Zebu blog

Tag: Time Value

  • Why You Should Know Time Value Before Trading In Options

    When it comes to trading options, the time value of an option is one of the most basic and important things to understand. In technical terms, it is called “Theta,” which shows how an option’s value decreases over time. Before we get into the details of time value and time decay, let’s take a quick look back at what options are and how they work.

    Before we get into understanding the importance of time value in trading, we should understand that the right technology is equally important. As a share broking company, we offer our clients a seamless online trading platform and also provide them with the lowest brokerage on intraday trading, to make their journey as a trader as smooth as possible.

    So, what are options really all about?

    As the word “option” suggests, it is a right that doesn’t have to be used. Unlike a futures contract, which is both a right and a duty, this is not the case. The buyer of the option has the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at an agreed-upon price (strike price). If the price change goes in the buyer’s favour, he will make money, but if the price change goes against him, he will not use the option. That doesn’t seem fair to the person who sold the option, does it?

    Not at all! Since the person who buys the option has a right but no obligation, the person who sells the option has a duty but no right. The seller won’t do that for free, that much is clear. The person who buys an option pays a certain fee to the person who sells the option for the right to do something without having to do it. This fee is called an “option premium,” and it is what gets traded on the NSE when you buy and sell options. The buyer of the option pays the option premium to the seller of the option as a reward for taking on the obligation without the right.

    Options can be either “call” or “put.”

    Call options give you the right to buy something, while put options give you the right to sell something. You buy a call option if you think the price of a stock will go up. If you think the price of a stock will go down, on the other hand, you will buy a put option. Even though it sounds easy, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

    Getting to the heart of an option’s intrinsic value and time value.

    Before you can understand the idea of time value, you need to know about the three types of options below.

    1. An In-The-Money (ITM) option is a contract for an option that has an intrinsic value that is greater than zero. If the market price of the Nifty is higher than the strike price, a call option on the Nifty is in the money. If the market price of the 17000 Nifty call option is Rs.70 and the spot Nifty is at 17100, then the intrinsic value of the Nifty call will be Rs. 100 (17100-17000). The option’s time value will be the remaining value, which is Rs.30. So, of the Rs.70 option premium that is being quoted on the market, Rs. 100 is due to intrinsic value and Rs. 30 is due to time value. If the spot price of the Nifty is lower than the strike price of the put option, the option is in the money.

    2.An “at the money” (ATM) option is a contract for an option that has a value of zero. If the market price of the Nifty is the same as the strike price, it will be an ATM for a call option on the Nifty. Since there is no intrinsic value, the time value is the only thing that makes the option worth anything.

    3. Out-of-the-Money (OTM) options are option contracts where the market price is lower than the strike price for a call option or higher than the strike price for a put option. According to our formula, the intrinsic value will be negative, but since the intrinsic value can’t be negative, we’ll treat it as zero. So, only time value will make up the option premium.

    At the beginning of the month, ATM options have the highest time value, followed by ITM options and then OTM options. In the long run, the time value of all three options will tend toward zero as the expiration date gets closer. Even though the OTM and ATM options themselves have no value, the option premium for ITM options will still be positive because they have intrinsic value.

    Why is time value such an important part of trading options?

    An option is a wasting asset because its time value tends to go to zero as its expiration date gets closer. This loss of time is also called “Theta.”

    Time and volatility are two of the most important parts of time value. For both call options and put options, the time value goes up as the time to expiration goes up. Even if the option is still Out of the Money, a rise in volatility can cause the time value to rise. The person who buys the options bets that volatility will make the time value go up, while the person who sells the option hopes that the time value will work in his favour so that the option expires worthless. This is the main idea behind trading with options.

    As a share broking company, we offer our clients a seamless online trading platform and also provide them with the lowest brokerage on intraday trading, to make their journey as a trader as smooth as possible. Contact us to know more.


  • Factors That Decide An Option’s Premium

    Factors That Decide An Option’s Premium
    Any trader will tell you that in order to be successful, you have to understand and, more importantly, master the concept of option pricing and how to figure out its correct value.

    When you look at all the things that affect an option’s price, you can figure out what its real price is. Let’s look at oil as an example. The final prices of petroleum depend on consumer demand, the price of crude oil, the time of year, local and state taxes, refinery output, etc. If you want to know or figure out the price of an option before you buy or sell it, you can use a mathematical model like the Black Scholes model. You only need to think about the different parts of the model to figure out the right price.

    Being a successful trader depends on several things, but most importantly it depends on the kind of platform you use to trade. As a stock broker, we understand this and offer the best trading platform to our users that provides them with the best trading accounts.

    Putting a price on an option depends on a number of things.

    The stock’s current price: If you’re interested in a call option that lets you buy shares of X company for, say, Rs 350 each, you’d probably be willing to pay more for that call when the stock is trading at Rs 320 instead of Rs 350. This is because the call option gets much closer to being ITM at Rs 49 than it would have been if it traded at Rs 40. Put options, on the other hand, do the opposite.

    The Strike Price: This is the price that a call owner has to pay to buy stock, while a put owner has to pay if he wants to sell his stock. This is like the example that was given above. Most of the time, it costs more to get the right to buy stock at Rs 350 than at Rs 380. The average investor would, of course, like to have the right to buy stocks at lower prices at any time of day. With the strike price going down, this makes calls cost more. In the same way, the value of puts goes up when the strike price goes up.

    Time before expiration: It’s important to remember that all options have a set amount of time they can be used and usually end on or after a certain date. Because of this, the value of an option goes down as time goes on. The more time there is until expiration, the more likely it is that you can make moves that will make you money.

    Interest rates: This is not a very important factor when figuring out the price of an option. When interest rates go up, so do the prices of call options. When the trader chooses the call option instead of the stock, any extra cash in his account should, at least in theory, earn him interest. This doesn’t really happen in the real world, but the basic idea makes sense.

    Dividends: When a stock trades but the owner doesn’t get any dividends, this is called “ex-dividend,” and the price of the stock goes down by the amount of the dividend that was due. When dividends go up, put values go up and call values go down.

    Volatility is thought to be the most important variable. In simple terms, volatility is the difference between the prices of stocks from one day to the next. It can also be called swings in the price of a stock. When compared to stocks that are less likely to change, volatile stocks are more likely to have a different strike price level. When investors make big moves, their chances of making money go up. So, options on stocks that change a lot are definitely more expensive than options on stocks that change less or not at all. So, it’s important to remember that even small changes in estimates of volatility have a big effect on the prices of options. Volatility is usually thought of as an estimate, and if you only have an estimate, especially of future volatility, it’s almost impossible to figure out the right option value.

    As we mentioned earlier being successful as a trader depends on several things, but most importantly it depends on the kind of platform you use to trade. As a stock broker, we understand this and offer the best trading platform to our users that provides them with the best trading accounts.