A call is the right to buy 100 shares at a set price, the strike, until the option expires. A put is the right to sell them. Buy a call if you think the stock will rise, a put if you think it will fall. Either way you pay up front, the premium, and that's the most a buyer can lose.
On 23 October 2026 Apple closed at $347.73. The 18 December $350 call cost $1,365 and pays off if Apple ends above $363.65. The $350 put on the same date cost $1,430 and pays off below $335.70. Anywhere between the two, both lose money.
$13.65 × 100 = $1,365
$350 + $13.65 = $363.65
$350 − $14.30 = $335.70
The same Apple strike and expiry, bought both ways. One contract each, priced at the ask on 23 October 2026.
| Buy a call | Buy a put | |
|---|---|---|
| The right it gives you | To buy 100 Apple shares at $350 until 18 December | To sell 100 Apple shares at $350 until 18 December |
| Your view | Apple goes up, enough and soon enough | Apple goes down, or you want insurance on shares you own |
| Cost | $1,365 ($13.65 a share), all time value | $1,430 ($14.30), of which $2.27 a share is already in the money |
| Breakeven at expiry | $363.65, Apple +4.6% | $335.70, Apple −3.5% |
| Most you can lose | $1,365, if Apple ends at $350 or below | $1,430, if Apple ends at $350 or above |
| Most you can make | No limit | $33,570, if Apple went to zero |
| Delta | 0.52: gains about $52 for each $1 Apple rises | −0.48: gains about $48 for each $1 Apple falls |
| What time does | Costs about $14 a day today, faster near expiry | Costs about $11 a day today, faster near expiry |
| Built on it | LEAPS, bull call spreads, and sold against shares, the covered call | Protective puts, collars, and sold with cash set aside, the cash-secured put |
Drag where Apple might close on 18 December and see what each option makes or loses. Add the sellers' side or 100 shares to compare, or switch to four weeks before expiry to see what the call and put would be worth if you sold them then.
Bought at the ask, sold at the bid, before commissions. Apple's next quarterly results are due on 2 November, inside this option's life.
The four-week lines keep each option's implied volatility from 23 October. Even if Apple doesn't move, both lose to time: on 20 November with Apple still at $347.73 the call would be down about $461 and the put about $378. A 10% rise by then would put the call up about $2,094, against $1,885 if the same rise were still there on 18 December.
Every option has a buyer and a seller. The buyer pays the premium for the right; the seller takes the premium and the obligation. These are the same Apple contracts from both sides.
You pay up front, and at expiry you need Apple above the strike plus what you paid. The loss stops at the premium; the gain doesn't stop.
Used to bet on a rise with a fixed cost. Longer-dated calls are LEAPS; a call with a higher one sold against it is a bull call spread.
You pay up front, and at expiry you need Apple below the strike minus what you paid. The loss stops at the premium; the gain is largest if Apple goes to zero.
Used to bet on a fall, or bought on shares you own as insurance: a protective put, or paid for by selling a call in a collar.
You collect the premium and keep it all if Apple ends at $350 or below. Above that you owe the difference, with no ceiling unless you own the shares.
Sold against 100 shares you own it's a covered call, or against a long-dated call, a poor man's covered call. Sold naked, the loss has no limit: not a beginner trade.
You collect the premium and keep it all if Apple ends at $350 or above. Below that you may have to buy 100 shares at $350, whatever Apple is worth.
With $35,000 set aside to buy the shares it's a cash-secured put, the first step of the wheel strategy.
Sellers get the bid, so they collect a little less than buyers pay: $1,335 against $1,365 on the call. A seller's result is the mirror of the buyer's, less that gap between bid and ask: $30 on the call, $45 on the put. Your broker approves the strategies you can use based on their risk, and selling a call you don't cover with shares usually needs the highest level and a margin account.
One contract, held to 18 December 2026, by where Apple closes that day. Buys at the 23 October ask, sales at the bid.
| Apple on 18 Dec | Buy call−$1,365 | Buy put−$1,430 | 100 shares$34,773 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $278.18−20% | −$1,365 | +$5,752 | −$6,955 |
| $312.96−10% | −$1,365 | +$2,274 | −$3,477 |
| $330.34−5% | −$1,365 | +$536 | −$1,739 |
| $335.70−3.5%, put breakeven | −$1,365 | $0 | −$1,203 |
| $347.73unchanged | −$1,365 | −$1,203 | $0 |
| $350+0.7%, the strike | −$1,365 | −$1,430 | +$227 |
| $363.65+4.6%, call breakeven | $0 | −$1,430 | +$1,592 |
| $365.12+5% | +$147 | −$1,430 | +$1,739 |
| $382.50+10% | +$1,885 | −$1,430 | +$3,477 |
| $417.28+20% | +$5,363 | −$1,430 | +$6,955 |
A 10% rise in Apple turns the $1,365 call into +$1,885, 138% on what you paid, against 10% on 100 shares. A 10% fall makes the put 159%. But a 5% rise makes the call only 11%, and anything short of +0.7% loses all of it. The call needs Apple to move, and to move far enough before 18 December.
An option chain lists every strike for one expiry, calls on the left and puts on the right. This is Apple's 18 December 2026 chain around $350 at the 23 October close, with Apple at $347.73. Shaded cells are in the money.
| Call bid | Call ask | Strike | Put bid | Put ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.20 | 19.60 | $340 | 9.65 | 10.15 |
| 16.10 | 16.60 | $345 | 11.65 | 12.05 |
| 13.35 | 13.65 | $350 | 13.85 | 14.30 |
| 10.75 | 11.25 | $355 | 16.10 | 16.95 |
| 8.55 | 9.00 | $360 | 18.90 | 20.30 |
The ask is what you pay to buy, the bid what you get to sell. IV is the implied volatility in the price, delta how much the option moves per $1 of Apple, and open interest how many contracts are open.
A call is in the money when the strike is below the stock price, a put when it's above. The $340 call already has $7.73 of value built in; the $350 call is just out of the money and is all time value. The $350 put is $2.27 in the money.
The $350 call, with 29,293 contracts open, quotes 30 cents apart: $30 a contract. The $380 put, with 230 open, was quoted $32.85 to $35.10, a $225 gap you'd lose the moment you bought it. Use a limit order near the middle.
Apple's 18 December calls and puts at eight strikes, at the 23 October ask. A strike further out costs less, but Apple has to travel further before it pays.
| Strike | Cost | Delta | Breakeven |
|---|---|---|---|
| $320in the money | $3,445 | 0.80 | $354.45 +1.9% |
| $330 | $2,695 | 0.72 | $356.95 +2.7% |
| $340 | $1,960 | 0.63 | $359.60 +3.4% |
| $350at the money | $1,365 | 0.52 | $363.65 +4.6% |
| $360 | $900 | 0.40 | $369.00 +6.1% |
| $370 | $555 | 0.28 | $375.55 +8.0% |
| $380 | $310 | 0.18 | $383.10 +10.2% |
| $390out of the money | $182 | 0.12 | $391.82 +12.7% |
| Strike | Cost | Delta | Breakeven |
|---|---|---|---|
| $380in the money | $3,510 | −0.79 | $344.90 −0.8% |
| $370 | $2,735 | −0.71 | $342.65 −1.5% |
| $360 | $2,030 | −0.60 | $339.70 −2.3% |
| $350at the money | $1,430 | −0.48 | $335.70 −3.5% |
| $340 | $1,015 | −0.37 | $329.85 −5.1% |
| $330 | $700 | −0.28 | $323.00 −7.1% |
| $320 | $485 | −0.20 | $315.15 −9.4% |
| $310out of the money | $330 | −0.14 | $306.70 −11.8% |
An in-the-money option costs more because part of it is real value, and it behaves more like the shares: the $320 call has a 0.80 delta and needs Apple up only 1.9%. A far out-of-the-money option is cheap for a reason. The $390 call costs $182 and needs Apple up 12.7% in eight weeks; its delta of 0.12 is a rough guide to the market's odds of it finishing in the money. Near-the-money options move more with the stock, with a higher delta, than cheap far-out ones that need a bigger move.
The same $350 call and put on five monthly expiries, at the 23 October ask. Time value per month is the part of the price that isn't already in the money, spread over the months you get.
| Expiry | Call cost | Put cost |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Nov 202628 days | $985breakeven +3.5% | $1,140breakeven −2.6% |
| 18 Dec 202656 days | $1,365breakeven +4.6% | $1,430breakeven −3.5% |
| 15 Jan 202784 days | $1,695breakeven +5.5% | $1,640breakeven −4.1% |
| 19 Mar 2027147 days | $2,495breakeven +7.8% | $2,175breakeven −5.6% |
| 17 Jun 2027237 days | $3,355breakeven +10.3% | $2,725breakeven −7.2% |
A month of the November call costs $10.71 a share in time value; a month of the June call, $4.31. Short-dated options are cheap in dollars and expensive per day, and they leave no room for being early. If you're not sure when the move will come, buy more time than you think you need. Calls that run more than a year are LEAPS. Standard monthly options expire on the third Friday of the month, moved a day earlier for a market holiday: 18 December 2026 is a third Friday, and the June 2027 options expire on Thursday 17 June.
If Apple stays at $347.73 to the end, here's what each option is worth with the days left, holding implied volatility where it was on 23 October.
Hover or tap the chart. Model values from AllInvestView's options pricing engine at the midpoint implied volatilities of 23 October. The put ends at $2.27, the part that's in the money.
In the first two weeks the call loses about $2 a share. In the last two weeks it loses all of its remaining $6. Time value melts slowly, then quickly.
Higher implied volatility makes every option more expensive, calls and puts alike. Five points more adds about $2.71 a share to either; five points less takes it away, even if Apple doesn't move.
Apple reports its quarterly results on 2 November, more than six weeks before these options expire. Options often price in a bigger move before a report and give some of that back after it.
The Greeks measure what moves an option's price. These are the $350 call and put on 23 October, per share; multiply by 100 for one contract.
How much the option moves for a $1 move in the stock. Calls run from 0 to 1, puts from 0 to −1; at the money they sit near 0.50 and −0.50, deep in the money near 1 and −1.
How much delta moves for each $1 in the stock. Highest at the money and near expiry, which is why short-dated options swing so hard.
What the option loses in a day if nothing else changes. Buyers pay it, sellers collect it.
What the option gains for each point of implied volatility. Both calls and puts gain when volatility rises.
Delta and theta together explain most days: a call with a 0.52 delta gains about $52 a contract when Apple rises $1, and gives back $14 a day to time. The options Greeks guide goes through each one and how they add up across a position; to try other strikes and dates, use the options Greeks calculator.
Every 8-week stretch of Apple from January 2006, 5,196 of them, sorted by how much Apple moved. The shading shows which of the two options would have paid at today's prices.
Hover or tap a bar. Bars are 5% wide; moves beyond −25% and +30% are in the end bars. Our calculations from Apple's daily closes, adjusted for splits and dividends.
Apple's median 8-week move was +4.9%, with the worst at −50.5% and the best at +58.9%. A stock that rose this much over 20 years favors calls in any sample like this one, so read it as the size of the moves, not the odds for the next eight weeks. The steady number is the middle band: about a quarter of the time Apple moved too little for either option, and both buyers lost.
US stock options like Apple's can be exercised on any trading day up to expiry. On expiry day there are four ways it ends.
Most buyers never exercise. They sell the option back, which pays what it's still worth, time value included.
An option out of the money at expiry is worth nothing, and the buyer's premium is gone. If you sold it, the holder can still exercise after a late move in the stock, so close a short option that ends near the strike.
An option in the money by a cent or more at expiry is normally exercised for you unless you tell your broker not to. Some brokers close positions earlier on expiry day.
If you sold the option, assignment is the other side of exercise, and on US stock options it can come any day before expiry. A short put assigned means buying the shares; a short call, selling them.
Exercising a put sells shares, so without 100 Apple in the account an exercised put leaves you short the stock. S&P 500 index options (SPX) work differently: they can be exercised only at expiry and settle in cash, with no shares changing hands.
Every strategy is calls and puts bought or sold in combination. Each guide works through one real trade, priced the same way as this one.
Under IRS Publication 550, an option you buy is a capital asset. What you owe depends on how the option ends.
Sold or expired, the result is a capital gain or loss, short-term if held a year or less; an expired option is a loss on the expiry date. If you exercise a call, what you paid goes into the cost of the shares. If you exercise a put, it reduces what you got for the shares sold.
The premium isn't income when you receive it. It's counted when you buy the option back, it expires (a short-term gain) or you're assigned, when it adjusts the price of the shares bought or sold.
Options on a broad-based index such as the S&P 500 (SPX) are section 1256 contracts: 60% of the gain or loss counts as long-term and 40% as short-term however long you held them. Other countries have their own rules. Our options tax tracker keeps each realized option and the open ones apart for your report.
The $390 call costs $182 and needs Apple up 12.7% in eight weeks. Cheap far-out options lose all of it most of the time; price the breakeven, not the ticket.
If Apple sits still for four weeks, the call is down about $461 and the put about $378. Buy enough time for your idea, and don't hold into the last two weeks by default.
Apple reports on 2 November. If implied volatility drops five points after the report, each option loses about $271 even if Apple doesn't move.
At today's prices the call would have expired worthless in 35.7% of Apple's 8-week stretches since 2006. Only put in what you can lose in full.
A naked short call has no ceiling: if Apple rose 25%, the $1,335 collected becomes a $7,131 loss. Sell calls against shares you own, and sell puts only with the cash to buy the shares.
A useful trade record connects the idea you started with to what happened next. AllInvestView keeps the entry premium and expiry beside each position's P&L, with the Greeks that explain why its value is changing, next to the stocks you already own.
Both options opened on 23 October, with what each cost and what it's worth now. Held together on the same strike and date, the book groups them as one straddle and draws the payoff at expiry, with both breakevens and the most it can lose.
AllInvestView
The options dashboard groups your open trades by expiry and puts portfolio totals above the position table. You can review a contract's Greeks and see where risk is concentrated by underlying, without rebuilding a spreadsheet each time a trade changes.
For a call like the Apple one above, delta explains the effect of a price move and theta the cost of waiting. Watching both is more useful than watching the stock price alone.
AllInvestView
Once you're comfortable with a single call or put, the Strategy Builder lets you compare multi-leg positions. It calculates the combined Greeks and draws the expiration payoff, with maximum profit, maximum loss and breakeven prices together.
In this iron condor example, the flat top marks the maximum-profit range. The two orange points show where the position breaks even; beyond the sloping sides, the losses reach their limit. The position needs the stock to stay within a range, rather than simply rise.
An expiration chart doesn't tell the whole story before expiry. The scenario tools also let you change the stock price, volatility and time remaining. Start with a single contract in the options calculator, then compare a strategy when you're ready.
AllInvestView
For covered-call and cash-secured-put traders, the stock and the option belong in the same story. A put assignment creates a share position; a later covered call can expire, be closed or result in those shares being called away.
The Wheel view keeps that sequence together. In the AAPL example, the timeline follows a sold put through assignment and two covered calls, with premiums alongside each trade. You can see which call is still open and review completed cycles separately.
AllInvestView
See your options P&L, Greeks and upcoming expiries alongside your stocks. Compare a strategy before you open it, then follow the trade through to its result.
A call option gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy 100 shares at the strike price until the expiry date. You pay a premium for it, and that premium is the most you can lose. On 23 October 2026 Apple's 18 December $350 call cost $13.65 a share, $1,365 a contract, and made money at expiry above $363.65.
A put option gives the buyer the right to sell 100 shares at the strike price until expiry. It gains when the stock falls, so it's used to bet on a fall or to protect shares you own. Apple's 18 December $350 put cost $1,430 on 23 October 2026 and made money at expiry below $335.70.
Buy a call if you expect the stock to rise and a put if you expect it to fall. At expiry a call makes money above the strike plus the premium and a put below the strike minus the premium; before then you can sell either for whatever it's worth. Apple's $350 call needed Apple above $363.65 on 18 December and the $350 put below $335.70; anywhere in between, both lost money. The most a buyer can lose is the premium.
The Greeks measure what moves an option's price. Delta is how much it moves for a $1 move in the stock, gamma how fast delta changes, theta how much it loses each day, and vega how much it gains for each point of implied volatility. On 23 October 2026 Apple's $350 call had a delta of 0.52, a theta of −$0.14 a share a day and a vega of $0.54.
Not when you buy. The most you can lose on an option you buy is the premium, plus fees: $1,365 for the Apple call. Selling is different. A short call's loss has no ceiling, and a short put can lose the strike minus the premium if the stock goes to zero, $33,615 on the Apple $350 put. Shares held against a covered call still carry their own downside.
An option in the money by a cent or more at expiration is normally exercised automatically unless you tell your broker otherwise. One that closes out of the money normally expires worthless, though its holder can still choose to exercise it after a late move. An exercised Apple $350 call buys 100 shares for $35,000; an exercised put sells 100 shares at $350. Most buyers sell the option before then, and some brokers close positions earlier on expiry day.
Buying an option (going long) costs the premium, limits the loss to it and needs the stock to move. Selling one (going short) pays you the premium up front, which is the most you can make, and you can be assigned. Sold with the shares or the cash set aside, a call is a covered call and a put a cash-secured put; a naked short call has no limit on the loss.
An option you buy and then sell or let expire is a capital gain or loss, short-term or long-term by how long you held it; an expired one is a loss on the expiry date. If you exercise a call, its cost goes into the shares' basis; if you exercise a put, it reduces what you got for the shares. Premium from an option you sell counts when you buy it back or it expires, as a short-term gain or loss. If you're assigned, it lowers the cost of the shares you buy on a put, or adds to what you get for the shares you sell on a call. Broad-based index options such as SPX are section 1256 contracts, taxed 60% long-term and 40% short-term.
Checked on 26 October 2026.
Costs use the ask for options bought and the bid for options sold, before commissions and fees. The Greeks, implied volatilities and every value before expiry come from AllInvestView's options pricing engine with a 3.94% rate and Apple's 0.31% dividend yield, each option's implied volatility solved from its midpoint price and held fixed. A call holder doesn't receive Apple's dividend. The 8-week figures are our calculations from Apple's closes adjusted for splits and dividends: each stretch starts on a trading day from 3 January 2006 and ends on the last close on or before 56 days later, the last one starting on 28 August 2026.
Last updated 26 October 2026. This guide explains how calls and puts work; it isn't advice to trade them.