $47 at expiration. It is true that the most you could ever lose on this (or any) option is the amount paid, or $3 in this example. But the question is assuming the stock remains at $47. The only way you could lose more than the $1 time value is if the stock’s price falls below $47.

16) If you wish to exercise an option, you must:
d) Submit exercise instructions
You are free to exercise an equity option at any time and the OCC guarantees the performance so there’s no need to find a buyer or seller. The only thing you must do is submit exercise instructions to your broker which is done with a simple phone call.

17) The OCC:
b) Is the buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer
The OCC acts as a middleman to every transaction. If you buy an option, you are really buying it from the OCC. If you sell an option, you are selling it to the OCC.

18) Options trade in units called:
a) Contracts
Options trade in units called “contracts” because that’s what they are – contracts between two people to buy and sell shares of stock. Stock trades in “shares” while options trade in “contracts.”

19) The last trading day for options is:
c) The third Friday of the expiration month
The last trading day is the third Friday of the expiration month. Technically, options expire on Saturday following the third Friday but the last “trading” day is the third Friday.

20) Because a portion of an option’s value declines over time, options are referred to as:
b) Wasting assets
A wasting asset is one whose price declines with the passage of time. Some options decline very little while others decline much more and much faster. Regardless, all options are classified as a wasting asset.

21) Which “style” are all equity options?
d) American
All equity options are American style, which means you can exercise them at any time prior to expiration. Bermudan and Asian options are actually styles too but they fall under the category of exotic options.

22) If you sell a put option, you have:
a) The potential obligation to buy stock
Put sellers have the potential obligations to buy stock. They must buy the stock only if the long put holder decides to exercise.

23) If you sell a call option, you have:
b) The potential obligation to sell stock
Call sellers have to sell stock only if the long call holder exercises.

24) If you sell an option, you collect a premium. What happens to that premium if you are assigned?
c) You keep the premium regardless of whether you’re assigned or not
Option sellers always keep the premium regardless of what happens. That is their fee for accepting some type of obligation (risk).

25) If you buy or sell an option, you can escape your obligations by:
d) Entering a reversing trade
You can always get out of an option contract by entering a reversing trade of the same month and strike. If you originally purchased an ABC $50 call you would enter a reversing trade by selling an ABC $50 call.

To be continued…

Oct

20

Options 101 Part 12- Questions

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How Are Options Similar to Stocks?
• Options are securities.
• Options trade on national SEC (Securities Exchange Commission)-regulated exchanges.
• Option orders are transacted through market makers and retail participants with bids to buy and offers to sell and can be traded like any other security.

How Do Options Differ from Stocks?
• Options have an expiration date, whereas common stocks can be held forever (unless the company goes bankrupt). If an option is not exercised on or before expiration, it no longer exists and expires worthless.
• Options exist only as “book entry,” which means they are held electronically. There are no certificates for options like there are for stocks.
• There is no limit to the number of options that can be traded on an underlying stock. Common stocks have a fixed number of shares outstanding.
• Options do not confer voting rights or dividends. They are strictly contracts to buy or sell the underlying stock or index. If you want a dividend or wish to vote the proxy, you need to exercise the call option.

Key Concepts
1) The intrinsic value of an option represents the “immediate benefit” in using the option.
2) Any value in the option above the intrinsic value is the time value.
3) In-the-money options have intrinsic value. Out-of-the-money options have no intrinsic value.
4) At-the-money options carry the highest time value.
5) You only lose your time value at option expiration. Any intrinsic value must remain.

Chapter One Questions

1) Call options give buyers the:
a) Obligation to buy stock
b) Right to buy stock
c) Obligation to sell stock
d) Right to sell stock

2) Put options give buyers the:
a) Obligation to buy stock
b) Right to buy stock
c) Obligation to sell stock
d) Right to sell stock

3) Option sellers:
a) Have rights
b) Receive premiums
c) Have obligations
d) Both b and c

4) One option contract generally controls how many shares of stock?
a) 25
b) 50
c) 75
d) 100

5) You bought an Intel $25 call. The “$25” figure is called the:
a) Contract value
b) Moneyness
c) Strike price or exercise price
d) Intrinsic value

6) The intrinsic value of an option represents the:
a) Time value
b) Immediate benefit
c) Contract value
d) Strike price

7) You are long an ABC $40 call. How much will it cost to exercise the call?
a) $40
b) $400
c) $4,000
d) $40,000

8) If you are “long” options:
a) You are not required to ever buy or sell the stock
b) You are required to buy or sell the stock if assigned
c) You are obligated to buy stock at some time
d) You receive premiums

9) Which of the following is true?
a) Long positions get assigned, short positions exercise
b) Long positions exercise, short positions get assigned
c) Long and short positions can exercise
d) Long and short positions can get assigned

10) XYZ is trading for $74. The XYZ $70 call is trading for $4.50. What are the intrinsic and time values?
a) $4 intrinsic, 50 cents time
b) $4.50 intrinsic, $0 time
c) 50 cents intrinsic, $4 time
d) $0 intrinsic, $4.50 time

11) ABC is trading for $107. The ABC $110 call is trading for $4. What are the intrinsic and time values?
a) $1 intrinsic, $3 time
b) $3 intrinsic, $1 time
c) $0 intrinsic, $4 time
d) $4 intrinsic, $0 time

12) An option is bidding $3 and asking $3.20. What does this mean?
a) The highest price that someone will pay is $3 and the lowest price at which someone will sell is $3.20.
b) The highest price that someone will pay is $3.20 and the lowest price at which someone will sell is $3.
c) You can currently buy the option for $3.20 and sell it for $3
d) Both a and c

13) The bid and ask represent the:
a) Lowest bidder and highest offer
b) Highest bidder and highest offer
c) Highest bidder and lowest offer
d) Lowest bidder and lowest offer

14) Microsoft is trading for $29 and the $30 put is trading for $2.50. This put is:
a) $1 in-the-money
b) $1 out-of-the-money
c) $2.50 in-the-money
d) $2.50 out-of-the-money

15) ABC stock is trading for $47. You just purchased an ABC $45 call for $3. If the stock remains at $47 at expiration, what is the amount, if any, you will lose on this option?
a) $0
b) $1
c) $2
d) $3

16) If you wish to exercise an option, you must:
a) Find a buyer or seller
b) Do so only at expiration
c) Submit assignment instructions
d) Submit exercise instructions

17) The OCC:
a) Guarantees an option’s profit
b) Is the buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer
c) Acts as a mediator for disputes
d) Requires you to become a member before trading options

18) Options trade in units called:
a) Contracts
b) Shares
c) Round lots
d) OCC units

19) The last trading day for options is:
a) The second Thursday of the expiration month
b) The second Friday of the expiration month
c) The third Friday of the expiration month
d) Saturday following the third Friday

20) Because a portion of an option’s value declines over time, options are referred to as:
a) Physical delivery assets
b) Wasting assets
c) Linear assets
d) Cash delivery assets

21) Which “style” are all equity options?
a) Bermudan
b) Asian
c) European
d) American

22) If you sell a put option, you have:
a) The potential obligation to buy stock
b) The potential obligation to sell stock
c) The right to buy stock
d) The right to sell stock

23) If you sell a call option, you have:
a) The potential obligation to buy stock
b) The potential obligation to sell stock
c) The right to buy stock
d) The right to sell stock

24) If you sell an option, you collect a premium. What happens to that premium if you are assigned?
a) You only keep the premium if you are assigned
b) Option sellers do not receive the premium
c) You keep the premium regardless of whether you’re assigned or not
d) You only keep the premium if you are not assigned

25) If you buy or sell an option, you can escape your obligations by:
a) Entering a reversing trade in a different month
b) Entering a reversing trade at a different strike
c) Entering the same trade again
d) Entering a reversing trade

Answers will be given on the next part of Options 101……

Oct

19

Options 101 Part 11

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Options 101
Part 11

Table 1-4 describes the moneyness for calls and puts:

Table 1-4
Call Options
Moneyness Relationship to Stock
In-the-money Stock price > Strike price
At-the-money Stock price = Strike price
Out-of-the-money Stock price < Strike price

Put Options
Moneyness Relationship to Stock
In-the-money Stock price Strike price

Most option exchanges, such as the CBOE, always provide at least one in-the-money and one out-of-the-money option for each month. This means that as the stock moves to new highs (or lows) then new strikes will be added to each expiration month.

The moneyness of an option affects the amount of time premium present. In general, in-the-money and out-of-the-money options will have the smallest time premiums. At-the-money options have the greatest amount of time premium. In other words, at-the-money options contain the highest amount of time value, and that value shrinks as we move toward the in-the-money or the out-of-the-money strikes.

The at-the-money option has the highest time value. Time value shrinks as we move in-the-money or out-of-the-money.

For example, Table 1-5 shows the time values for the July calls and puts in Table 1-1:

Table 1-5
Strikes Call Time Value Put Time Value
$32.50 0.29 0.20
$35 0.59 0.50
$37.50 1.05 1.01
$40 0.35 0.31

Notice that the time values are relatively small for the in-the-money strikes ($32.50 call, $35 call, $40 put). The time values are also relatively small for out-of-the-money strikes ($40 call, $32.50 put, $35 put). It is the at-the-money strike ($37.50) that has the highest time value. Figure 1-6 shows the intrinsic and time values for only the call options in Table 1-4. You can see that the time value is very small for the $32.50 call because it is so far in-the-money. As we increase the strike price, the time premium gradually increases as well until we’re only left with pure time premium.


Parity
An option that is trading for purely intrinsic value (i.e., no time value) is trading at parity. For instance, assume that the underlying stock is trading for $46. If the $40 call is trading for $6 then it is comprised totally of intrinsic value and is therefore trading at parity. Options generally only trade at parity when there is little time remaining (usually a matter of hours).

Wasting Assets
We’ve learned that if you want a call or put option you must pay money for it. We also know that options expire at some time and that leads to an interesting question. Do options lose all of their value at expiration? After all, if the option is no longer good, how can it have any value?

While it is true that an option loses some of its value with each passing day, there is often a big misconception about how much of that premium is lost at expiration. There are traders who will tell you that all options become worthless at expiration, and that is simply not true. In an earlier section “Intrinsic Values and Time Values,” we said that all options must be worth at least their intrinsic value – and expiration time is no different. At expiration, all options lose only their time value but not their intrinsic value. It is only the time value portion of their price that slowly bleeds away with time. The intrinsic value remains intact. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to understand how to decompose an option into its intrinsic and time values. Certain strategies rely on the use of intrinsic values, while others make use of the time values. If you want to trade, hedge, or invest with options, you need to know how much of each value is present at each strike price.

To make sure you understand this concept, let’s look at the August $35 call in Table 1-1, which is trading for $3.60. We know there is $37.11 – $35 = $2.11 worth of intrinsic value and that means that the remaining value, or $3.60 – $2.11 = 1.49 worth of time value. If you were to buy this call and eBay closed at the same price of $37.11 at expiration, the $35 call would still be worth the intrinsic value of $2.11. It would not be worth zero. The only amount you would lose is the $1.49 worth of time premium. Remember, traders are paying the additional $1.49 over and above the immediate value because there is time remaining. Once time is gone (option is expired), then there can be no time value on the option, but the intrinsic value will remain. In Figure 1-6, the intrinsic value is bold and the time value is shaded. It is only the shaded portion that erodes with time. (Bear in mind this doesn’t mean that you cannot lose the intrinsic value. However, that value can be lost due to adverse stock movement only and not the passage of time.)

Because options lose some value with each passing day, they are called wasting assets. There are some traders who reject the use of options since part of the option’s price deteriorates simply by the passage of time, but that is a thoughtless reason. The car you drive loses value over time. The same is true for the fruits and vegetables you buy. What about the computer you use? It doesn’t make sense to say that it’s not worthwhile to invest in assets whose value depreciates over time. You just have to be careful in the way you use them. Nearly all assets deteriorate over time, so don’t back away from options just because a portion of their value depreciates over time. Even the expensive factories that General Motors, Dell Computer, or Intel have built all lose value with each passing day, but the CEOs will tell you they have been very productive assets.

Time Decay
Time decay does not occur in a straight line over time. In other words, an at-the-money option with 30 days to expiration does not lose 1/30 of its value each day. Instead, it loses value slowly at first, which then progressively accelerates more and more each day. This is called exponential decay. Figure 1-7 shows the price of a 90-day option where we assume that nothing changes except the passage of time. You can see the rapid acceleration of decay as time gets near expiration – especially in the last thirty days.


Some texts will show this chart in the reverse order with the numbers on the horizontal axis increasing from 0 to 90, which is probably more mathematically correct since the numbers are ascending as we move left to right. However, it makes it awkward to read since you must make time move from right to left as we approach expiration. It’s usually easier for people to visualize time moving forward by moving from left to right. It’s a matter of preference as to which type of chart you use. Just realize that as you continue reading about options that you may encounter time decay charts that appear backwards but it’s just due to two different styles of presenting the same concept. The important point is that you understand that time decay is not linear. Because of this, it is usually to your advantage to buy longer periods of time and sell shorter periods of time. We will revisit this concept later but just realize for now that an option’s value does not decay in a straight line.

Before we leave this section, you might be wondering if there are any similarities between stocks and options. You might be surprised that options are similar to stock in many ways.

To be continued……..

Oct

17

Options 101 Part 10

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Any option’s price can be broken down into the two components of intrinsic values and time values. The following formula will help:
Formula 1-2:
Total Value (Premium) = Intrinsic Value + Time Value

Using the July $35 call example, we know that the intrinsic value is $2.11 and the time value is 59 cents, so the total call value must be $2.11 intrinsic value + $0.59 time value = $2.70 total value. Figure 1-3 may help you to visualize the breakdown of time and intrinsic value:
Figure 1-3: Breakdown of Time and Intrinsic Values

If there is no intrinsic value then the option’s price is comprised totally of time value. For example, in Table 1-1, the July $37.50 is trading for $1.05. However, the stock is only $37.11. If you buy the $37.50 call, you’re buying a coupon that gives you the right to buy the stock for a higher price than it is currently trading. On the surface, it may seem that the $37.50 call has no value. But the real way to say it is that it has no intrinsic value; the $37.50 call has no immediate value. There may be value in the future, but there’s no immediate value at this time. The $1.05 premium on this call is made up of pure time premium. The only reason value exists on this call is because time remains.

Using Formula 1-2 for the July $37.50 call we have $0 intrinsic value and $1.05 time value, so the total value is $0 intrinsic value + $1.05 time value = $1.05 total value.

If you like mathematical formulas, you can find the intrinsic value of a call by taking the stock price minus the strike price (exercise price). If that number is positive, there is intrinsic value on the call option.

Intrinsic Value Formula for Calls:
Stock price – Exercise price = Intrinsic Value (assuming you get a positive number).

For example, the $35 call must have intrinsic value since $37.11 – $35 = $2.11. The $37.50 call, on the other hand, has $37.11 – $37.50 = -39 cents. Since this number is negative, there is no intrinsic value on this call.

For puts, we use the same reasoning but in the opposite direction. In Table 1-1, the July $40 puts are trading for $3.20. There is obviously an immediate benefit in holding the $40 put since we could sell our stock for $40 rather than the market price of $37.11. The amount of that benefit is $40 – $37.11 = $2.89. The intrinsic value is therefore $2.89. Because the put is trading for $3.20, the remaining value must be time value. The time value is $3.20 – $2.89 = 31 cents. Once again, using Formula 1-2 we see that the $2.89 intrinsic value + $0.31 time value = $3.20 total value.

If you wish to use mathematical formulas to find intrinsic value for puts, we can just reverse the call formula (remember, puts are like calls but they work in the opposite direction). For put options, if the exercise price minus the stock price is positive then there is intrinsic value. For example, the July $40 put has intrinsic value since $40 exercise price – $37.11 stock price = $2.89 intrinsic value. We know this is the intrinsic value since the result is a positive number. The July $35 put, on the other hand, has no intrinsic value since $35 exercise price – $37.11 stock price = -$2.11 (negative number).

Intrinsic Value Formula for Puts:
Exercise price – Stock Price = Intrinsic Value (assuming you get a positive number).

We can rearrange Formula 1-2 to come up with another useful formula for finding time value: Premium – Intrinsic Value = Time Value. We can abbreviate this formula as P – I = T, which looks like the word “pits.” Just remember that option formulas are the “pits” and you should have no trouble finding time values. What is the time value for the July $35 call? The premium is $2.70 and the intrinsic value is $2.11 so the time value is $2.70 – $2.11 = 59 cents.

Time Value for Calls and Puts:
Premium – Intrinsic Value = Time Value.

Intrinsic value is the key value to solve. If you can find intrinsic value, you can find time value. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of practicing by using the words “immediate benefit” or “immediate advantage” to determine if an option has intrinsic value. Formulas are nice if you are programming a computer but they do not allow you to understand why the formula works. Understanding the concepts is crucial to successful options trading. Use the formulas to check your answers.

Let’s revisit the thought process again for finding intrinsic value. For example, if someone asks you if the July $35 call in Table 1-1 has intrinsic value, you should ask yourself if there is an “immediate advantage” in being able to buy stock with the call for $35 when the stock is trading for $37.11. The answer is obviously yes. That means the $35 call has intrinsic value. How much intrinsic value? We just need to figure out the size of that advantage. If the stock is $37.11 and you can buy it for $35, there is $37.11 – $35 = $2.11 worth of advantage in the $35 call. The intrinsic value must be $2.11. Any remaining value in the option’s price is due to time value. Because the option is trading for $2.70, there must be $2.70 – $2.11 = 59 cents worth of time value.

What about the $40 put? Again, we know there is an “immediate advantage” in being able to sell your stock for $40 rather than the current price of $37.11, so this put has intrinsic value. How much intrinsic value? Again, we just need to find out how big the advantage is. If the owner of that put can sell stock for $40 when the stock is trading for $37.11, there must be $40 – $37.11 = $2.89 worth of intrinsic value. Any remaining value in the option’s price is due to time value. Because the option is trading for $3.20, there must be $3.20 – $2.89 = 31 cents worth of time value. Keep practicing these steps and intrinsic and time values will become second nature to you.

Moneyness
We just learned the difference between time and intrinsic values, and that allows us to understand some more option terminology. Options are generally classified by traders as in-the-money, out-of-the-money, or at-the-money, which are sometimes referred to as the “moneyness” of an option. An option with intrinsic value is in-the-money, while an option with no intrinsic value is out-of-the-money. An option that is neither in nor out of the money is at-the-money.

The phrase “in-the-money” is generally used to imply that something is profitable. If someone says their new business is in-the-money, it means they are making money, and that’s really what this term is implying with options. For example, in Table 1-1, the $32.50 and $35 calls are in-the-money since both have intrinsic value. The owners of these calls are able to buy the stock for less than it is currently trading and therefore have some real value in holding the option. The $40 call is out-of-the-money since there is no immediate benefit in holding it; there is no intrinsic value. Technically speaking, an at-the-money option has a strike that exactly matches the price of the stock. But since it is rare that the stock price will exactly match a particular strike, we usually label the at-the-money strike as the one that is closest to the current stock price. In Table 1-1, we’d say that the $37.50 strikes are at-the-money calls (even though they are technically slightly out-of-the-money).

If an option is very much in-the-money (usually by a couple of strike prices or more) the option is considered deep-in-the-money. If it is several strikes out-of-the-money it is considered to be deep-out-of-the-money.

For put options, the same definitions apply; all strikes with intrinsic value are in-the-money. For puts, this means that all strikes higher than the stock’s price are in-the-money. In Table 1-1, the $40 puts are in-the-money since they have intrinsic value. The $35 puts are out-of-the-money since they have no intrinsic value. The at-the-money strike will be the same for calls and puts, so the $37.50 puts would be considered the at-the-money strikes (even though they are technically slightly in-the-money).

The terms in-the-money, out-of-the-money, and at-the-money are used just for description purposes; it just makes it easier for option traders to describe types of options and strategies. For example, rather than tell someone that you bought some call options whose strike price is lower than the current value of the stock, it’s easier to say you bought some in-the-money calls.

To be continued….

Oct

16

Options 101 Part 9

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Okay, let’s try the next call on the list in Table 1-1, which is the 05 Jul 35 call (notice that the strikes are in $2.50 increments since eBay is below $50, which is in agreement with what we stated earlier). If you buy this call option, you have the right, not the obligation, to buy 100 shares of eBay for $35 per share through the third Friday in July ‘05. Since eBay is trading for $37.11, we know that anybody holding this option has an immediate advantage of $37.11 – $35 = $2.11 by buying this call and we now know that this advantage must be reflected in the price. You can verify that the asking price is $2.70, which shows the apparently free $2.11 benefit is not free. Again, the reason traders will pay more than the $2.11 benefit is because there is time remaining on the option and it certainly could end up with more value. If you want to buy this contract, it will cost you $2.70 * 100 shares = $270 per contract + commissions. If you buy two contracts, you will control 200 shares and that will cost $540 and so on.

While we’re talking about the prices in Table 1-1, let’s delve into what the rest of the columns mean. The LAST SALE column records the price of the last trade of the option. Option traders rarely look at this, since that price could have occurred during the last minute but it also could have been last week. We don’t know when that trade took place. We just know that was the price when it last traded. For stock traders, the last sale will generally be very close to the bid and ask of the stock, because optionable stocks generally have high volume — but that is not necessarily true for their options. In Table 1-1, you can see that the last trade on eBay was $37.11 with the bid at $37.10 and the asking price at $37.11. The last sale for the stock is very close to the current bid and ask, which will usually be the case. But notice that the last trade for the $32.50 call was $4.40 with the bid and ask at $4.70 to $4.90. This shows that the last trade is somewhat stale; that’s why option traders generally do not look at the last trade. If you were buying this option, the last sale would lead you to believe that it would cost $4.40 when it would really cost $4.90. If you were selling the option, the last sale may make you decide against it since it appears you would only receive $4.40 when, in actuality, you get $4.70.

The NET column shows the net change between prices for the two most recent trades just as it does for stocks. For the July $32.50 call, the last trade was $4.40 and that price was down $1.20 from its previous price, which means the previous trade was $4.40 + $1.20 = $5.60. If this option traded at $5.60 and the next trade was at $4.40 then that represents a $1.20 drop in price, which is what the NET column shows. Again, the reason for the apparent big drop in price is because there was a big time delay between those two trades.

The VOL column shows us the volume, which is simply the number of contracts traded that day. For the stock market, volume refers to the number of shares traded; for the options market, it refers to the number of contracts but the idea is the same. The OPEN INT column shows how many contracts are currently in existence, which is called the “open interest.” We’ll find out more about open interest in Chapter Four.

Understanding a Real Put Option
Now that we’ve looked at a couple of call options, let’s take a look at some real put options. In Table 1-1, what does the 05 Jul 32.50 put option represent? If you buy this put, you have the right to sell 100 shares of eBay for $32.50 per share through the third Friday of July ’05. For that right, you would have to pay 0.20 * 100 = $20 plus commissions. No matter how low a price eBay might be trading, you are guaranteed to get $32.50 if you exercise this put option to sell your shares. Remember, you do not need to own the shares of stock to buy a put. By purchasing this put, you have the right to sell shares for $32.50 and somebody else will be very willing to buy this from you if eBay falls below $32.50. By purchasing the put, you’re banking on eBay’s price falling. If you think the price of eBay will fall, you can buy the put and then sell it to someone else, thus capturing a profit without ever having the shares to sell. Notice that with this option, there is no immediate benefit in owning the $32.50 put. If you owned shares of eBay and wanted to sell, you’d just sell the shares in the open market for $37.11. Once again, the reason there is any value to this $32.50 put at all is because there is time remaining and it may end up with a lot more value if eBay’s price falls. Traders are willing to pay for that time.

Let’s try the next one on the list, the July $37.50 put. If you buy this put, you have the right to sell 100 shares of eBay for $37.50 per share through the third Friday of July ’05. Now this put does appear to have an immediate value since we could sell the stock for a higher price than it is currently trading. It appears that if we buy this put, we could buy the shares for $37.11 and immediately use the put option and collect $37.50 for an immediate guaranteed profit of 39 cents. As with our call option examples, any immediate benefit must be paid for, and we can verify that by observing the 50-cent asking price. In other words, you’re paying 50 cents for that 39-cent benefit. The market is willing to pay more than the immediate benefit since there is time remaining on the option. You cannot use options, whether calls or puts, to collect “free money.”

Key Concepts
1) The price of an option is called the premium.
2) The “ask” price tells us how much we have to pay for an option. The “bid” price tells us how much we can sell it for.
3) To find the total price for one option contract, multiply the bid or ask by 100.
4) The last day to trade an option is the third Friday of the expiration month.

Intrinsic Values and Time Values
In the previous section, we found out that some options have an “immediate value” or “immediate benefit” at the time they are purchased while others do not. It’s time now to introduce some more terminology that will help you understand why.

We discovered that an option’s price must reflect any immediate value in holding it. For instance, we found that the July $35 call could give a trader an immediate benefit of $2.11 since the stock is trading for $37.11. If the stock is trading for $37.11 and you have a call that gives you the right to buy the stock for $35, you’re better off with the call by $37.11 – $35 = $2.11. That $2.11 worth of immediate benefit must be reflected in the price, and we see that it is since that call is priced higher at $2.70. In option lingo, we’d say that the $35 call has $2.11 worth of intrinsic value. It will really help if you learn to substitute the words “immediate benefit” or “immediate value” for intrinsic value. If the stock is trading for $37.11, we know the $35 call must be worth at least $2.11 in the open market. In other words, options must be worth at least their intrinsic value.

If there is any value in the option over and above this amount, it is called time value or time premium. (Some texts will also refer to this as extrinsic value.) The time value is due to the fact that there is still time remaining on the option. Since the July $35 call was trading for $2.70 and the intrinsic value is $2.11 then the time value must be $2.70 – $2.11 = 59 cents.

To be continued….

Oct

15

Options 101 Part 8

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Before we continue, we need to introduce some more terminology that has been deliberately withheld until now for the fact that it will be easier to understand at this point. There are three main classifications for options. First, there are two types of options: calls and puts. Second, all options of the same type and same underlying represent a class of options. Therefore, all eBay calls or all eBay puts (regardless of expiration) make up a class. Third, all options of the same class, strike price, and expiration date make up a series. For instance, all July $32.50 calls form a series.

At the time these quotes were taken, eBay stock was trading for $37.11, which you can see in the upper right corner of Table 1-1. The first column is labeled “calls” and several columns to the right you will find one labeled “puts.” The first call option on the list is 05 Jul 32.50. The “05 Jul” tells us that the contract expires in July ‘05 and the “32.50” designates that it is a $32.50 strike price. The last trading day for this option will be the third Friday in July ‘05. All you have to do is look at a calendar and count the third Friday for July ‘05 and that is the last day you can trade the option (which happens to be July 15 for this particular year). Remember, you can buy, sell, or exercise this option on any day, but the last day to do so is July 15. All 05 July options will expire on the same date regardless of the strike price or whether they are calls or puts.

The “XBAGZ-E” notation is the symbol for that option. Just as every stock has a unique trading symbol, each option carries a unique symbol. However, you can forget about the “dash E,” as the letter E is a unique identifier for the CBOE, which just tells us these quotes are coming from that exchange. If you wanted to buy or sell this option online, you’d enter the symbol “XBAGZ.” Your broker, however, may require you to follow this symbol with “.O” to show that it is an option (for example, XBAGZ.O). Your broker will make it very clear if he has these requirements, but the actual symbol (XBAGZ in this example) will always remain the same regardless of which brokerage firm you use.

Your brokerage firm may list option symbols as “OPRA” codes. The committee named for consolidating all of the option quotes and reporting them to the various services is called the Options Price Reporting Authority or “OPRA.” An OPRA code is the same thing as the option symbol. You can read more about OPRA at www.OpraData.com.

The $32.50 strike means that the owner of this “coupon” has the right, not the obligation, to buy 100 shares of eBay for $32.50 through the third Friday of Jul ‘05. No matter how high a price eBay may be trading, the owner of this call option is locked into a $32.50 purchase price. Now this seems like a pretty good deal since the stock is trading much higher at $37.11. It appears that if you got the $32.50 call, you could make an immediate profit of $37.11 – $32.50 = $4.31. In other words, it appears that if we could get our hands on this coupon, we could buy the stock for $32.50 and immediately sell it for the going price of $37.11 thus making an immediate profit of $4.31. However, you must remember that call options, unlike pizza coupons, are not free. It will cost us some money to get our hands on it.

How much will it cost to buy this coupon? We can find out by looking at the “ask” column, which shows how much you will have to pay to buy the option. It shows a price of $4.90 to buy this call. This means the apparently free $4.31 is no longer free since you’re paying $4.90 for $4.31 worth of immediate benefit. In fact, you will find that you must always pay for any immediate advantage that any call or put option gives you. The main point is that you cannot use options to collect “free money” in the market. When traders are first introduced to options, they often think they can buy a call option that gives them an advantageous price and then immediately exercise the call for a free profit. They overlook the fact that the price of the option will more than reflect that benefit. Why would someone pay $4.90 for $4.31 worth of immediate benefit? Because there is time remaining on the option. It is certainly possible that the option will, at some point in time, have more than $4.31 worth of benefit, and traders are willing to pay for that time.

The $4.90 price is also called the premium. The premium really represents the price per share. Since each contract controls 100 shares of stock, the total cost of this option will be $4.90 * 100 = $490 plus commission to buy one contract. So if you spend $490, you can control 100 shares of eBay through the expiration date of the contract. That’s certainly a lot less than the $3,711 it would cost to buy 100 shares of stock. If you buy two contracts, you will control 200 shares and that will cost $980 plus commissions, etc. Remember, we said that all options control 100 shares when they are first listed but it is possible for them to control more shares, which is usually due to a stock split. If that happens, it is possible for the contract size to change, which we will expand on more in Chapter Four. The main point to understand is that you always multiply the option premium by the number of shares that the contract controls in order to find the total price of the option. In most cases, you will multiply by 100.

Bid and Ask Prices
Let’s take a brief detour here to learn more about what the bid and ask represent since they can be confusing to new traders. Notice that the $32.50 call shows a bid price of $4.70 and an ask price of $4.90. You have to remember that the options market, just like the stock market, is a live auction. There are traders continuously placing bids to buy and offers to sell. The bid price is the highest price that someone is willing to pay at that moment. The asking price is the lowest price at which someone will sell at that moment. If these terms are confusing, think of the terms you use when buying or selling a home. If you wish to buy a home, you submit a bid. Buyers place bids. If you were selling your home, you’d say I am “asking” such-and-such a price for it. Sellers create asking prices. Sometimes you will hear the word “offer” instead of “ask” but they mean the same thing. If the bid represents the highest price someone is willing to pay that means you can receive that price if you are selling your option. You are selling to a buyer and the trade can get executed. Notice that you cannot sell at the $4.90 asking price because that is a seller too and you cannot execute a trade by matching a seller with a seller.

Likewise, if you are buying this option, you should refer to the asking price to see how much it will cost you. Since the asking price shows the lowest price that someone will sell, we know you can buy the option for that price. In this case, you are buying from a seller and the trade can get executed. This is important to remember since the price you pay or receive depends on the bid and ask. This trade may appear to be a good deal if you can sell for $4.90 but you will be disappointed if you find that you only receive $4.70. You need to be aware of which price applies to your intended action. In summary, if you are selling then you should reference the bid price. If you are buying, you should look at the asking price. This is especially critical for options traders since the volume on options is not as high as it is for the stock and, consequently, options will have larger spreads between the bid and ask. For example, in the upper right corner of Table 1-1, you can see that the stock (eBay) is bidding $37.10 and asking $37.11, which represents a one-cent spread between the buyers and sellers. However, the $32.50 call option is bidding $4.70 and asking $4.90, which is a 20-cent spread. The bigger that spread, the more critical it is to understand what these numbers mean, otherwise you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when trading. We’ll learn more about the bid and ask in Chapter Four when we examine the Limit Order Display Rule and how you can use it to your advantage to lessen the effect of the spread.

The “bid” price represents the highest price that a BUYER is willing to pay. It is consequently the price at which you can sell the option.

The “ask” price represents the lowest price that a SELLER is willing to receive. It is consequently the price at which you can buy the option.

To be continued….

Oct

14

Options 101 Part 7

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Options Are Standardized Contracts
The reason that options are inflexible as to the number of shares is because options are standardized contracts. A standardized contract means there is a uniform process that determines the terms, which are designed to meet the needs of most traders and investors. By using standardized contracts, we lose some flexibility in terms (such as the number of shares, strike prices, and expiration dates) but increase the ease, speed, and security in which we can create the contracts.

In fact, if the exchanges find there is not sufficient demand for options on a stock, they will not even list those options. Most of the well-known companies have options available. If a stock has listed options, it is an optionable stock. Microsoft and Intel, for example, are optionable. There are currently more than 2,300 optionable stocks, so the list is quite large.

Another limitation of standardized contracts is the fixed strike price increments. If the stock price is below $50, you will find options available in $2.50 increments. If the stock price is between $50 and $200, options will be in $5 increments. And if the stock price is over $200, you will find option strikes in $10 increments. Notice that the strike price increments have nothing to do with the current price of the stock. The increments are based on the stock’s price at the time the options start trading. If a stock’s price has been greatly fluctuating, you might find different increments for different months. For instance, you may find $2.50 increments for the first two expiration months and $5 increments in later expiration months. This just tells you that the stock’s price was above $25 when the later months started trading.

By having standardized strikes, we can quickly bring new contracts to market that meet the needs of the vast majority of people. Imagine how overwhelming the task would be if the exchanges tried to meet everybody’s needs by creating strike prices at every possible price such as $30, $30.01, $30.02, etc. and then matched those with every possible expiration date such as June 1, June 2, June 3, etc. It would be a near impossibility. To solve these problems, the exchanges created standardized contracts so that we can have some flexibility while still keeping the list manageable.

What if you really want a customized contract? Is it possible to get one? Technically, there is nothing illegal about two people having a contract drawn up by an attorney that specifies the terms on which they agree to buy and sell stock. You could therefore have an attorney write a contract for you and another trader, thus creating your own call or put option. A contract drawn in this manner is completely flexible — but it is also very time consuming and costly. In addition, even though you may have a legally binding contract, it is possible that the seller decides to not fulfill his obligation if the buyer wishes to exercise his option. If that happens, now you’ve got your hands tied up in court trying to get the seller to conform to the terms of the contract. In other words, customized contracts are subject to performance risk. That is, will the seller perform his part of the agreement if the buyer decides to exercise?

Standardized options solve the performance risk problem too since the OCC acts as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer. If you exercise an option, the OCC uses a random process to decide who will be assigned. When you enter an options contract, you do not know who is on the other side of the trade. Nobody knows. It is strictly the person who ends up with the random assignment. Standardization increases confidence and influences the progress toward a smoothly running, liquid market.

Besides having an attorney draw up a contract, there is another way to get flexible contracts. You can buy FLEX contracts through the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) that are totally customizable, but they also require an extremely large contract size – usually more than one million dollars. Because FLEX options are traded through the OCC they are not exposed to performance risk despite their large contract sizes. Because of the size requirements though, FLEX options are mostly used by institutions such as banks, mutual funds, and pension funds. The standardized market is the solution for the rest of us.

Key Concepts

1. Options are derivative assets. Their prices are derived from the price of the underlying stock.
2. Your “lock in” price is called the “strike price” or the “exercise price.”
3. If you decide to use your option, you must submit exercise instructions.
4. You are not ever required to buy or sell stock if you buy options.
5. Your last trading day for options is the third Friday of the expiration month.
6. Options trade in units called “contracts.”
7. The exercise price multiplied by the strike price equals the total contract value, or exercise value.
8. Options are standardized. You can only get them in a limited number of “flavors.”

Understanding a Real Call Option
Now that you know how call and put options work, let’s take a look at some real call and put options. Let’s pull up some quotes and see if we can make some sense of what we’re looking at.

You can obtain option quotes for any optionable stock by going to www.cboe.com. That’s the homepage for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), which is one of the largest option exchanges in the world. Bear in mind that the options market is open from 9:30am to 4:02pm ET (it is open until 4:15pm ET for index options). If you are pulling up quotes after 4:02pm, you’re looking at closing prices rather than live quotes. Also, most options go through what is called an opening rotation every morning. This is simply an open outcry system that establishes option prices based on the current stock price openings. For this reason, you may not see live option quotes until 9:35 or 9:40 even though the options market is technically open at 9:30. As electronic trading increases, the opening rotation times will diminish and eventually disappear.

If you click on “Quotes” and then “Delayed Quotes” you will find a box where you can type your stock ticker symbol. If you are looking for options on eBay, for example, just type the ticker symbol “EBAY” and hit enter. At this time, the shortest-term options on eBay were July ’05 (26 days until expiration) and the longest term was January ’08 (943 days to expiration). The lowest strike is $22.50 and the highest is $80. So even though option contracts are standardized, there are many to choose from. Table 1-1 shows some of the shorter-term options available at the time of this writing:

Oct

13

Options 101 Part 6

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Physical versus Cash Delivery
If you exercise an equity option, you will either buy or sell the actual (physical) shares of the underlying stock. This is called physical delivery or physical settlement.

On the other hand, most index options, such as SPX (S&P 500), are cash settlement rather than physical delivery. In other words, if the long position exercises an index option, he receives the cash value of the option rather than taking actual delivery of all the stocks in that index. Just realize that not all options settle in physical delivery. As you continue to learn more about options you will hear the terms “physical settlement” and “cash settlement,” and it’s important you understand what these terms mean.

Exercise versus Assign
We said earlier that it is the long positions who get to exercise their options. What do short positions get to do? Nothing. Remember, short positions have no rights. The short position may get a phone call from his broker stating that he has just purchased or sold shares of stock due to a call option he sold. If you are required to buy or sell shares of stock due to a short option, it is called an assignment.

If you get assigned on an option, your broker will notify you the next business day to inform you of the assignment. He may say something like, “I’m calling to inform you that you’ve been assigned on your short call options and have sold 100 shares for the strike price of $50.”

The words exercise and assign should only be associated with long and short positions respectively. However, in the real world, if you are assigned on a short option, brokers may say things like “you got exercised” on an option even though it is technically incorrect. Long positions exercise. Short positions get assigned. In truth, it doesn’t really matter in practice if an incorrect phrase is used such as “you got exercised” rather than “you got assigned” as long as you understand the message. However, if these terms are used, you do need to understand the difference. Most books and literature on options carefully choose between the words “exercise” and “assign” and you need to understand the actions they are referring to.

Let’s work through some examples to be sure you understand. If you are long a call option, you have the right to exercise it and buy shares of stock. If you are short the call, you might get assigned and be required to sell shares. If you are long a put option, you have the right to exercise it and sell shares. If you are short the put option, you could get assigned and be required to buy shares. To continue further, if a long call holder uses his call to buy shares of stock he would say, “I exercised my call.” The short call holder would say, “I got assigned on my call.”

It is important to understand that once you submit exercise instructions to your broker and the shares and cash have exchanged hands it is an irrevocable transaction. Make sure you want to exercise before submitting instructions. Also, many firms have cutoff times after which exercise instructions cannot be changed (even though the shares or cash may not have yet been exchanged). Check with your broker as to what these cutoff times are before you submit exercise instructions.

Option Basics
You now have enough information to understand some hypothetical call and put options. These two assets – calls and puts – are the building blocks for every option strategy you will ever encounter. This is why it is crucial that you understand the rights and obligations that they convey. Most confusion with option strategies stem from not understanding (or simply forgetting) who has the right and who has the obligation.

Because options are binding contracts, they are traded in units called contracts. Stocks are traded in shares; options are traded in contracts. An option contract, just like a pizza coupon, will always be designated by the underlying stock it controls along with the expiration month and strike price. For example, let’s assume we are looking at a Microsoft June $30 call.

We’ll soon show you where you can look up actual option quotes and symbols for options, but for now let’s make sure you understand what this option represents.

Using your understanding of pizza coupons, what do you suppose the buyer of one contract is allowed to do? The buyer of this call has the right (not the obligation) to purchase 100 shares of the underlying stock – Microsoft – for $30 per share at any time through the third Friday in June. (Remember that the expiration date for stock options is always the third Friday of the expiration month.) The buyer of this coupon is “locked in” to the $30 price no matter how high Microsoft shares may be trading. Obviously, the higher Microsoft trades, the more valuable the call option becomes.

To understand this concept a little better, assume that you have found a piece of property valued at $300,000 and wish to buy it. But you’d first like spend a few days researching the area before buying it. If you do, you’ll run the risk of losing it to another investor. What can you do? You can go to the broker and put down some money to hold the property for you. For instance, you may pay $500 for several days worth of time. If you decide against the property, you lose the $500. These arrangements are done all the time in real estate and are called “options” on real estate. Assume that you pay the $500 for five days worth of time and are now locked into a binding agreement to buy the property for $300,000 over the next five days. Now suppose that some news is spreading that the area is about to be commercially zoned and some big businesses are interested in it. Property in the area goes up dramatically overnight. But even if you decide to not buy the property, don’t you think that somebody else would love to be in possession of the contract that you have giving them the right to pay $300,000? Of course they would. And these people will start offering you large amounts of money to persuade you to sign over the contract to them. You could just sell it to them and they could sell it to others. This is exactly what most traders do with the equity options market.

Now let’s go back to our option example. How much will it cost you to use (exercise) your call option? Because you are buying 100 shares of stock, the strike price must be multiplied by 100 as well. If you were to exercise this Microsoft $30 call option, you would pay the $30 strike * 100 shares = $3,000 cash. This is called the total contract value or the exercise value. In exchange for that payment, you’d receive 100 shares of Microsoft. It works just like a pizza coupon. You pay a fixed amount of cash and receive some type of underlying asset. Most brokers charge a standard stock commission to exercise your options. If you exercised this call, your broker would probably charge you his regular commission for buying 100 shares of stock. After all, the long call option is simply a means for buying regular shares of stock.

To restate a previous point, it is important to understand that if you buy call or put options, you are not required to ever buy or sell shares of stock. Further, you do not ever need the shares of stock in your account at any time. Most option contracts are opened and closed in the open market without a single share of stock changing hands. Even though you’re allowed to purchase or sell stock with your options, most traders never do. Instead, they just buy and sell the contracts in the open market amongst other traders.

Now let’s assume we are looking at a Microsoft June $30 put option. Think about your auto insurance policy and try to figure out what this option allows you to do. If you buy this put option, you have the right to sell 100 shares of Microsoft for $30 per share at any time through the third Friday in June. Because you are locking in a selling price, put options become more valuable as the stock price falls. If you exercise this put option, you are selling 100 shares of Microsoft, which means you will have 100 shares of Microsoft taken from your account and delivered to someone else. In exchange, you will receive the $30 strike * 100 shares = $3,000 cash. If you exercise this put, your broker will probably charge the regular stock commission for selling 100 shares of stock since the put option is simply a means for selling regular shares of stock.

What if you only wish to buy or sell fewer than 100 shares of stock? You can do that but in a roundabout way. Using the call example above, let’s say you only wanted to buy 60 shares of Microsoft for $30. You would still exercise the call option for 100 shares and then immediately submit an order to sell 40 shares (which would carry a separate commission). Each contract is good for 100 shares and you must buy and sell in that amount. But there’s nothing stopping you from immediately entering another order to customize those amounts to suit your needs. Likewise, if you exercised a put option but only wanted to sell 60 shares of stock, you would have to exercise the put and sell 100 shares and then immediately place an order to buy 40 shares.

To be continued…

Oct

11

Options 101 Part 5

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A serialization of the book by Bill Johnson

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)
Okay, this may sound good in theory but how do you know that the short positions will actually follow through with their obligations if you decide to use your call or put option?

The answer is that there is a clearing firm called the Options Clearing Corporation, or OCC. The OCC is a highly capitalized and regulated agency that acts as a middleman to all transactions. When you buy an option, you are really buying it from the OCC. And when you sell an option, you are really selling it to the OCC. The OCC acts as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer. It is the OCC that guarantees the performance of all contracts. By performance we obviously do not mean profits but rather that if you decide to use your option, you are assured the transaction will go through. In fact, ever since the inception of the options market and the OCC in 1973, not a single case of unfair or partial performance has ever occurred. If you’d like to read more about the OCC, you can find its website at www.OptionsClearing.com.

Before reading further, make sure you understand the following key concepts:

Key Concepts
1) Long call options give the buyer the right to BUY stock at a fixed price over a given time period.
2) Short call options create the obligation to SELL stock at a fixed price over a given time period.
3) Long put options give the buyer the right to SELL stock at a fixed price over a given time period.
4) Short put options create the obligation to BUY stock at a fixed price over a given time period.
5) Option sellers (calls or puts) keep the cash regardless of what happens in the future.
6) The OCC acts as a middleman to all transactions.

More Option Terminology
We’re almost ready to talk about real call and put options but we first must go over some other market terminology that you’ll need to understand. We just covered the terms “long” and “short,” which are critical for understanding who has the right and who has the obligation with any particular strategy. But we have a lot more ground to cover before learning about strategies. Next, we must venture into the remaining terms we will be using throughout the book.

Underlying Asset
In the pizza coupon example, we would say the underlying asset is a pizza. Notice that the coupon limited us to how many pizzas we can purchase; we cannot purchase all we want. In addition, the coupon is not good for any brand of pizza but only the one advertised on the coupon. Call and put options work in similar ways. The underlying asset for a call or put option is generally 100 shares of stock. There are exceptions (which we’ll explore later in Chapter Four) to this rule such as certain stock splits or mergers. But when options are first listed, they always represent 100 shares of the underlying stock.

The “brand” of shares we can buy is determined by the call or put option. For example, if we have a Microsoft call option, we have the right to buy 100 shares of Microsoft. In this case, Microsoft would be the underlying stock. The price of an option is tied to or derived by the underlying stock. Because of this, options are one of many types of derivative instruments. A derivative instrument is one whose value is derived by the value of another asset.

Strike Price (Exercise Price)
In our example, the pizza coupon states a specific purchase price of $10.00. No matter what the price of pizzas may be when you get to the store, you are locked in to the price of $10.00. If this were an option, we’d call this “lock in” price the strike price, which is really a slang term that comes from the fact that we have “struck” a deal at that price.

Another name for the strike price is the exercise price. The reason for this is that if you choose to use your option, you must submit exercise instructions to your broker, which is handled with a simple phone call. With a pizza coupon you just “hand in” the coupon, but in the world of options you must “exercise” the option through your broker.

If you exercise a call option, you must pay the strike price (since you’re buying stock) and that’s why the strike price is also called the exercise price. It’s the price you will pay for exercising the option to purchase shares of stock. If you are short a call option, you’ll receive the strike price (because you’re selling stock). The exercise price is the price that will be paid by the long position and received by the short position.

The opposite is true for put options. If you exercise a put, you’ll receive the strike price since you are selling shares of stock. The short put will pay the strike price since he is the required to buy the stock. The exercise price is the price that will be received by the long put and paid by the short put.

We’ll talk more about exercising options later but, for now, just understand that the strike price and exercise price are two terms meaning the same thing. They both represent the fixed purchase or selling price.

Expiration Date
Notice that the pizza coupon also has an expiration date. You can use this coupon at any time up to and including the expiration date. Equity options (options on stock) always expire on the third Friday of the expiration month. Technically speaking, equity options expire on Saturday following the third Friday but that is really for clearing purposes. That extra day (Saturday) gives the OCC (Options Clearing Corporation) time to match buyers and sellers while the contract is still legally “alive.” From a practical standpoint though, the last day to close or to exercise your option is the third Friday of the expiration month. After that, it’s no longer valid. So just because you may read that options expire on Saturday, don’t think you can get up Saturday morning and call your broker with exercise instructions – it’s too late. The third Friday of the expiration month is your last day (not the only day) to close or exercise the option. (If Friday is a holiday, the last trading day will usually be the preceding Thursday.)

Although a pizza storeowner may allow you to turn in an expired coupon, there’s no such thing with the options market. The second that option expires, it’s gone for good. There are some index options, such as options covering the S&P 500 Index that expire on the third Thursday of the expiration month. However, we will only be discussing equity options in this book, so whenever we talk about the expiration date, we will always be referring to the third Friday of the expiration month unless otherwise stated.

American Versus European Styles
As stated before, most option contracts are simply bought and sold in the open market without a single share of stock ever changing hands. However, if you wish to physically trade shares of stock, you must exercise your option. When can you exercise your option? The answer to that depends on the style of option. There are two styles of options: American and European. The style of option has nothing to do with its origin as implied by the names “American” and “European.” Instead, the style simply tells us when the option may be exercised. American-style options can be exercised at any time through the third Friday of the expiration month. European-style options, on the other hand, can only be exercised on the third Friday of the expiration month. You generally do not get to select which style of option you want. All equity options (that is, options on stock) are American style and can be exercised at any time. Most index options are European style. There are a few indices that offer both such as the OEX (S&P 100 Index), which is American style and the XEO, which is the European version of the same index.

It may sound like the American-style option has a big advantage over a European style. After all, for example, if a stock is really flying high it would be nice to exercise a call option and buy the shares at a cheaper price and immediately sell the shares to capture a profit. We’re going to find out in Chapter Four that exercising a call option early for this reason is a big mistake. You will find out that most of the time you are better off just selling the call option in the open market rather than exercising it.

This book is written from the perspective of equity options, so we will assume that all options discussed are American style unless otherwise stated. We only differentiate the terms “American” and “European” so you will know what it they mean if you hear them later while continuing to learn about options. The bottom line is that all equity options are American style, which means the long position can exercise them at any time during the life of the option even though it is rarely optimal to do so.

The last day to buy, sell, or exercise your options is the third Friday of the expiration month.

To be continued….

Oct

9

Options 101 Part 4

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Continued from yesterday…..

Short selling works because traders are obligated to return a fixed number of shares and not a fixed dollar amount. In our example, you shorted 100 shares with a value of $7,000. Your obligation is to return 100 shares of IBM and not $7,000 worth of IBM. If you can purchase the shares for less money than you received, you will make a profit.

This is not meant to be a course in shorting stocks but rather a way to understand what the term “short” really means when applied to the stock or options market. Shorting means you receive cash from selling an asset you don’t own and then incur some type of obligation. In the case of shorting stocks, your obligation is that you must buy back the shares at some time.

If you short an option, you have sold something you don’t own. You get cash up front and then incur some type of obligation depending on whether you sold a call or put. If you short a call, you get cash up front and have the obligation to sell shares of stock. If you short a put, you get cash up front and have the obligation to buy shares of stock. The cash is credited to your account immediately and is yours to keep regardless of what happens to the option. That is your compensation for accepting an obligation, much like the premiums you pay to an insurance company.

When you sell (short) an option you will receive cash, which is yours to keep regardless of what happens in the future.

The following table may help you to visualize the rights-versus-obligations relationships:

LONG SHORT
Call Right to buy stock Obligation to sell stock
Put Right to sell stock Obligation to buy stock

Notice that the long and short positions are taking opposite sides of the transaction. For instance, the long call (call buyer) must be matched with a short call (call seller). The long call has a right while the short call has an obligation. Rights and obligations are opposites. In addition, the long call gets to buy while the short call is required to sell. Buying and selling are also opposites.

For put options, the long put (put buyer) must be matched with a short put (put seller). As with call options, it is the long position that has the right while the short position has the obligation (opposites). The long put, however, has the right to sell while the short put is required to buy (opposites).

This arrangement is required to make the options market work. Both parties (the buyer and seller) cannot have rights. They can neither both buy nor both sell. One side has the right to buy (or the right to sell), while the opposite side has the obligation to complete the transaction.

This arrangement is often a source of confusion for new traders. They wonder how the option market can work if everybody has a right to buy or sell. The answer is that it is only the long position that has the rights. The short position has an obligation. It is important to understand this relationship when going through this book, especially when you get to strategies.

Long options have rights. Short options have obligations.

Getting Out of a Contract
We just learned that you can get into an option contract by either buying or selling a call or put. But once you’re in the contract, is there a way to get out of it at a later time? The answer is yes. All you have to do is enter a closing transaction (also called a reversing trade). In other words, you can always “escape” from your rights or obligations by simply doing the reverse set of actions that got you into the contract in the first place.

For example, if you are short an option and decide at a later time you don’t want the corresponding obligation, you can get out of it by simply buying the options back. This is much like you do with shares of stock if you are short. However, just because you can get out of the contract doesn’t mean that you can avoid any losses that may have accrued. The price you pay to get out of the contract may be higher and, in some cases, much higher than the price you originally received from selling it – just as when shorting shares of stock. But the point is that you can get out of a short option contract by simply buying it back.

If the idea of buying back a contract sounds confusing, think of the following analogy. You probably have a cell phone are locked into some type of agreement such as a one-year contract. Cell companies do this to prevent people from continually shopping around and jumping to the hot promotion of the month. However, your cell provider will also have some type of “buy back” clause in the contract. That is, if you wish to get out of the agreement, you must pay a fixed amount of money, perhaps $200, and you can escape your remaining obligations. If you pay this fee, the company cannot take you to court later and say that you didn’t fulfill your obligations. The reason is that you bought the contract back – it no longer exists between you and the company. That’s the fee they specified to end all obligations.

This is mathematically the same thing that happens when you buy back a contract in the options market. Although it is not a fee to end the contract, what you’re really doing is going long and short the same contract, thereby eliminating all profits or losses beyond that point. If you’re long the contract and you’re short the same contract, then you’ve effectively ended all obligations.

Likewise, you can get out of long call option by simply doing the reverse; that is, selling the same contract that you own. Because of this possibility, most option traders simply trade the contracts back and forth in the open market rather than using them to buy or sell shares of stock. As we will later see, trading option contracts is a big advantage because they cost a fraction of the stock price.

You can always get out of an option contract at any time by simply entering a reversing trade.

Let’s make sure you understand the concepts of long and short calls and puts by using our pizza coupon and car insurance analogies. If you are in possession of a pizza coupon, you are “long” the coupon and have the right, not the obligation, to buy one pizza for a fixed price over a given time period. In the real world, you do not buy pizza coupons; they are handed out for free. But that doesn’t put an end to our analogy because the basic idea is still there. Since you are holding the coupon, that means you posess the right to use it, and that’s the role of the long position. The pizza storeowner would be “short” the coupon and has an obligation to sell you the pizza if you choose to use your coupon. You have the right; he has the obligation.

If you buy an auto insurance policy you are “long” the policy and have the right to “put” your car back to the insurance company. The insurance company is “short” the policy; it receives money in exchange for the potential obligation of having to buy your car from you. Whether you make a claim or not, the insurance company keeps your premium just as you will when selling options. That’s its compensation for accepting the risk.

In the real world of car insurance, you cannot just force the insurance company to buy the car back for any reason. There are certain conditions that must be met; for example, the car must be damaged or stolen. You can’t just obligate the insurance company because you don’t like it anymore or because it has depreciated. However, in the real world of put options, you can sell your stock at a fixed price for any reason while your put option is still in effect. There are no restrictions. Of course, you wouldn’t want to do that if the fixed price you’d receive is less than the current market price. The main point is that if you are long a put option, you call the shots. You have the rights. You have the “option” to decide. You have the right to sell your stock for that fixed price at any time during the time your “policy” is in effect.

To be continued…….

Oct

8

Options 101 Part 3

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A serialization of the book by Bill Johns

Option Sellers
We know that buyers of options have rights to either buy or sell. What about sellers? Option sellers have obligations. If you sell an option, it is also called “writing” the option, which is much like insurance companies “write” policies. Buyers have rights; sellers have obligations. Sellers have an obligation to fulfill the contract if the buyer decides to use their option. It may sound like option buyers get the better end of the deal since they are the ones who decide whether or not to use the contract. It’s true that option buyers have a valuable right to choose whether to buy or sell, but they must pay for that right. So while sellers incur obligations, they do get paid for their responsibility since nobody will accept an obligation for nothing.

There are some traders who will tell you to always be the buyer of options while others will tell you that you’re better off being the seller. Hopefully, you already see that neither statement can always be true, because there are pros and cons to either side. Buyers get the benefit of “calling the shots,” but the drawback is they must pay for that benefit. Sellers get the benefit of collecting cash but they have a drawback in that there are potential obligations to meet. What are the sellers’ obligations? That’s easy to figure out once you understand the rights of the buyers. The seller’s obligation is exactly the opposite of the buyer’s rights. For example, if a call buyer has the right to buy stock, the call seller must have the obligation to sell stock. If a put buyer has the right to sell stock, the put seller has the obligation to buy stock.

These obligations are really potential obligations since the seller does not know whether or not the buyer will use his option. For example, if you sell a call option you may have to sell shares of stock, which is different from saying that you will definitely sell shares of stock. A call seller will definitely have to sell shares of stock if the call buyer decides to use his call option and buy shares of stock. If you sell a put option, you may have to buy shares of stock. A put seller definitely must buy shares of stock if the put buyer decides to use his put option and sell shares of stock.

It’s important to understand that options only convey rights to buy or sell shares of stock. For example, if you own a call option, you do not get any of the benefits that come with stock ownership such as dividends or voting privileges (although you could acquire shares of stock by using your call option and thereby get dividends or voting privileges). But by themselves, options convey nothing other than an agreement between two people to buy and sell shares of stock.

Now that you have a basic understanding of call and put options, let’s add some market terminology to our groundwork.

The Long and Short of It
The financial markets are filled with colorful terminology. And one of the biggest obstacles that new option investors face is interpreting the jargon. Two common terms used by brokers and traders are “long” and “short,” and it’s important to understand these terms as applied to options. If you buy any financial asset, you are “long” the position. For example, if you buy 100 shares of IBM, using market terminology, you are long 100 shares of IBM. The term “long” just means you own it. Likewise, if you buy a call option, you are “long” the call option.

If “long” means you bought it then “short” means you sold it, right? Not quite. Some people will tell you that “short” just means you sold an asset, but that is an incomplete definition. For example, if you are long 100 shares of IBM and then sell 100 shares you are not short shares of IBM even though you sold 100 shares. That’s because you bought the shares first and then sold them, which means you have no shares left.

However, let’s say you bought 100 shares of IBM and then, by accident, entered an order online to sell 150 shares of IBM. The computer will execute the order since it has no way of knowing how many shares you actually own. (Maybe you have shares in a safe deposit box or with another broker.) But if you really owned only 100 shares then you would be “short” 50 shares of IBM. In other words, you sold 50 shares you don’t own. And that’s exactly what it means to be short shares of stock. It means you sold shares you do not own. However, when we short shares in the financial market, it’s not meant to be by mistake – it is done intentionally. How can you intentionally sell shares you don’t own? You must borrow them. In order to further understand what it means to be “short” and how that applies to options, let’s take a quick detour to understand the basics of short selling.

Traders use short sales as a way to profit from falling stock prices. Assume IBM is trading for $70 and you think its price is going to fall. If you are correct, you could profit from this outlook by entering an order to “short” or “sell short” shares of IBM. Let’s assume you decide to short 100 shares. Your broker will find 100 shares from another client and let you borrow these shares. Although this sounds like a lengthy, complicated transaction it takes only seconds to execute.
In terms of the mechanics, shorting shares is similar to making a purchase on your credit card. Your bank finds loanable funds from somebody else’s account to let you borrow and you then have an obligation to return those funds at some time. How complicated is it to short shares of stock? About as complicated as it is to swipe a credit card at a cash register.

Let’s assume you short 100 shares of IBM at $70. Once the order is executed, you have $7,000 cash sitting in your account (sold 100 shares at $70 per share) and your account shows that you are short 100 shares of IBM – you sold shares that you do not own. Do you get to just take the $7,000 cash, close the account and walk away? No, once you short the shares of stock, you incur an obligation to replace those 100 shares at some time in the future. In other words, you must buy 100 shares at some time and return them to the broker. Obviously, your goal is to purchase those 100 shares at a cheaper price.

Let’s assume that the price of IBM later drops by $5 to $65 and you decide to buy back the shares. You could enter an order to buy 100 shares and spend $6,500 of the $7,000 cash you initially received from selling shares. Once you buy the 100 shares, your obligation to return the IBM shares is then satisfied and you are left with an extra $500 in your account. In other words, you profited from a falling stock price. This profit can also be found by multiplying the number of short shares by the drop in price, or 100 shares * $5 fall in price = $500 profit. If you have shorted 300 shares of IBM, you would have ended up with a 300 shares * $5 fall in price = $1,500 profit. Of course, if the price of IBM had risen at the time you purchased them back, then you’d be left with a loss since you must spend more than you received to return the shares. If short selling still sounds confusing, just realize that the short seller generates profits in the same way as a stock buyer but by entering transactions in the opposite order. For instance, when you buy stock, you want to buy low and sell high. When you short stock, you want to sell high and buy low. If you short a stock and then buy it back at a higher price, you’re left with a loss because you really bought high and sold low.

To be continued…..

Oct

6

Options 101 Part 2

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Risk for Sale
Believe it or not, the options market was designed to allow investors to either accept or transfer risk. The options market is technically a market for dealing in risk. You’re probably wondering who would ever want to willingly accept risk. Odd as that may sound, we do it all the time
When you buy an auto insurance policy, you are paying a fee to the insurance company. In exchange for that fee, they are accepting the risks associated with you having an accident. The insurance company is accepting risk in exchange for cash. You are paying cash in exchange for transferring the unwanted risk. The agreement between you and the insurance company creates an intangible market – the market for risk. So to answer the question of who would ever willingly accept risk, you must remember that someone is getting paid to accept that risk. If the fee is high enough, you can be sure that someone will step in and accept the risk.

This highlights why the options market is perceived to be so risky. After all, it is a market whose only product for sale is risk. As stated before, the riskiness of options depends on how you’re using them, but now we can state it a little more clearly: It depends on whether you are transferring or accepting risk. None of us would consider the car insurance market to be risky since we use it to transfer risk away from us. However, the insurance companies see it quite differently. It depends on which side of the agreement you’re on.

The options market works within a simple principle: while many investors wish to reduce risk, there are some people who actively look for risk. The latter are called speculators. Speculators are willing to gamble for big profits; they aren’t afraid to take a long shot if there is potential for big money. People who patronize casinos and play state lotteries are acting as speculators. If there are speculators out there who are willing to accept risk in the stock market, wouldn’t it make sense to be able to transfer it to them? Of course, in order to make it worth their while, we will have to pay them some money to accept that risk. So if there is a risk you wish to avoid, you can do so by purchasing an option. Conversely, if there is a risk you’re willing to assume, you can get paid through the options market to accept the risk for someone else. So while one investor may be using options to avoid risk, it is possible that the person on the other side of the trade is a speculator willing to accept that risk. Investors who do not understand this interplay between investors and speculators hear both sides of the story and that’s where the confusion comes in.
Unfortunately, this confusion often makes many investors avoid options altogether. This is a big mistake in today’s marketplace. As our economies expand, our financial needs increase; that’s why you see so many new financial products coming to market. Each product is different – sometimes only in small ways – but each provides the solution to a specific problem. Options allow you to selectively pick and choose the risks you want to take or avoid. And that is something that cannot be done with any other financial asset. Because you can select the individual risks to take, options can be used in very conservative as well as very speculative ways. It’s all up to you. If you’d like to make the stock market a less risky place, options are your answer. If you’d like to increase the risk and speculate more efficiently for bigger profits, options are your answer too.

Let’s get started and find out how you can improve your investments from this mysterious market.

Chapter One
Introduction to Options
What is an Option?
Options are simply legally binding agreements – contracts – between two people to buy and sell stock at a fixed price over a given time period.

There are two types of options: calls and puts. A call option gives the owner the right, not the obligation, to buy stock at a specific price over a given period of time. In other words, it gives you the right to “call” the stock away from another person. A put option, on the other hand, gives the owner the right, not the obligation, to sell stock at a specific price through an expiration date. It gives you the right to “put” the stock back to the owner. Option buyers have rights to either buy stock (with a call) or sell stock (with a put). That means it is the owner’s choice, or option, to do so, and that’s where these assets get their name.

Now you’re probably thinking that this is sounding complicated already. But options are used under different names every day by different industries. For instance, we are willing to bet that you’ve used something very similar to a call option before. Take a look at the following coupon:

The way pizza coupons and call options work are very similar. This pizza coupon gives the holder the right to buy one pizza. It is not an obligation. If you are in possession of this coupon, you are not required to use it. It only represents a right to buy. There is also a fixed price of $10.00. No matter how high the price of pizzas may rise, your purchase price is locked at $10.00 if you should decide to use it. Last, there is a fixed time period, or expiration date, for which the coupon is good.

Now let’s go back to our definition of a call option and recall that it represents:

1) Right to buy stock
2) At a fixed price
3) Over a given time period

You can see the similarities between a call option and pizza coupon. If you understand how a simple pizza coupon works, you can understand how call options work.

Now let’s take a look at a put option from a different perspective. Put options can be thought of as an insurance policy. Think about your car insurance, for example. When you buy an auto insurance policy, you really hope that you will not wreck your car and that the policy will “expire worthless.” However, if you should total your car, you can always “put” it back to the insurance company in exchange for cash. Put options allow the holder to “put” stock ba

Oct

5

Cash Cow – High-Frequency Trading

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Cash Cow – High-Frequency Trading
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