T2W Trading Community

In the UK, the options exchange is called LIFFE ( London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange ) and this is where all equity options are managed and traded. In the US there are several exchanges, but the principle ones are CBOE ( Chicago Board of Options Exchange ), AMEX and Philadelphia Exchange. Everything to do with trading, managing and exercising the options is conducted by the exchanges. You do not have to worry about actually doing anything - it all happens automatically. So if, for example, you have sold a call, and the contract is exercised, this will all happen automatically and the broker will transfer the shares out of your account at the agreed contract price and replace with cash. Finally there are two 'styles of options' - American style and European style. American style options can be exercised at any time as in our example above, whilst European can only be exercised only at expiry. Most equity Options will be American style but please check and make sure beforehand.

Whilst the terminology of equity options may seem strange at first, it is worth the effort. In their simplest form they can simply be bought and sold like any other financial instrument. Remember however that these are assets with a time value, they cannot be held for long periods as they all have an expiry date as part of the contract. Many traders simply buy and sell options throughout the trading day, making their money from the increase or decrease in the options value. Others use them in combination with the underlying stock to write calls. There are many ways to benefit from an understanding of these sophisticated instruments and I would urge you to dip a toe in the water!