# Selling options for profits
**Definitions**\
An option gives you (the buyer) the option but not the obligation to buy/sell a specific\
“underlying” at a specific price (strike price) on or before a specific time (expiration date)
\
**Expiration Date**\
Occurs the Saturday after the third Friday of every month
**Underlying**\
Underlying can refer to a Stock or an Index
\
**Strike Price**\
Strike price internals are standardized\
Strike priced between 0-25; 2 ½ strike intervals\
Strike priced between 25-200; 5 strike intervals\
Strike priced above 200; 10 strike intervals
Front **Month**\
The month to expire next for a specific stock.\
Most stocks with options will have front month, the month after front month and 3 month\
separated expirations afterwards
\
**Contracts**\
Prices for options are quoted on a per contract basis, each contract is equivalent to 100 shares so you have to multiply by 100 to know the cost of that option
**Open Interest**\
The amount of outstanding contracts out in the market for a specific stock\
option
\
**Selling Short**\
Borrowing shares from your broker expecting them to go lower so that you\
can “buy to cover” them at a lower price and make a profit
\
**Buy to Open/Sell to Close**\
The conventional way to think about the stock market, you buy to open x# of\
shares and sell the shares to close the transaction
**Sell to Open/Buy to Close**\
You can also Sell to Open in the case of stock by doing a short selling and\
buy to close, buy to cover, later on. When dealing with Options you can also\
sell to open and buy to close
**Calls** give you the right to **sell** at a specific price
**Puts** give you the right to **buy** a specific price
**Symbol nomenclature**\
5 IBM Apr 100 Calls or 5 IBM1016D100\
(10 = year, 19 = day, D designates Call and april, 100 = strike)
\
If you buy the above you have the option to buy at any time before the third Friday in\
Apr 500 Shares of IBM at $100
**In the money, at the money and out of the money**\
In the previous IBM example the option was In the money since it had intrinsic value, i.e. your strike price was less than the current stock price on a call option and vice\
versa for a put option
When an option is out of the money it has only Extrinsic Value
\
Since very rarely a stock is exactly at a strike price the term quasi-at the money is used, and is defined as the strike price closest to the current stock price
**The Greeks** explain the behavior of the stock option when compared to the underlying stock
**Delta** can be seen as
* The amount the option premium will fluctuate for $1 change in the stock or
* The probability that the stock will end up at that strike price
* Delta will be negative on Puts because a decrease in the underlying stock price will increase the value of the put
**Theta**
* The change of an option’s price with the passing of one day (all else being equal)
\
**Vega**
* The change of an option’s price with the change of the underlying’s volatility (all else being equal)
Examples
**Order types**
**By duration (equities)**
* Day: Good only for the Day you place the order
* Day+: Good for regular trading hours (9:30 AM to 4 PM EST) plus after hours that day
* After hours trading comprises of
* 8 AM – 9:30 AM EST
* 4 PM – 8 PM EST
* GTC: Good till cancel, most platforms will keep these orders 3\
months active
* GTC+: Good till cancel for regular and after hours
\
**Stock Option**s trade during regular trading hours only
**By Execution**
* Market\
Used to enter an order that will get executed almost immediately since it will\
be placed at current market price
* Stop Loss\
A market order triggered by a predetermined stop price
* Limit\
When selling it will sell at or above a predetermined limit price, and when\
buying it will buy at or below a predetermined limit price
* Stop Limit\
A combination of a stop order and a limit order, it will get triggered when the stop price is reached and execute at limit price or better
* OCO (Order Cancels Order)\
When any of the orders gets filled it will cancel the rest
Tip: Use limit orders when applicable and as much as\
possible to control your entries and exits
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://docs.atraderlife.com/courses/introduction-to-stocks/selling-options-for-profits.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.