Curriculum

Start from the stock you already know. A listed option is a right on those shares, not the shares — and that is the only contract this desk journals.

A call is the right to buy. A put is the right to sell. Long means you bought it. Short means you sold it.

Strike, expiration, premium, and contract size name the contract. Moneyness says where the stock sits relative to the strike.

The desk note is a structure and a DTE, not a fill. Read the delayed chain, pick the ticket, or stand aside.

Ten questions at a time, with an explanation after you score the set.

The building blocks behind the strategies on this site.

Own 100 shares, STO a call, keep the premium, cap the upside. Close the call with BTC.

Get paid to maybe buy 100 shares at a lower effective price. STO the put. BTC to skip assignment.

Sell a put. If assigned, sell a call on the shares. If called away, sell a put again. Assignment is the loop.

BTO a longer-dated call instead of 100 shares, then STO a nearer call against it. Close with STC and BTC.

BTO a call. Exit with STC or expire. Defined debit — a kink, not 100 shares.

A put is insurance or a downside bet. BTO a put, or buy a higher put and sell a lower one.

BTO a call and BTO a put, same strike and expiration. You need a large move. Exit with two STC tickets.

BTO an OTM call and BTO an OTM put, same expiration. Cheaper than a straddle; needs an even larger move.

Two credit spreads: STO the inner options, BTO the wings. Flatten with BTC and STC.

Short the at-the-money call and put, then BTO wings. A credit that wants the stock to pin the body.

BTO the wings and STO twice as many at the body. A defined-debit bet that price lands near the middle strike.

STO a near-term option and BTO the same strike later. Different expirations, two tickets each way.

BTO the lower call and STO the higher call. Close by reversing both tickets.

STO a higher put and BTO a lower put. Collect a credit. Flatten with BTC and STC.

STO a lower call and BTO a higher call. Collect a credit. Flatten with BTC and STC.

Own 100 shares and BTO a put as a floor. The put is insurance. Max stock loss sits near the strike, minus the premium.

Own 100 shares. STO a call for income and BTO a put for a floor. Close with BTC and STC.

Delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho, and how a position's Greeks add up.

Hold is no ticket. Close is BTC and/or STC. A roll is close plus a new open.

Move the stock, the calendar, and implied vol on the legs you built.

Practice is pretend cash on today’s delayed quotes. Start with a long call or long put. Nothing here is a broker fill.

Pick a past date. See that day’s close. Trade estimated option prices. Advance a day, a week, or to expiration. Later days stay hidden until you ask.

Journal is for live ideas you already have on. This site marks them and writes a hold, close, or roll note. It never sends orders.

Name a package from the legs and see the payoff.

Read profit, loss, and break-even for a journal trade.

Draw paths for one long option.

A derivative's theoretical value comes from its future cash flows under a pricing framework, not from what we expect the stock to do in the real world.

How a price path can wander: drift, volatility, and geometric Brownian motion.

Implied volatility across strike and expiration: term structure, smile, skew, and the surface.

Why one sigma is not a surface: local volatility, Dupire, Heston, and vol-of-vol.

Delta hedges, the gamma–theta trade-off, and risk that sits on the surface.

Fit today’s quotes, then validate, stress, and sign off the parameters.

How a return series fluctuated, moved with the market, and paid for that volatility.

From a past return, to implied volatility, the surface, and a width that can move.

How two series moved together, and why that link can tighten in a shock.

Five pillars — equity, rates, credit, volatility, and inflation — read on both sides of the book.

Spot, forward, discount, and four shapes of the same three tenors.

The straight guess, the bend, and the dollar value of one basis point.

Parallel, steepener, flattener, and twist, plus shocks that are not yields.

Historical, hypothetical, and the mix that would breach a limit.

Close a parallel duration gap, then see what the hedge does not cover.

Fixed against floating. The notional stays put. Both sides are obligated.

The right to enter a swap later: payer, receiver, expiry, and tenor.

Normal and lognormal volatility across expiry, tenor, and strike.

A forward rate and its volatility move together, so the smile can tilt.

What happens to economic value when assets and liabilities reprice.

A payer swaption as optional protection for long-duration liabilities.

A short rate that wanders and is pulled back toward a curve.

On each date, compare exercising now with the value of waiting.

A typed path, a historical path, or a draw, and which question each one answers.

An economic offset that the financial statements may not show.

One combined shock, split into assets, liabilities, the hedge, and surplus.

A one-page poster of nine strategies, their risk, and their reward.