An option is a contract with a deadline. It gives one side a right and the other side an obligation, and its price moves for reasons a stock’s price does not: time running out, and the market’s guess about how far price could travel. This course explains all of it in numbers you can check with a calculator, then shows how to build, size and manage real positions.

Every class works the same way:

Read the class and redo each worked example. Most use one imaginary stock, XYZ, at $100, so the numbers carry from class to class.
Tick I’ve read the class.
Check yourself with the quiz. You need 70% to pass, you can retake it as often as you like, and your best score counts.

The ten classes:

	Class	You will learn to
1	Calls, Puts and the Contract	Read an option chain and say exactly what a contract gives and costs
2	Payoffs at Expiration	Draw the profit and loss of the four basic positions and find breakeven
3	What Sets an Option’s Price	Split a premium into intrinsic and time value and name what changes each
4	The Greeks	Use delta, gamma, theta and vega to predict how a position will move
5	Volatility	Read implied volatility, work out the expected move and avoid the volatility crush
6	Buying Options and Debit Spreads	Choose a strike and expiration and cut the cost with a spread
7	Selling Options and Credit Spreads	Collect premium with covered calls, cash-secured puts, credit spreads and iron condors
8	Orders, Assignment and Expiration	Enter spreads at a fair price and handle exercise, assignment and expiration day
9	Risk, Sizing and the Options Plan	Size every trade by its maximum loss and write the rules down
10	Options Through the Outer Box	Pick direction, strikes and expiration from the box and the ladder

It helps to have finished Market Basics and Risk and Money Management first. Class 10 uses the ladder from Outer Box Foundations, but it explains every level it uses.

Before you trade options with real money: your broker must approve your account for options, and U.S. brokers must give you the booklet Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options, published by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). Read it.

This course explains how options work. It is not trading or tax advice, and nothing in it tells you to buy or sell anything. Option prices in the examples are calculated for teaching and are not market quotes. Options carry a high risk of loss, and some positions can lose more than the money you put in.

Units

Calls, Puts and the Contract

What a call and a put give the buyer and demand of the seller, the five terms of every contract, the 100-share multiplier, and how to read an option chain.

Payoffs at Expiration

The profit and loss of the four basic positions at expiration, breakeven, maximum gain and loss, and how an option compares with owning the stock.

What Sets an Option's Price

Intrinsic value and time value, the six inputs to every option price, why time decay speeds up near expiration, how volatility raises premiums, and put-call parity.

The Greeks

Delta, gamma, theta, vega and rho: what each one measures, how to use them to predict a position's profit and loss, and how to add them up across a whole position.

Volatility

Historical and implied volatility, turning implied volatility into an expected move, IV rank, the volatility crush after earnings, skew, and the VIX.

Buying Options and Debit Spreads

Choosing the expiration and strike for a bought call or put, bull call and bear put spreads, protective puts and collars, LEAPS as a stock substitute, and exit rules for buyers.

Selling Options and Credit Spreads

Covered calls, cash-secured puts and the wheel, bull put and bear call credit spreads, the iron condor, buying power, and how sellers manage winners and losers.

Orders, Assignment and Expiration

The four order instructions, pricing a limit order at the mid, entering spreads as one order, exercise and early assignment, dividends and pin risk, expiration day, cash settlement, day-trading rules and the basics of tax.

Risk, Sizing and the Options Plan

Sizing every options trade by its maximum or planned loss, limits on total exposure, the expectancy of a strategy, a pre-trade checklist, the options journal, and a written trading plan.

Options Through the Outer Box

Using the box and the ladder to choose an option's direction, strikes and expiration: debit spreads aimed at ladder targets, credit spreads with short strikes beyond the invalidation level, condors outside the outer thresholds, exits on the underlying, and size by alignment.