Options & Market Glossary

B

• Bear Call Spread A credit spread using two call options to profit from a bearish move.
• Bull Put Spread A credit spread using two put options to profit from a bullish or neutral move.

C

• Call Option The right to buy 100 shares at a set price before expiration.
• Credit Spread An options strategy that collects premium by selling a closer strike and buying a further one.

D

• Delta Measures how much an option's price moves per $1 move in the underlying.
• Delta Neutral A position structured so delta exposure is near zero.

E

• Expiration Date The date on which an options contract expires and ceases to have value.
• Expected Move The market's implied price range for a stock by expiration, derived from IV.

G

• Gamma Measures the rate of change of delta per $1 move in the underlying.
• Greeks A set of sensitivity measures (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, Rho) for options pricing.

I

• Implied Volatility (IV) The market's forward-looking expectation of price movement, expressed as an annualized percentage.
• Iron Condor A four-leg options strategy profiting from low volatility within a defined range.
• IV Rank (IVR) Ranks current IV against its 52-week range on a 0–100 scale.
• IV Percentile The percentage of days in the past year that IV was below its current level.

O

• Open Interest The total number of outstanding options contracts that have not been settled.
• Options Chain A table showing all available strike prices and expirations for a given underlying.
• Options Flow Real-time tracking of options order activity, used to detect institutional positioning.

P

• Premium The price paid or received for an options contract.
• Put Option The right to sell 100 shares at a set price before expiration.
• Put/Call Ratio The ratio of put volume to call volume; used as a sentiment indicator.

R

• Rho Measures an option's sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

S

• SparkEdge Astre's proprietary 0–100 composite score for options opportunities.
• SparkScore Astre's proprietary 0–100 composite score for stock opportunities.
• Strike Price The price at which an options contract gives the holder the right to buy or sell.
• Sweep A large, aggressive options order split across multiple exchanges simultaneously.

T

• Theta Measures the rate at which an option loses value as time passes (time decay).
• Time Decay The erosion of an option's extrinsic value as expiration approaches.

U

• Unusual Options Activity Options volume significantly above average, potentially signaling institutional positioning.
• Underlying The stock, ETF, or index that an options contract is based on.

V

• Vega Measures an option's sensitivity to changes in implied volatility.
• Volume The number of options contracts traded in a given period.