Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Option Contract specifications

Every financial option is a contract between the two counterparties with the terms of the option specified in a term sheet. Option contracts may be quite complicated; however, at minimum, they usually contain the following specifications:[3]

  • whether the option holder has the right to buy (a call option) or the right to sell (a put option)
  • the quantity and class of the underlying asset(s) (e.g. 100 shares of XYZ Co. B stock)
  • the strike price, also known as the exercise price, which is the price at which the underlying transaction will occur upon exercise
  • the expiration date, or expiry, which is the last date the option can be exercised
  • the settlement terms, for instance whether the writer must deliver the actual asset on exercise, or may simply tender the equivalent cash amount
  • the terms by which the option is quoted in the market, usually a multiplier such as 100, to convert the quoted price into actual premium amount

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_%28finance%29

No comments: