Out Of The Money - OTM

  

Categories: Derivatives

Out-of-the-money. No money. No wins for you. Bad. Sad. Frowny face. That's what happens when you're out-of-the-money and you own an option.

The basics:

A stock option carries a strike price. If you own a call option, then that call isn't worth anything intrinsically until the underlying security is worth more than the strike price of the option.

Example:

A call option has a strike price of $20 and the underlying stock is trading at $22.30...it's $2.30 in-the-money. If the stock was trading at $17.40, then that call option (the right to pay $20 to buy a share of that stock) is $2.60 out-of-the-money.

The curveball here is time, or Theta. Your option doesn't expire for 20 weeks. It would probably still carry a lot of value. That is, the holder might ask what the odds were that, in the next 50 or so trading days, the stock could spike and trade to, say, $21.30, and then carry intrinsic value of $1.30? If it's a volatile stock, odds are probably good, i.e. that call option with a strike price at $20, expiring in 4-5 months, is probably still worth a fair pot of money, even if the stock today is trading below the strike price, like at $18.32 or whatever.

See: VIX. See: Black-Scholes. See: Theta Decay.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Strike Price?40 Views

00:03

Finance a la shmoop what is a strike price well before going

00:09

even a second further with this video be sure you've seen our Steven Spielberg [Introduction to a movie at the cinema directed by Steven Spielberg]

00:13

directed what is a stock option video here are the reviews from variety.. well

00:21

to review a stock option is the right to buy a share of stock for a set price

00:27

over a given period of time so let's say you were granted an option to buy a [Graph of amazon stock prices]

00:33

share of Amazon stock in 2015 when the stock was around 400 bucks a share the

00:39

option lasts as long as you work at the company in good standing or after 10

00:43

years have passed which ever ends first well one day you decide you want another job [Woman signing a contract]

00:48

your contract says that if you're no longer an employee with the company then

00:52

you have 90 days in which to either buy out your option that is to buy the

00:57

option and then own the stock or just forfeit the option [Woman underlining words on a contract]

01:01

well since Amazon is now at a thousand bucks a share you obviously don't want

01:05

to forfeit the option to buy that share of stock for 400 bucks but you note that

01:10

your many friends who joined apcray.com at a high price a high strike price which

01:16

creators know they're stock while they're doing a lot of option forfeiting

01:21

that is their options ended up being worthless so you've got a lot to think [Man holding out a bag of dog poo]

01:24

about here this is Amazon not apcray so you want to buy out your option so

01:28

what happens well you were granted your own options at the price Amazon stock [Amazon box falls off shelf]

01:34

was trading at the day you joined the company it was 400 bucks a share so

01:38

that's a strike price that $400 is the price you pay to buy a share of stock at

01:44

some point there in the future that strike price has nothing to do with [Protestors holding signs outside an Amazon building]

01:48

unions not working got it? all right well in order to buy that stock it's

01:53

currently trading in a thousand bucks a share

01:55

you pay Amazon 400 bucks and that buys out your option you then own the stock [Man writing a check to Amazon for 400 dollars]

02:02

that's it Amazon cancel your option then they give

02:05

you a share of actual stock which you now own for as long as you want to own [Man delivering an Amazon box]

02:09

it you can sell it immediately and make a

02:11

$600 a share profit that's a thousand bucks a share it's trading at now minus the

02:16

$400 strike price you just paid to buy out that option got it or you can hold [Grandparent bribing grand-daughter for amazon stock]

02:21

onto those shares and you know use it to bribe your grandchildren one day it's

02:26

worth like a million dollars a share

Up Next

Finance: What Is a Put Option?
83 Views

What is a put option? A put option is a type of contract that lets the investor sell shares of a stock at a certain price and within a window of ti...

Finance: What Is a Call Option?
25 Views

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...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)