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Call

An option that gives the buyer the right to buy 100 shares at the strike price before expiration — it gains value when the stock rises.

A call is a contract that gives you the right, but not the obligation, to buy 100 shares of a stock at a fixed strike price before the option expires. You pay a premium up front for that right. Traders buy calls when they expect a stock to rise: if the shares climb above your strike, the call gains value and you can sell it for a profit or exercise it to buy the stock cheaply.

Say a stock trades at 50 and you buy a call with a 55 strike for a 2 premium. If the stock jumps to 62 before expiry, your call is worth at least 7 of intrinsic value, so you have more than tripled your money. If the stock stays below 55, though, the call can expire worthless and you lose the whole premium.

The common beginner mistake is buying cheap out-of-the-money calls close to expiration and hoping for a lottery win. Theta decay eats their value every day, and the stock has to move fast and far just to break even. Direction alone is not enough; timing and the size of the move matter just as much.

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Put Strike price Premium Expiration In the money (ITM)At the money (ATM)Out of the money (OTM)Intrinsic value Time value (extrinsic)Delta Gamma Theta Vega Implied volatility (IV)Open interest Assignment Exercise Spread Break-even Probability of profit (POP)Assignment risk / early assignment LEAPS Naked (uncovered) option Rho Historical volatility (HV)Volume Bid-ask spread Moneyness Covered call Cash-secured put Vertical spread Iron condor Straddle Strangle Rolling Margin Max pain American-style option European-style option Contract multiplier Debit vs credit Volatility skew The Greeks Underlying Hedge Leverage Expected move Notional value Protective put Collar Butterfly spread Iron butterfly Calendar spread Diagonal spread Credit spread Debit spread Bull call spread Bear put spread Ratio spread Synthetic position The wheel strategy Poor man’s covered call (PMCC)Box spread Put-call parity Pin risk IV crush IV rank / IV percentile Ex-dividend date Deep in the money Weeklys 0DTE (zero days to expiration)Order types (to open / to close)Buying power reduction Cash settlement Market maker Slippage Mid price Black-Scholes model

Educational use only. Quotes are delayed ~15 minutes and nothing here is financial advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss.