A quanto option works the same as a regular option. The only difference is that it operates across two different currencies. The pay off comes in a different currency than the currency used for the option's strike price and the underlying asset's trading price.
Let's break that down a bit. An option gives you the right to buy or sell (depending on the type of option) some underlying asset. So...you might hold an option to buy 100 shares of MSFT at $135, expiring in two months. MSFT in this case would count as the underlying asset. Fast-forward two months. It's expiration time. MSFT is trading at $145, meaning the option with the $135 strike price is in the money. You are going to exercise the option, buy 100 shares of MSFT at $135 and immediately sell them for $145, pocketing $10 a share...or $1,000 total.
So just to review: in this scenario, MSFT is valued in dollars. The strike price is listed in dollars.
A quanto option pays off in some other currency. When the option is purchased, an exchange rate is fixed, so that the quanto returns an amount in the other currency.
You bought your quanto option to pay off in euros. The EUR/USD rate was fixed at 1.15. Since then, the exchange rate has moved a little and is now trading at 1.10. However, you get the locked-in rate of 1.15. When you cash in your quanto option, the $1,000 return becomes €1,150.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What Is a Put Option?83 Views
finance a la shmoop what is a put option? hot potato hot potato
ow ow! yeah remember that game well nobody wanted the potato, poor thing. the
players wanted to put it in someone else's hands. well put options kind [glue put around a flaming potato]
of work the same way. a put option is the right or option or choice to sell a
stock or a bond at a given price to someone by a certain end date.
all right example time. you bought netflix stock at the IPO a zillion years
ago at $1 a share. that's you know splits adjusted. all right now it's a hundred
bucks a share. if you sell it you pay taxes on a gain of 99 dollars a share. in
California that would be a tax of something like almost 40 bucks. well the
stock was a hundred but you keep only something like 60. feels totally unfair.
right so you really don't want to sell your stock but you're nervous about the [graph shown]
next few months that Netflix will crater for a while and go down ten
maybe twenty dollars. longer term though you think it'll hit 300. so this is the
perfect setup to maybe look at buying some put options on Netflix. if the stock
goes down your put options go up. with Netflix volatile but at a hundred bucks
a share ,you look up the price of an $80 strike price put option expiring in
December, and you know that's mid-september now .for five bucks a share
you can protect your stock for the next few months .think about it like temporary [stocks placed in vault]
term life insurance. you pay the five dollars a share in the stock goes down
to 82 by mid December, worst of all worlds. well not only did you lose the $5
a share but your stock has lost $18 in value. but had Netflix really cratered
and gone to say $60 a share well you would have exercised your put and sold
your shares at 80 bucks. well those put options you paid $5 for
would be been worth 15 bucks a share. in buying that put option you've [equation shown]
guaranteed that your loss will be no more than a $75 value for your Netflix
position at least for that time period and ignoring taxes. well remember that
options expire after December whatever like the third Friday of the month it's
usually when options expire, you then have no protection and your shares float
along naked. naked? really who knew accounting could get so [paper put option goes "skinny dipping".]
raunchy. yeah well that's naked put options.
that's what they really are people.
Up Next
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...
A derivative of a security is a "something" which derives its value based on the performance of that security... either a put option or a call option.