Ahh, the options listing... Trust me, it isn't as bad as it looks.
It starts with understanding a rather long set of symbols that looks something like this:
GOOG120317P600000
This code is simply the ticker symbol for your option. And once you break it down, you'll find that it holds a wealth of information, including all the "standardized" terms we talked about in this article.
The first three or four letters are just the stock ticker for the specific underlying stock, in this case, Google Inc. (NasdaqGS: GOOG):
GOOG120317P600000
The next two digits tell you the year the option expires. This is necessary because long-term options last as far out as 30 months, so you may need to know what year is in play. In this case, the Google option is a 2012 contract:
GOOG120317P600000
The next four digits reveal the month and the standard expiration date. The expiration date does not vary. It's always the third Saturday of the month. And the last trading day is always the last trading day before that Saturday, usually the third Friday (unless you run up against a holiday). In this case, you've got a March contract (03). And the third Saturday of March 2012 is the 17th.
GOOG120317P600000
Now you'll see either a C or a P, to tell you what kind of option you're dealing with - a call or a put. This one happens to be a put:
GOOG120317P600000
After that comes the fixed strike price, which is 600:
GOOG120317P600000
Finally, any fractional portion of the strike is shown at the end. This comes up only as the result of a stock split, where a previous strike is broken down to become a strike not divisible by 100:
GOOG120317P600000
Now that you're a pro, let's take it a step further.
Options Trading: How to Read an Options Listing
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