Definition of In-the-money

In-the-money

A put option that has a strike price higher than the underlying futures price, or a call option
with a strike price lower than the underlying futures price. For example, if the March COMEX silver futures
contract is trading at $6 an ounce, a March call with a strike price of $5.50 would be considered in-the-money
by $0.50 an ounce.
Related: put.

Irrational call option

The implied call imbedded in the MBS. Identified as irrational because the call is
sometimes not exercised when it is in the money (interest rates are below the threshold to refinance).
Sometimes exercised when not in the money (home sold without regard to the relative level of interest rates).

Lookback option

An option that allows the buyer to choose as the option strike price any price of the
underlying asset that has occurred during the life of the option. If a call, the buyer will choose the minimal
price, whereas if a put, the buyer will choose the maximum price. This option will always be in the money.

Regular way settlement

In the money and bond markets, the regular basis on which some security trades are
settled is that the delivery of the securities purchased is made against payment in Fed funds on the day
following the transaction.

Money Multiplier

Change in the money supply per change in the money base.

Abandonment option

The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planned.

American option

An option that may be exercised at any time up to and including the expiration date.
Related: European option

American-style option

An option contract that can be exercised at any time between the date of purchase and
the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are American style.

Arbitrage-free option-pricing models

Yield curve option-pricing models.

Asian option

option based on the average price of the asset during the life of the option.

Bargain-purchase-price option

Gives the lessee the option to purchase the asset at a price below fair market
value when the lease expires.

Barrier options

Contracts with trigger points that, when crossed, automatically generate buying or selling of
other options. These are very exotic options.

Basket options

Packages that involve the exchange of more than two currencies against a base currency at
expiration. The basket option buyer purchases the right, but not the obligation, to receive designated
currencies in exchange for a base currency, either at the prevailing spot market rate or at a prearranged rate of
exchange. A basket option is generally used by multinational corporations with multicurrency cash flows
since it is generally cheaper to buy an option on a basket of currencies than to buy individual options on each
of the currencies that make up the basket.

Binomial option pricing model

An option pricing model in which the underlying asset can take on only two
possible, discrete values in the next time period for each value that it can take on in the preceding time period.

Black-Scholes option-pricing model

A model for pricing call options based on arbitrage arguments that uses
the stock price, the exercise price, the risk-free interest rate, the time to expiration, and the standard deviation
of the stock return.

Call

An option that gives the right to buy the underlying futures contract.

Call an option

To exercise a call option.

Call date

A date before maturity, specified at issuance, when the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond
for a specified call price.

Call money rate

Also called the broker loan rate , the interest rate that banks charge brokers to finance
margin loans to investors. The broker charges the investor the call money rate plus a service charge.

Call option

An option contract that gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a specified
number of shares of the underlying stock at the given strike price, on or before the expiration date of the
contract.
call premium
Premium in price above the par value of a bond or share of preferred stock that must be paid to
holders to redeem the bond or share of preferred stock before its scheduled maturity date.

Call price

The price, specified at issuance, at which the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond at a
specified call date.

Call price

The price for which a bond can be repaid before maturity under a call provision.

Call protection

A feature of some callable bonds that establishes an initial period when the bonds may not be
called.

Call provision

An embedded option granting a bond issuer the right to buy back all or part of the issue prior
to maturity.

Call risk

The combination of cash flow uncertainty and reinvestment risk introduced by a call provision.

Call swaption

A swaption in which the buyer has the right to enter into a swap as a fixed-rate payer. The
writer therefore becomes the fixed-rate receiver/floating rate payer.

Callable

A financial security such as a bond with a call option attached to it, i.e., the issuer has the right to
call the security.

Compound option

option on an option.

Covered call

A short call option position in which the writer owns the number of shares of the underlying
stock represented by the option contracts. Covered calls generally limit the risk the writer takes because the
stock does not have to be bought at the market price, if the holder of that option decides to exercise it.

Covered call writing strategy

A strategy that involves writing a call option on securities that the investor
owns in his or her portfolio. See covered or hedge option strategies.

Covered or hedge option strategies

Strategies that involve a position in an option as well as a position in the
underlying stock, designed so that one position will help offset any unfavorable price movement in the other,
including covered call writing and protective put buying. Related: naked strategies

Currency option

An option to buy or sell a foreign currency.

Dealer options

Over-the-counter options, such as those offered by government and mortgage-backed
securities dealers.

Deferred call

A provision that prohibits the company from calling the bond before a certain date. During this
period the bond is said to be call protected.

Delivery options

The options available to the seller of an interest rate futures contract, including the quality
option, the timing option, and the wild card option. Delivery options make the buyer uncertain of which
Treasury Bond will be delivered or when it will be delivered.

Doubling option

A sinking fund provision that may allow repurchase of twice the required number of bonds
at the sinking fund call price.

Down-and-in option

Barrier option that comes into existence if asset price hits a barrier.

Down-and-out option

Barrier option that expires if asset price hits a barrier.

Effective call price

The strike price in an optional redemption provision plus the accrued interest to the
redemption date.

Elasticity of an option

Percentage change in the value of an option given a 1% change in the value of the
option's underlying stock.

Embedded option

An option that is part of the structure of a bond that provides either the bondholder or
issuer the right to take some action against the other party, as opposed to a bare option, which trades
separately from any underlying security.

Equity options

Securities that give the holder the right to buy or sell a specified number of shares of stock, at
a specified price for a certain (limited) time period. Typically one option equals 100 shares of stock.

European option

option that may be exercised only at the expiration date. Related: american option.

European-style option

An option contract that can only be exercised on the expiration date.

Exercising the option

The act buying or selling the underlying asset via the option contract.

First-call

With CMOs, the start of the cash flow cycle for the cash flow window.

Foreign currency option

An option that conveys the right to buy or sell a specified amount of foreign
currency at a specified price within a specified time period.

Futures option

An option on a futures contract. Related: options on physicals.

Garmen-Kohlhagen option pricing model

A widely used model for pricing foreign currency options.

Greenshoe option

option that allows the underwriter for a new issue to buy and resell additional shares.

Implied call

The right of the homeowner to prepay, or call, the mortgage at any time.

Index and Option Market (IOM)

A division of the CME established in 1982 for trading stock index
products and options. Related: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Index option

A call or put option based on a stock market index.

Intrinsic value of an option

The amount by which an option is in-the-money. An option which is not in-themoney
has no intrinsic value. Related: in-the-money.

Liquid yield option note (LYON)

Zero-coupon, callable, putable, convertible bond invented by Merrill

Liquid yield option note (LYON)

Zero-coupon, callable, putable, convertible bond invented by Merrill Lynch & Co.

Margin call

A demand for additional funds because of adverse price movement. Maintenance margin
requirement, security deposit maintenance
Margin of safety With respect to working capital management, the difference between 1) the amount of longterm
financing, and 2) the sum of fixed assets and the permanent component of current assets.

Margin requirement (Options)

The amount of cash an uncovered (naked) option writer is required to
deposit and maintain to cover his daily position valuation and reasonably foreseeable intra-day price changes.

Multi-option financing facility

A syndicated confirmed credit line with attached options.

Naked option strategies

An unhedged strategy making exclusive use of one of the following: Long call
strategy (buying call options ), short call strategy (selling or writing call options), Long put strategy (buying
put options ), and short put strategy (selling or writing put options). By themselves, these positions are called
naked strategies because they do not involve an offsetting or risk-reducing position in another option or the
underlying security.
Related: covered option strategies.

Option

Gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a set price on or before a
given date. Investors, not companies, issue options. Investors who purchase call options bet the stock will be
worth more than the price set by the option (the strike price), plus the price they paid for the option itself.
Buyers of put options bet the stock's price will go down below the price set by the option. An option is part of
a class of securities called derivatives, so named because these securities derive their value from the worth of
an underlying investment.

Option elasticity

The percentage increase in an option's value given a 1% change in the value of the
underlying security.

Option not to deliver

In the mortgage pipeline, an additional hedge placed in tandem with the forward or
substitute sale.

Option premium

The option price.

Option price

Also called the option premium, the price paid by the buyer of the options contract for the right
to buy or sell a security at a specified price in the future.

Option seller

Also called the option writer , the party who grants a right to trade a security at a given price in
the future.

Option writer

option seller.

Option-adjusted spread (OAS)

1) The spread over an issuer's spot rate curve, developed as a measure of
the yield spread that can be used to convert dollar differences between theoretical value and market price.
2) The cost of the implied call embedded in a MBS, defined as additional basis-yield spread. When added to the
base yield spread of an MBS without an operative call produces the option-adjusted spread.

Options contract

A contract that, in exchange for the option price, gives the option buyer the right, but not
the obligation, to buy (or sell) a financial asset at the exercise price from (or to) the option seller within a
specified time period, or on a specified date (expiration date).

Options contract multiple

A constant, set at $100, which when multiplied by the cash index value gives the
dollar value of the stock index underlying an option. That is, dollar value of the underlying stock index = cash
index value x $100 (the options contract multiple).

Options on physicals

Interest rate options written on fixed-income securities, as opposed to those written on
interest rate futures contracts.

Out-of-the-money option

A call option is out-of-the-money if the strike price is greater than the market price
of the underlying security. A put option is out-of-the-money if the strike price is less than the market price of
the underlying security.

Path dependent option

An option whose value depends on the sequence of prices of the underlying asset
rather than just the final price of the asset.

Postponement option

The option of postponing a project without eliminating the possibility of undertaking it.

Provisional call feature

A feature in a convertible issue that allows the issuer to call the issue during the noncall
period if the price of the stock reaches a certain level.

Put an option

To exercise a put option.

Put option

This security gives investors the right to sell (or put) fixed number of shares at a fixed price within
a given time frame. An investor, for example, might wish to have the right to sell shares of a stock at a certain
price by a certain time in order to protect, or hedge, an existing investment.

Put-call parity relationship

The relationship between the price of a put and the price of a call on the same
underlying security with the same expiration date, which prevents arbitrage opportunities. Holding the stock
and buying a put will deliver the exact payoff as buying one call and investing the present value (PV) of the
exercise price. The call value equals C=S+P-PV(k).

Quality option

Also called the swap option, the seller's choice of deliverables in Treasury Bond and Treasury
note futures contract. Related: cheapest to deliver issue

Split-fee option

An option on an option. The buyer generally executes the split fee with first an initial fee,
with a window period at the end of which upon payment of a second fee the original terms of the option may
be extended to a later predetermined final notification date.

Stock index option

An option in which the underlying is a common stock index.

Stock option

An option in which the underlying is the common stock of a corporation.

Tax deferral option

The feature of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that the capital gains tax on an asset is
payable only when the gain is realized by selling the asset.

Tax-timing option

The option to sell an asset and claim a loss for tax purposes or not to sell the asset and
defer the capital gains tax.

Time value of an option

The portion of an option's premium that is based on the amount of time remaining
until the expiration date of the option contract, and that the underlying components that determine the value of
the option may change during that time. Time value is generally equal to the difference between the premium
and the intrinsic value. Related: in-the-money.

Timing option

For a Treasury Bond or note futures contract, the seller's choice of when in the delivery month to deliver.

Two-state option pricing model

An option pricing model in which the underlying asset can take on only two
possible (discrete) values in the next time period for each value it can take on in the preceding time period.
Also called the binomial option pricing model.

Uncovered call

A short call option position in which the writer does not own shares of underlying stock
represented by his option contracts. Also called a "naked" call, it is much riskier for the writer than a covered
call, where the writer owns the underlying stock. If the buyer of a call exercises the option to call, the writer
would be forced to buy the stock at market price.

Virtual currency option

A new option contract introduced by the PHLX in 1994 that is settled in US$ rather
than in the underlying currency. These options are also called 3-Ds (dollar denominated delivery).

Wild card option

The right of the seller of a Treasury Bond futures contract to give notice of intent to deliver
at or before 8:00 p.m. Chicago time after the closing of the exchange (3:15 p.m. Chicago time) when the
futures settlement price has been fixed. Related: Timing option.

Yield curve option-pricing models

Models that can incorporate different volatility assumptions along the
yield curve, such as the Black-Derman-Toy model. Also called arbitrage-free option-pricing models.

Yield to call

The percentage rate of a bond or note, if you were to buy and hold the security until the call date.
This yield is valid only if the security is called prior to maturity. Generally bonds are callable over several
years and normally are called at a slight premium. The calculation of yield to call is based on the coupon rate,
length of time to the call and the market price.

acid test ratio (also called the quick ratio)

The sum of cash, accounts receivable, and short-term marketable
investments (if any) is divided by
total current liabilities to compute this ratio. Suppose that the short-term
creditors were to pounce on a business and not agree to roll over the
debts owed to them by the business. In this rather extreme scenario, the
acid test ratio reveals whether its cash and near-cash assets are enough
to pay its short-term current liabilities. This ratio is an extreme test that
is not likely to be imposed on a business unless it is in financial straits.
This ratio is quite relevant when a business is in a liquidation situation
or bankruptcy proceedings.

net income (also called the bottom line, earnings, net earnings, and net

operating earnings)
This key figure equals sales revenue for a period
less all expenses for the period; also, any extraordinary gains and losses
for the period are included in this final profit figure. Everything is taken
into account to arrive at net income, which is popularly called the bottom
line. Net income is clearly the single most important number in business
financial reports.

Call Option

A contract that gives the holder the right to buy an asset for a
specified price on or before a given expiration (maturity) date

Option

See call option and put option

Put Option

A contract that gives the holder the right to sell an asset for a
specified price on or before a given expiration (maturity) date

cafeteria plan a “menu” of fringe benefit options that include

cash or nontaxable benefits

economically reworked

when the incremental revenue from the sale of reworked defective units is greater than
the incremental cost of the rework

stock option

a right allowing the holder to purchase shares of common stock during some future time frame and at a specified price

American option

An option that can be exercised any time until its
expiration date. Contrast with European option.

Call

a. An option to buy a certain quantity of a stock or commodity for a
specified price within a specified time. See Put.
b. A demand to submit bonds to the issuer for redemption before the maturity date.
c. A demand for payment of a debt.
d. A demand for payment due on stock bought on margin.

Callable bond

A bond that allows the issuer to buy back the bond at a
predetermined price at specified future dates. The bond contains an embedded
call option; i.e., the holder has sold a call option to the issuer. See Puttable
bond.

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