Glossary

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Option Pricing Model

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See Also:

Option: Option is a contract that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specified quantity of a commodity or other instrument at a specific price within a specified period of time, regardless of the market price of that instrument. There are two types of options: Put Options and Call Options.

Call: There are three meaning of the "Call" term. It could be:
1) An option contract giving the buyer the right but not the obligation to purchase a commodity or other asset or to enter into a long futures position;
2) a period at the opening and the close of some futures markets in which the price for each futures contract is established by auction;
3) the requirement that a financial instrument be returned to the issuer prior to maturity, with principal and accrued interest paid off upon return.

Expiration Date: Expiration Date is the last date on which an option may be exercised. This is the date on which an option contract automatically expires; the last day an option may be exercised. It is not uncommon for an option to expire on a specified date during the month prior to the delivery month for the underlying futures contracts.

On an option exchange, every 3rd Friday of the month is expiration day for monthly options. A number of option series expire on this day.

At expiration all call options with a higher strike price than the expiration price of the underlying stock/currency or index will be worthless. All series with a lower strike price will have value and will be exercised. In the case of put options the opposite applies.

For all holders of call options it will be optimal when the value of the positions at expiration is as low as possible.

Options expiration date is the most important factor in calculating an options price:

• The Black Scholes formula is used to price a European style option by factoring in current stock price, strike price, time until expiration, level of interest rates, any dividends and the volatility of the underlying security. The binomial model is used to price American style options.
• The binomial model calculates a tree of stock prices for given time intervals within the expiration period of the option using the volatility of a stock and time to expiration to find out how much a stock will increase or decrease in value. This calculation gives all possible prices of a stock. Then, the option prices of the stock are calculated backwards, from expiration to present. These prices are obtained by using risk neutral valuation. Ultimately, we get one price for the option.

Instrument: Instrument is a tradable asset such as a commodity, security, or derivative, or an index or value that underlies a derivative or could underlie a derivative.

Put: Put is an option contract that gives the holder the right but not the obligation to sell a specified quantity of a particular commodity or other interest at a given price (the "strike price") prior to or on a future date. Call options is another type of options.

Strike Price: Strike Price (Exercise Price) is the price, specified in the option contract, at which the underlying futures contract, security, or commodity will move from seller to buyer. Strike Price is the price at which the buyer of a call (put) option may choose to exercise his right to purchase (sell) the underlying futures contract.

Volatility: Volatility is a statistical measurement of the change in price of a futures contract, security, or other instrument underlying an option over a given time period.

Volatility is one of the most important factors in an option's price. It measures the amount by which an underlying asset is expected to fluctuate in a given period of time. It significantly impacts the price of an option's premium and heavily contributes to an option's time value. In basic terms, volatility can be viewed as the speed of change in the market, although you may prefer to think of it as market confusion. The more confused a market is, the better chance an option has of ending up in-the-money. A stable market moves slowly.

Volatility measures the speed of change in the price of the underlying instrument or the option. The higher the volatility, the more chance an option has of becoming profitable by expiration. That's why volatility is a primary determinant in the valuation of options' premiums. There are options strategies that can be used to take advantage of either scenario.

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