Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• PUT
  
  (1) A stipulated privilege of buying or selling a stated property, security, or commodity at a given price (strike price) within a specified time (for an American-style option, at any time prior to or on the expiration date). A securities option is a negotiable contract in which the seller (writer), for a certain sum of money called the option premium, gives the buyer the right to demand within a specified time the purchase (call) or sale (put) by the option seller of a specified number of bonds, currency units, index units, or shares of stock at a fixed price or rate called the strike price. Many options are settled for cash equal to the difference between the aggregate spot price and the aggregate strike price rather than by delivery of the underlying. In the U.S. and many other countries, stock options are usually written for units of 100 shares. Other units of underlying coverage are standard in other option markets. Options are ordinarily issued for periods of less than one year, but longer-term options are increasingly common. (2) Any financial contract that changes in value like an option (asymmetrically), even if the terms of the contract do not state the price relationship in terms of a right or privilege or in other language usually associated with options.
  
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