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The premium amount represents the actual price an investor pays to purchase an option or receives for selling an option. The pricing of options contracts is complex. Although developed in the early 's, this pricing model remains the basic pricing framework for option practitioners.
In subsequent years, several variations from the Black-Scholes Options Pricing Model have been developed to directly address varying assumptions and scenarios.
The major components affecting the price or premium are the current price of the underlying security, the type of option, the strike price compared to the current market price of the underlying security, the amount of time remaining to expiration, the volatility of the underlying security and interest rates. The premium amount is generally the intrinsic value strike price minus current value of the underlying security plus time value. The intrinsic value of a call option is thus the market price of the underlying securities minus the strike price of the option, and the intrinsic value of a put option is the strike price minus the market price.
The time value portion of the premium depends on the volatility of the underlying security. Volatility is a measure of the amount by which an underlying security is expected to fluctuate in a given period of time. Options of stocks that are volatile generally require a higher premium due to the greater inherent risk. Option contracts are a form of derivative instrument.
A derivative instrument or derivative is a financial instrument which derives its value from the value of some other asset or variable. For example, a stock option is a derivative because it derives its value from the value of an underlying stock. Derivatives are known or divided into two 2 types: plain vanilla and exotic.
Plain vanilla derivatives generally provide for simple structures, while exotic derivatives generally provide for more complicated structures that are specifically tailored to an individual need, strategy, or situation. Accordingly, plain vanilla derivatives are typically more common and represent a greater share of the derivatives marketplace as compared to exotics. Derivative instruments are further categorized in various ways. One distinction is between linear and non-linear derivatives. The former have payoff amounts that behave like a line, as shown in FIG.
The latter have payoff diagrams with curvature, either convex or concave, as shown in FIG. In addition, a non-linear derivative may have gaps in the payoff profile. Certain derivatives provide for the purchase or sale of an underlying asset. A typical standardized or exchange-traded option contract in the United States represents the right to purchase or sell shares of an underlying asset. This type of option is typically said to have a multiplier of , i. There is also variation in the method for settling option transactions.
A derivative instrument is physically settled if the underlying asset is to be delivered in exchange for a specified payment. With cash settlement, the underlying asset is not physically delivered. Certain types of derivatives are routinely cash-settled because physical delivery would be inconvenient or impossible. An option on an interest rate must be cash-settled because an interest rate cannot be physically delivered. There are many forms, but the two most basic are: 1 cash-or-nothing and 2 asset-or-nothing. Binary options can be European or American exercise style and can be structured as calls or puts.
A European cash-or-nothing binary pays a fixed amount of cash only if it expires in-the-money. For example, a European cash-or-nothing call makes a fixed payment if the option expires with the underlying asset above the strike price. It pays zero 0 if it expires with the underlying asset equal to or less than the strike price.
The value of the payoff is not affected by the magnitude of the difference between the underlying asset or index and the strike price. Accordingly, binary options are clearly within the category of derivatives with non-linear payoffs. For example, a binary call option at a strike price for the underlying asset of 75 would pay the same amount if, at expiration, the underlying asset price was at 76, 80, 85, 95 or any other price above In contrast, a standardized or exchange-traded call option in the money would pay different amounts based on each of those expiration prices, with the amounts increasing in a direct, linear relationship from the strike price.
OTC derivatives are understood to be specifically tailored to the needs and requirements of the end-user, and therefore, lack the standardization and transparency found on organized exchanges. The majority of derivative products are traded OTC. In such a market, large financial institutions serve as derivatives dealers, customizing products for the needs of particular clients.
Contract terms are negotiated between the parties, and typically each party has only their contra-party to look to for performance of the contract. Binary options have been traded for some time in an OTC environment between institutional traders but not on a national securities exchange. In France, Germany and Austria, binary options have been traded OTC in a one-sided market between investors and an institution. The institution in these cases is the issuer of the contract and establishes, if applicable, the market for the binary option.
OTC binary options have several drawbacks and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that OTC binary options are typically offered by an institution on a non-fungible basis so that a customer can purchase the option only from the institution, and cannot easily resell to a third party because they are not standardized or traded on an exchange. As a result, OTC binary options, as compared to standardized exchange-traded options, lack important attributes of a trading market such as transparency and liquidity.
An example of the organizational structure of an exchange such as those on which some options are currently traded is illustrated in FIG. The specialist post is a specific location on the trading floor of the Exchange designated for the trading of a specific option class. Each option traded at a particular post is managed by an assigned specialist. A specialist is an Exchange member whose function is to maintain a fair and orderly market in a given option class.
This is accomplished by managing the limit order book and making bids and offers for his own account in the absence of opposite market side orders, i. Other options exchanges have similar structures for trading options, whether electronic or on-floor. By law, standardized equity options traded in the United States may only occur on a national securities exchange registered with the SEC. Options traded on national securities exchanges are generally traded based on an underlying equity or index meeting approved listing standards that have an appropriate pricing mechanism.
For example, stock options are traded during the normal hours of operation of U. This organization is equally owned and supported by all U. The OCC is able to recognize, segregate, calculate and disseminate information from the various exchanges, and to facilitate the fungibility described above in large part due to the standardized symbology scheme detailed below.
Systems for calculating delivery and payment amounts due between participating parties rely on this standardization. Options that are traded on national securities exchanges are standardized, and therefore fungible through the use of identical contract terms such as expiration cycles and pre-defined parameters.
For example, all non-FLEX exchange-traded securities options expire on the Saturday following the third Friday of any given month. The issuer of each option contract is the OCC regardless of where the option trades. A writer of a standardized option cannot create or choose a different expiration date.
Binary options let traders profit from price fluctuations in multiple global markets The most commonly traded instrument is a high-low or fixed-return option that. The price of a binary option is always between $0 and $, and just like other an established return if they are correct in choosing the direction of the market.
The writer cannot change or define any strike price, but for any given option, must select from a specific set of available strike prices. Similarly, not all expiration months are simultaneously available for all standardized option series. One convention that is central to the standardization of options is an agreed-upon scheme by which all options exchanges assign and attach symbols.
The convention allows for options to have symbols with a maximum of 5 characters. Each character has 26 possibilities, corresponding to the 26 letters of the alphabet. The first one, two or three characters known as the root symbol denote the underlying asset for the option. In some cases this corresponds exactly to the underlying asset's trading symbol, in other cases there is no relationship between the two. These codes are listed in table I.
The final character denotes the strike price for the option. The strike price codes are listed in table II. B 10; ; ; ; ;.
C 15; ; ; ; ;. E 25; ; ; ; ;. F 30; ; ; ; ;. G 35; ; ; ; ;. H 40; ; ; ; ;.