Options, from first principles Primer

A first book, not a terminal

Primer

An option is a promise about a price. Before you trade one, you should be able to say that sentence in your own words.

Start with the first lesson Skip to the paper desk

Learn

Six short lessons. Each one adds a single idea: a stock, a contract, a premium, time, the five numbers that move a price, then four recipes you can actually book.

Desk

A $100,000 paper book on a made-up stock named ACME. You own the clock. Nothing here is a live market.

The rules of this room

  1. ACME starts at $100. Its path is simulated. You step the clock.
  2. Contracts are European and cash-settled. One contract is 100 shares. That is a teaching cut, not how every real option works.
  3. Prices come from Black-Scholes with a visible vol. There is no hidden spread and no live feed.
  4. The book lives in this browser. Export it if you want it to survive a new laptop.