chapter 1Option Basics: A Crash Course in Option Mechanics

The concept of options has been around for a long time. Ancient Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians traded options based on outgoing cargoes from their local seaports. When used as a derivative of a financial instrument, an option is generally defined as a contract between two parties, a buyer and a seller, in which the buyer has the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset at the denoted strike price. In the world of finance and trading, a derivative is defined as any asset in which its value is derived, or resulting, from the value of another asset. Likewise, the underlying asset is an asset on which the value of the derivative is dependent.

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