The table listing every available strike and expiration for an underlying, with bid, ask, volume, open interest, and Greeks.
The chain is where option traders live. Calls are usually on the left, puts on the right, strikes down the middle, with a separate tab or section per expiration-date.
Example: on the chain, the $105 call shows bid $1.90 / ask $2.10, volume 1,200, open interest 8,400, delta 0.32. The 20-cent spread is 10% of the mid price, which is a significant cost.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
The bid-ask spread. Buy orders sit below, sell orders above, and the gap between the best bid (50.01) and best ask (50.04) is the spread you pay to cross. Bar length shows the size resting at each price.Time decay of an option's value. The part of an option's price that is only time — its extrinsic value — drains away every day and must reach zero at expiry. The slide is gentle months out and steepest in the final weeks, which is what traders call theta.
Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.