Stock option price-Strike price-Put and Call

Question

What do you mean by the following terms: a stock option price, strike price and what are a put and a call?What is the merits or demerits of purchasing stock options over stocks? What function do Mutual Funds execute with Stock Market investments?

Answer 1

A stock option offers an employee the right to buy a certain number of his/her company shares at some future date and at the specific price already decided by the employer. This specified price is referred to as the stock option price and may be mostly the current price while issuing the stock option. Similarly, an option offers an investor the right to buy or sell but not an obligation and the specified price at which the investor can buy or sell shares is referred to as the strike price. A call option offers the right to buy and a put option offers the right to sell shares at the strike price within a specified time period.

The advantages of options over stocks include (1) leverage over a stock without any obligation, (2) cheaper per share, (3) limited risk and (4) protection against stock volatility.

The disadvantages include (1) higher cost of trading, (2) complex to understand and needs a keen eye, (3) subject to time-sensitivity and (4) some positions have unlimited risk. Of the many methods to trade in a stock market, mutual funds play an important role, since they include a portfolio of stocks managed by an expert fund manager and hence investors need not invest more time and efforts in choosing the specific stocks as when done individually. Thus mutual funds lower the risks, investment amount and the time that an investor spends but offers good profits.