Ladder Option

  

Categories: Metrics, Derivatives

The elevator to your 11th floor apartment is broken. You asked the super how you're supposed to get to your place. He suggests what he calls "the ladder option." (You immediately start googling rental options in your neighborhood.)

Actually, this term has to do with the options market. A normal option grants its holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell some underlying asset (like a stock or a commodity) at a set price during a pre-set time period. The pre-set price is known as the strike price. Traditional, vanilla options have a single strike price.

So you might hold an option to buy 100 barrels of oil at $75 a barrel, with the option expiring in May. The $75 represents the one and only stock price for that option.

In contrast, a ladder option has a series of strike prices. Like a ladder, it has numerous rungs, leading up or down (depending on whether you have a call or a put, betting either that the price of the underlying asset would go up or down).

If you buy a ladder option, you get some profit if the first strike price level is meant, and then additional profit with each additional level reached.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are stock options in 90 se...0 Views

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Finance allah shmoop what are stock options in ninety seconds

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or less Here's a stock ibm not the tech company

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This one makes an anti constipation drug It's trading at

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one hundred eighty bucks a share Okay so here's an

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option of buy a share of ibm anytime in roughly

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the next three months For one hundred ninety dollars a

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share it's called a call option If you really believe

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the ibm will go to say two hundred dollars a

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share in the next three months well you'd be what's

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called ten dollars in the money then or then have

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a stock option or call option with a strike price

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of one hundred ninety dollars which would then have intrinsic

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value of ten bucks a share On the other end

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of the buy sell desk is the gal willing to

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sell you that call option for three bucks Three bucks

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a premium So gut check time Would you pay three

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dollars for the right to buy a share if ibm

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for ten dollars higher than where the stock's trading now

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today Meaning that to break even in the next three

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months the stock has to trade all the way up

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from one hundred eighty dollars a share to one hundred

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ninety three dollars a share jobs for you to get

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your money back but it goes to two hundred two

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share Well if you sell that option you'll have invested

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three bucks a share for a net return of seven

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bucks in just three months or less And yes we're

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ignoring commissions and taxes here because well in problems like

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this or just a in the book but three dollars

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into seven only three months Yeah that's a great score

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You'd have more than doubled your money And on an

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annualized return basis that's over a nine hundred percent dish

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return really good score but with a much more likely

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case that you spend three bucks to buy the option

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and it expires totally worthless And then you've lost your

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entire investment in that option So that's a call option

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It's evil twin is a put option So whereas a

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call options the rightto by a security to set price

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by a certain set date a put option is the

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right to sell that option We'd go into more detail

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here but we're promised ninety seconds

Up Next

Finance: What Is a Put Option?
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What is a put option? A put option is a type of contract that lets the investor sell shares of a stock at a certain price and within a window of ti...

Finance: What Is a Call Option?
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What is a call option? A call option is a type of contract that lets the investor buy shares of a stock at a certain price and within a window of t...

Finance: What is Intrinsic Value (of An Option and of an Asset)?
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The intrinsic value of an option is the share price of a stock minus its strike price - i.e. the "in the money" amount.

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