Rainbow Option

  

Categories: Derivatives

A rainbow. A collection of colors. Not just a room painted all drab brown, or an ugly shade of pea green. A vibrant, eclectic collage of colors.

Now let’s take that concept to the options market.

A vanilla option can be considered the drab-brown or pea-green paint equivalents in the derivatives market. This category includes regular calls and puts, options to buy or sell a single underlying asset (like a stock or commodity).

Just as a rainbow contains many colors, a rainbow option contains many underlying assets. It's a complex option contract based on the performance of multiple assets (based on several stocks, or a basket of commodities).

Rainbow options come in multiple varieties. Some pay off only based on the best performer in the group. Others are based on the minimum performance of all the option's component "colors." The main point is that they apply to multiple underlying assets at once.

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Finance: What is a Derivative?23 Views

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finance a la shmoop what is a derivative? well it's derived it's a something taken

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from something else like a derivative of hot weather is thirst a derivative of [Girl takes sip of glass of water on a beach]

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hunger is well you know crankiness that's diva thing you get there...

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derivative of a 1/32 quarterback rating in the NFL is like serious wealth yeah

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yeah discount double shmoop yeah look for it be on there with aaron

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and a derivative of a stock or bond or other security is a something which

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derives its value based on the performance of that underlying security

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there are basically two flavors of derivative put options ie the right to [Ice cream flavors appear]

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sell a security at a given price over a given time period and a call option, ie

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right to buy a security at a given price over a given time period

00:52

well the price of that option is derived from the price of the security and a few

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other factors like strike prices and duration and all that stuff

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colonel electric the downgraded new version of General Electric is trading [Colonel Electric appears in a suit]

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for 25 bucks a share a derivative of its share price is sold in the form of a

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call option with a $30 strike price expiring about 90 days from now on the

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third Friday of the end of that month well investors pay a price albeit

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probably a small one for the right to then pay 30 bucks a share for colonel [Call option appears for colonel electric]

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electric at any time in the next 90 ish days until that option expires making the bet

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that the stock will go well above 30 bucks a share in that time period that

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call option is thus a derivative of the colonel electric primary stock price got

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it if you really want to get personal well here's the ultimate form of

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derivative [Baby laying down]

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