Options field guide
All guides · Page 34
Plain-language guides to earnings, implied volatility, option strategies, target prices, and time decay
828 guides
What happens to options when a company is acquired?
Learn how cash, stock, and mixed mergers can change an option deliverable, remove time value, accelerate expiration, and affect exercise and assignment.
Read guideWhat happens to options when a stock is delisted?
Learn how stock delisting can make options closing-only, move shares to OTC trading, affect exercise and assignment, and require OCC expiration instructions.
Read guideWhat happens to options when a stock symbol changes?
Learn how open options move to a new root after a ticker change, which contract terms usually stay the same, and when a symbol change signals a deeper adjustment.
Read guideWhat happens to options when an ETF liquidates?
Learn how ETF liquidation can convert option deliverables to cash, fix call and put value, accelerate expirations, and create delayed-settlement risk.
Read guideWhat happens when an option expires in the money?
Learn what an in-the-money call or put can become at expiration, including exercise by exception, assignment, shares, cash settlement, contrary instructions, and broker controls.
Read guideWhat happens when an option expires out of the money?
Understand what out-of-the-money expiration means for long and short calls and puts, premiums, worthless contracts, assignment exceptions, hedges, and next-day positions.
Read guideWheel Options Strategy Explained
Learn how the options wheel cycles through cash-secured puts, stock assignment, and covered calls, including downside, capped upside, cost basis, and exit risks.
Read guideWhen will I know if my option was assigned?
Learn when option assignment appears, how OCC and brokers allocate exercise notices, why timing varies for early and expiration assignment, and what positions, cash, shares, and alerts to check.
Read guideWhy is my option order not filling?
Learn why an accepted option order can remain unfilled, including bid-ask position, queue priority, quoted size, multi-leg pricing, sessions, and partial fills.
Read guideWhy was my option order rejected?
Learn how to diagnose a rejected option order by status, approval, buying power, position effect, contract, price, session, and broker risk controls.
Read guideContango vs backwardation in VIX futures: curve, carry, and false signals
Learn how contango and backwardation describe VIX futures prices, how roll return works, and why an inverted curve is not a guaranteed stock-market forecast
Read guideForward Volatility Explained: Extract Risk Between Two Expirations
Learn why forward volatility comes from differences in total variance, how to calculate it between expirations, and what it does and does not predict
Read guideGamma exposure (GEX) explained without treating it as a price forecast
Understand what aggregate gamma-exposure estimates attempt to measure, the dealer assumptions they require, and why models can disagree
Read guideGamma squeeze explained: the feedback loop and the evidence it requires
Understand how short-gamma hedging can amplify a rally, the conditions a gamma squeeze needs, and why call volume alone cannot confirm one
Read guideHow to calculate realized volatility: returns, windows, and annualization
Learn the realized volatility formula, why log returns and annualization conventions matter, and how sampling choices change comparisons with implied volatility
Read guideImplied Correlation and Dispersion Trading Explained
Learn how index variance combines component volatility and correlation, what a dispersion trade isolates, and why weighting and stress regimes matter
Read guideImplied volatility vs. VIX: why the two numbers are not directly comparable
Compare a contract's implied volatility with the VIX Index, including the underlying, horizon, option set, methodology, and decisions each measure supports
Read guideJump Risk in Options: Why Gaps Break Smooth Hedge Assumptions
Understand how price jumps differ from continuous volatility, why delta hedging cannot trade through a gap, and how options price event and tail exposure
Read guideKurtosis and Tail Risk in Options Explained
Learn what kurtosis measures, why normal volatility can understate extremes, how option wings price tail risk, and where samples and hedges can fail
Read guideLocal Volatility vs Implied Volatility: Quote, Surface, and Model
Understand how observed implied volatility differs from a local-volatility state function, how Dupire calibration links them, and why the distinction matters
Read guideMax pain in options: what it calculates and why it is not a price target
Learn how max pain is calculated from open interest, what the number leaves out, and how it differs from pin risk and dealer gamma
Read guideOptions expected move: formula, accuracy, and interpretation
Learn how expected move is estimated from implied volatility or an at-the-money straddle, what the 68% rule assumes, and how to test its accuracy
Read guideOptions trading for beginners: six things to know before the first trade
A practical first-trade guide to goals, rights and obligations, contract size, price drivers, execution, and expiration risk
Read guideProbability of touch vs expiring ITM vs profit: three different events
Learn why touching a strike, expiring in the money, and finishing a trade profitably require different events, barriers, assumptions, and probability calculations
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