Adjustments may be made to some of the standardized terms of outstanding options upon the occurrence of certain events related to the underlying security.
The determination of whether to adjust outstanding options in response to a particular event, and, if so, what the adjustment should be, is made by OCC, taking into consideration policies established by a committee consisting of representatives of each of the U.S. options markets and a representative of OCC
This is the difference between the current bid price and the current asking, or offering price. For example, if you see a quote that looks like this: 2.05 x 3.10 – what this means is that the bid is 2.05 and the ask is 3.10. Therefore the bid-ask thread is 1.05 i.e the difference between…
This is a measure of a stock’s volatility relative to the S&P 500 Index. High Beta stocks have high volatility. Stocks that have a beta reading of 1.00 or greater tend to move faster or are more volatile than the S&P index. And stocks that have a beta less than 1.00 tend to move slower…
When an option seller or writer receives an exercise notice, assignment has occurred. When assigned, writers must deliver the goods (shares or cash). For example, let’s say you sold 1 AAPL 145.00 CALL and the buyer decides to exercise the contract at expiration because AAPL is now trading at 146, you would need to deliver…
The holder of a physical delivery XYZ call option has the right to purchase shares of XYZ Corporation stock at the specified exercise price upon exercise prior to the expiration of the option. The holder of a physical delivery XYZ put option has the right to sell shares of XYZ Corporation at the specified exercise…
This is the process of satisfying put exercise or call assignment. In either case, stock is delivered. In the case of indexes, delivery involves the transfer of cash equal to the settlement value of the index minus the strike price of the options contract. See also: Options Assignment, Automatic Exercise, American Style Option
No. Investors look to the confirmations and statements that they receive from their brokerage firms to confirm their positions as option holders or writers. An option holder looks to the system created by OCC’s rules, rather than to any particular option writer, for performance of the option he owns. Similarly, option writers must perform their…
