Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with options

How can I tell how much my pre-IPO stock options might be worth?

cman — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:34:43 -0800

How can I tell how much my pre-IPO stock options might be worth? I have a few bits of data: I know the exercise price of the options now and a couple years ago. I also know roughly how much money has been invested by VC's in the company. And I can make estimates as to how much the company will be worth in 5 years.

Best online broker for newbie investor w/ modest funds?

mintyfresh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:41:32 -0800

I'm trying to choose an online broker. Fees vs. site functionality and features are my main concern. (1) What is the best online broker for someone who has between 5 to 10K to invest? (2) Is there any advantage to paying higher per-trade or per-contract fees for use of a site that has better features, or can all of the common features be found elsewhere easily? (3) Which discount broker has the best site functionality? I'm afraid of signing up for a discount broker with a site I'll hate later because it doesn't offer enough, and I'm also worried about paying too much for awesome tools I won't really need. With less than 10K at my disposal, fees could easily eat up my profits.

I'll be dabbling in trades and options, so the ideal brokerage would have low-to-moderate fees on both. Bulk pricing discounts probably won't be too relevant at the volumes at which I'll be trading.

I know sites like MSN Money have free tools available, although I'd rather have them at hand on my broker's site. I've also read that some of the best tools are on pay sites, though this may be hype. How do tools from discount brokers such as TradeKing, TradeMonster, and OptionsHouse stack up to the tools from higher-priced brokers such as Fidelity, Ameritrade, and Schwab, and how do they both stack up next to free and pay tools from other sites?

I'd appreciate tales of personal experiences with these sites, or with any others that I haven't mentioned. Are you happy with your broker? Were you ever unhappy enough that you switched to another? Also, do some pay site subscriptions offer a significant-enough advantage to be worth the cost, or are they a ripoff, or only useful for the experienced investor? I'm going to be taking a class from Investools this week, but I don't know if I'll end up paying for the subscription or not. Thanks!

Can I use a retirement fund to buy out startup stock options?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:25:12 -0800

I'm about to leave a startup to go to a different company, and I need some help figuring out how to handle my stock options. I currently work for a startup at which I have accrued X stock options at a price of $Y. From the date I leave, I have 90 days to buy out the options. I don't currently have the cash on hand to do this, but I do have approximately X*$Y in my 401k, which I would have to roll over either to the new company's 401k or to an IRA.

I think I heard that you can buy out options like this in a retirement fund, but if this is true I need to better understand the details and mechanics of it. Is anyone familiar with this situation who can tell me what to look for? Are there specific types of IRAs or anything like that which would give me more flexibility? What do I need to know?

For what it's worth, I do believe the startup will succeed; I'm leaving because my job there is not what I want. Also, I'm in my mid-twenties. So I am not concerned about using my (currently minimal) retirement fund to buy these out.

How to suggest courses to kids using survey feedback

man down under — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:44:51 -0800

Is there an online or free software solution for this idea my colleague at school has had? We want to survey kids in our school about their interests and ambitions and use their responses to suggest which courses they should elect for their next year. I imagine something akin to a Facebook quiz in a similar vein to "What Simpsons character are you?", but it probably needs to be a little more complex than that in reality.

Do any educators or school admins use something in particular for this?

Do other industry professionals have a work-around based on something they do?

Thanks in advance, hive.

Does anything else play well with Lotus Domino Server?

filthy light thief — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:17:02 -0800

Are there any viable alternatives to the Lotus Notes client for Windows XP? It's the work-provided client for email, calendars and schedules, and whatever else it does. Version 8 is crawling, where the previous version (6?) was at least responsive. More details inside. I've seen people talk about how to use IMAP-compliant mail clients to access their mail off of a Domino server, but I also need to be able to schedule events and resources, which (I'm assuming) connects back to the Domino server to lay claim to resources at set times.

Is my best route to look at ways to optimize my set-up, or are there other programs that could replace Lotus Notes for email and scheduling on the Lotus Domino server(s)?

Additionally: I can install software on this computer, but I don't have full admin rights (at least I don't think so - I haven't tried any significant system tweaks, mostly setting new default programs for image viewing and the like).

Stock

yoyo_nyc — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:00:45 -0800

How much of an equity stake in start-up should I ask for? I am a co-founder of a technology start-up but not the inventor of the technology. I helped with the business plan, will write the patents and help look for VC.

How much of an equity stake in start-up should I ask for?
I want to have one part for helping to get things running and a second part for a 2-3 year work commitment.

What is a realistic and fair share? 10% plus 10% for the commitment?
This would be 20% of the company and after financing/ stock dilution (assuming the VC would take 50% for the first financing round) I would end up with 10%.

Any suggestions?

Do I exercise my options early if I have the choice?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:03:02 -0800

Did you work for a startup and exercise your options early? I work for a young company. A good one with a bright future. I have the option to exercise my options early. I plan to stay there for a while, and am in no rush to do this. Just curious. I've googled this, searched all previous info on AM, but really can't quite figure out the "if x then y, if not x then z" scenario that would help one decide if exercising early is the right choice.

Did you? Did you not? Why, and did it work out how you planned?

(Sorry for the anon, but my coworkers read a.mefi and this is my personal concern, not theirs.)

Help me lawyer up...

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:32:18 -0800

I need to find a lawyer in the NYC area who deals with confidentiality agreements and stock option contracts, specifically in the software industry. How would I go about finding such a lawyer? I don't have a ton of money, so I'd rather keep costs low if possible.

If you'd like to respond by email, you can contact me at needaniplawyer@gmail.com

Death and Taxes

jckll — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:39:02 -0800

[Tax/Stock Filter:] Employee Stock Purchase Plan advice especially in re: taxation I am an employee at a medium-large company that offers an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. We can contribute up to 15% of income to purchasing company stock at 85% of its fair market value on either the first day of the offering period or the last day (offering period = 6 months).

I am obviously taking advantage of this free money come January 1 (I started work at this company last year) but want some advice in regard to the taxation consequences of an ESPP. I would like to sell most of the stock as soon as possible after the offering period so as to stay diversified, but is there any way of avoiding a huge tax hit for selling after owning for such a short time?

If I'm not mistaken, the 15% discount will always be counted as income, no matter when I sell the stock, correct? Is it advisable for me to hold the stock for a year+ to avoid short-term capital gains? And if so, is it a year from the beginning of the offering period, or a year from when I become fully vested?

I am also interested in hearing some creative options if such exist, such as rolling the stock over into an IRA or 401k that would mitigate my tax hit. Or any general advice from someone who has thought/researched this matter significantly. Thanks!

Simple way to make long term bet on oil

fantasticninety — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:54:31 -0800

Can anyone explain this website which shows the prices of crude oil options? I'm hoping someone can explain this website for me.

I'd like to know how much it costs to buy an options contract for crude oil for the long term. For example, I buy the option to buy a 1000 barrels of oil at 70 dollars a barrel in 2012. How much would it cost to be able to do this?

If anyone knows of any other simple ways to make a long term bet on crude oil, apart from DXO which I've already looked at, feel free to add suggestions.

Two Master's Degrees... What are my options?

msposner — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:57:38 -0800

This spring I will be finished with my second Master's degree. I've been at my current job for almost three years and while I enjoy it immensely, I am wondering about other opportunities that having two graduate degrees might open up for me. Am hoping to obtain answers especially from individuals who have multiple degrees and have gone into somewhat different career paths. My first graduate degree is a M.S. in Secondary School Education. I am qualified to teach in public school (context area: Social Studies). I also am certified to teach at schools for the deaf but that is not something I want to focus on because of how such institutions are being shut down at an alarming rate.

My second graduate degree is going to be a M.S. in Professional/Rehabilitation Counseling, which I'll be obtaining in May of 2009. I'm not going to be pursuing my Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) certificate because I was recently on their advisory panel and signed a waiver stating that I promise not to take the CRC test for at least five years due to first-hand exposure to potential test questions. This is perfectly fine with me because I'm not planning on having my own independent counseling practice and I have no desire to work for any of the major insurance companies around here.

I currently work at a state agency as a vocational rehabilitation counselor and while I do enjoy this job very, very much, lately it seems as if I'm often hearing from people (respected professionals) that I should be doing something "better" and so forth.

For me, "better", would be to obtain employment as a researcher (researcher scientist?) or a professor at a college/university, which is actually my ultimate goal but I'm also open to acquiring other, relevant experience that might enhance myself as an educator. I'm a voracious reader and I'm always conducting research- I'd really like to go into education/rehabilitation policy if the opportunity ever presents itself.

For now, my intention is clearly to "stay put" because as I mentioned, I love my job and I enjoy working with my colleagues, however, I have my goals outside of this field and have oftentimes thought about returning to the classroom as a high school teacher.

In a nutshell, my inquiries are defined as follows:

(I) I've been told that having Master degrees in both education and counseling will make me very attractive to school systems. True?

(II) Will the fact that I do not have terminal degrees in either fields (education and counseling) hurt my chances in obtaining research-based positions and/or work as a college instructor?

(III) For someone with two Master's degrees, what are the other fields I could go into when I have specialization in both education and counseling?

(IV) Has anyone experienced negative pitfalls of having multiple graduate degrees such as frequent rejections on the basis of being overqualified?

--------

Caveat #1: I am profoundly deaf. This, unfortunately, creates a lot of barriers for me in the workplace. Many schools have refused to hire me because in order for me to instruct in public schools, they would have to also pay for a full-time sign language interpreter since I communicate primarily in American Sign Language. In their eyes, I'm not cost effective- I'm a budget burden. As I mentioned earlier, I do not want to work at schools for the deaf because of the lack of job security and their notoriously low salaries.

Caveat #2: I've mentioned that I love my current job. However, I am also trying to plan ahead (1-3 years) and have always been open to other opportunities.

Caveat #3: Not really looking to relocate anytime in the near/distant future. Wife loves her job and is pregnant with our first child. We also put a lot of work in our present home.

Caveat #4: I'm 27 years old.

Caveat #5: My current job is paying fully for my second graduate degree, which is really the only reason why I went back to school after I completed my first Master's.

Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions/insights.

Help! In AT&T telephone Hell

malhaley — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:34:11 -0800

Help, I'm looking for an option to AT&T residential landline service. I presently have one residential landline, one business landline (wife's business) and a fax number for the business For some reason AT&T sends us five bills with different due dates. The charges are excessive in my opinion, well over $100/month. There are line maintenance fees for all these lines. Recently I had excessive static in the lines for over a week and had to eventually go on line to set up a service call. Their service is terrible to say the least. Both my wife and I are hearing impaired and it is next to impossible to get a real human on the line and when we could we have gotten no satisfaction in getting either service or getting these bills consolidated into one. I am sick of the run around I get from them. I went on line looking for alternatives and can't seem to find any. I live in Northeastern Connecticut. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for phone service?

Work is hell - square peg, round hole: what are my options?

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:18:41 -0800

Work is hell: I love the company and the pay, but hate my job and hate my boss. I'm looking to change careers, but what careers would fit my skill set? I work for a call center as a manager (others might say "team leader") in a financial/credit card account. The workload is such that though I am an excempt employee not paid for overtime, I am compelled to stay an upwards of 12 hours just to finish all the work I need to do.

The bulk of it is admin stuff: auditing my agents' calls for quality, customer satisfaction, compliance; keying in their phone logins/logouts, creating team reports/presentations. I tend to work at my own pace, and my boss often breathes on my neck to get these things updated on a DAILY basis, on top of managing my team of 16 direct reports, which I simply cannot do without staying on for many more hours at work. She has absolutely no empathy for mitigating circumstances, such as my being assigned to workstations where not all the admin tools are working, therefore having to hi-jack other managers' stations on a daily basis. And when 8 of my reps' IDs stopped working after a month of their being on the production floor, which meant that I not only had to manage the 8 people on the phones but had to keep the other 8 engaged for 9 hours a day and manage attrition as well, she could not understand how this could have possibly DOUBLED my workload, since "only 8 people are online anyway and that should've made things easier, not harder". Approaching her about my difficulties to possibly work out solutions hasn't helped: she always compares me to others who are not in the same situation but are accomplishing the same, and will only end the conversations by getting my commitments without giving the same kind of commitment. This is an endless source of frustration for me. My thinking is, if you want me to succeed, give me the tools I need to succeed. Oddly, she grants a lot of leeway when it comes to other people, and other people have warned me that she does indeed play favorites -- which, sadly, I am not. These Dilbert comics illustrate our dynamic perfectly. Her boss seems to think similarly, as they are very close.

The human part, the part where manage people and drive performance and get the numbers is fine. I'm proud of my team and the performance-conscious attitude and culture I've cultivated and the results they bring. And I like the Company itself, just not the account, and there's no way for me to transfer accounts because there's no way she'll recommend me. My team's performance is not enough. She has me tied to a daily task list that, if I don't accomplish it religiously, will subject me to memos and disciplinary actions. Even vacation leaves I plan well in advance are always "pending" depending on some arbitrary condition she thinks of. Everything I get from her seems punitive as opposed to supportive.

I'm beginning to feel that work is hell. I just want my life back. As a result, I'm looking to change careers, but I don't even know where to start. What are my options, that would pay equally well?

I hate busywork. I need work that lets me be creative to some degree. I've had experience as a content provider - writing about people, music, movies, technology. I'm quite tech savvy, but without any formal degrees to show for it. I've done well with customer service, tech support, and with coaching and driving performance. I'm driven, especially when inspired, and want to hone and exercise my leadership skills.

I wouldn't mind working in another call center, except there's no point because my current one is already on the top of the food chain. What I'd really like to look at are career options in other industries, preferably one that will give me a lot more flexibility than my current one.

I'm desperate. I want to quit my job yesterday. Hive mind, please help me!

Invenstment - Option Orders

bright77blue — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:49:00 -0800

I have traded stock Options for a while but would like to have the following order type: Example - Option Price = 3.90 Put in a order to sell if price goes below 3.50 or sell if price goes above 4.50 I have looked at stop, stop limit, limit, trailing and the works, but is there a technical name for what I want, and do brokers offer it? Thanks! BB

Can an email group be a chat group for some, and an announce-only group for others?

ManInSuit — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:11:17 -0800

Is there a way to make an email list announce-only for some recipients and unmoderated for others? Lots of things in my life involve organizing email lists where I occasionally send announcements to small groups of subscribers (10-75 people, say).

My guess is that some people on these lists would like to be able to reply and chat with other recipients, and some people would like to just get the announcements.

I wonder if there's some way to arrange this? I can see how a service like google groups could offer this. As a group subscriber, you could choose to receive only messages from the moderator, or you could choose to receive all messages sent to the list address.

Do you know if there's a way to do this? A mailing-group service that supports this option?

I don't think having separate "announce" and "chat" lists will do what I want. It seems like too much thinking. I'd like people to just be able to reply to an announcement, and know that their reply will only go to people who want to get it.

career options?

locoindio — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:08:40 -0800

i have an economics/mathematics degree from UT Austin, and for the past 3-4 years I've been teaching math. i dont want to teach anymore so im not sure what all i can do. ive thought about getting a job at a hospital, some accounting job, and financial planning. and im not much of a corporate america person. all ive got goin so far is work through a temp agency. i need some more ideas and so im throwing the idea out to the general forum. please write back with some ideas.

Playoff Tickets Options Pricing

charlesv — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:13:13 -0800

SportsMathFilter: How do I correctly price playoff ticket options? I buy 1/4 of a the season tickets from a season ticket holder for a NBA team in Los Angeles. That team is not the Lakers (don't laugh). For the 2008-2009 season, I want to buy an option on playoff tickets. How would I correctly determine a fair price for these options?

I imagine I would take into account the likelihood of them going to the playoffs but have no idea what other variables I would consider or the formula would look like.

I do know the formula will be different depending on how many games and which rounds of the playoffs, so feel free to assume either (1) all home games for the first round or (2) all home games through to the finals.

I am lousy at math, so if you provide a very complex formula, I would greatly appreciate an English explanation alongside explaining the logic.

I can has gud spelling?

Phire — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:59:21 -0800

Why is Firefox refusing to spellcheck? I got my laptop in August and one of the first things I downloaded was Firefox. As far as I can remember, Firefox has never spellchecked on it. The option to check spelling as I type is enabled. I've tried re-installing Firefox and re-installing multiple versions of Firefox, but it just won't spell check.

Can I fix this? How? (Currently running version 3 beta 4.)

And a tag-along question. Searching AskMe archives suggest a built in MeFi spellchecker. Jessamyn also made reference to this a few days ago, something about it being a little button that looks like 'ABC'. Have never seen this. What?

What are my options?

tdischino — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:46:38 -0800

What usually happens to vested stock options when a private company buys a public company (or a part of the company)? Publicly held parent company is looking to sell my division to a private company. I have vested stock options, some underwater, some not. Can I count on being compensated from either company for the vested options? Would I only be compensated for options that are currently above the strike? What's the likelihood that I could end up with no compensation?

Greed is good.

jak68 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:30:18 -0800

question on stock options: is volume an issue? If I sell to close in the final 3 weeks, who is it that is buying it? why would they buy it? I'm dabbling in basic stock options.

As a noob, I'm only dealing with bulling long positions by buying call options about 9 weeks before expiry and then selling them in the final month before expiry. As a further precaution I'm only dealing with mainstream 'blue chip' stocks (ones that i happen to be bullish on for a 9 week timeframe).

First question: do you see any catastrophic risks with this dabbling (other than my losing my initial investment, which is obviously a risk i'm willing to take)? I just want to make sure I wont have 'unlimited' risk, or that I wont be asked to deliver the underlying stocks to someone. As I understand it, when you buy calls, neither of those should happen.

Second question: In general, what is a good time to sell a call? There is time decay in the final 4 weeks, right? So as a general rule does it make sense to close out a call with about 4 weeks left before expiration? (taking whatever profit you have on it and if you dont expect anything much more)
In general I'm comfortable with buying the calls about 3-months (9 to 12 weeks) before expiration. Any issues with that that you can see, that I should be aware of? How far ahead do you buy your calls?

Third question: Is volume an issue - when it comes time that I want to sell my call to close it, in the last 3 or 4 weeks, who is buying this thing? Institutions? What is the difference between volume and 'open interest' (if i want to gauge if there will be buyers)?

Options Trading Question

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:14:34 -0800

Technical options trading question. I need to understand the mechanics of a particular options trade a little better.

Let's say A wants to temporarily transfer his shares of IBM to B, but wants to be certain of getting the shares back. Let's say that, to address this desire, the parties agree that B will write A a call for the IBM shares at a substantially in-the-money price, like $3. Let's say that B exercises the call and takes the shares back a few days later.

Does the purchase of the shares actually cross the floor of any exchange anywhere? I.e., is there a "tick" somewhere recording a sale of IBM at $3? Does the $3 purchase show up as a regular "buy" somewhere, or is it somehow routed differently than a normal buy order?

Does it depend on whether the options are over-the-counter or exchange traded?

All that is sort of background to what I really need to know: if A and B tried to swing this with regular purchases and sales, I understand there is some risk that the trade could be "broken up" on the floor of an exchange -- someone could swoop in and take the shares at the low price. Does the options contract protect against that risk?

Note, I'm not planning on doing this, this is a problem I'm analyzing.

Help me leverage my ability to pick failing companies.

Ryvar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:52:46 -0800

Help me leverage my ability to pick failing companies. I've been playing fantasy stock market games lately, and have been doing pretty well at it (325% returns in two and a half months). Out of fifty picks, I've made money on 80% of my long positions and 93% of my short positions. By FAR my biggest gains have been on short positions (multiple instances of +70% returns in under two weeks). I have a few thousand in a brokerage account on ETrade that I use for short-term high-risk experiments with real money, but brokerage restrictions involving short positions prevent me from mirroring my fantasy gains in real life.

I seem to be extremely good at picking out when a company is about to implode, just before it does so. There's a new forthcoming implosion on my radar today. How can a market dabbler like myself effectively leverage this ability to consistently spot good shorts, given brokerage restrictions on shorting stocks?

If he could, he would study abroad, drive a car, and vote for Steven Colbert...

albernathy0 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:01:19 -0800

What legal options are available to a 19 year old "American" without a driver's license or American citizenship who's parents have overstayed their legal welcome in this country and have devolved/absolved all responsibility? He has lived here 16 of his 19 years. This is his home. His parents are small people, and while he wishes he could lead a regular life, his citizenship has precluded many of his prospects, and will preclude unfortunately those, too, afforded by his imminent university degree. What can he do? Any legal counsel is warmly appreciated.

BoredAtWorkFilter

lekvar — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:38:25 -0800

My job: prepress technician / production artist / deigner. My question: Where do I go from here? For the past 7 years I've been deeply immersed in the production end of the graphic arts industry and I recently started a design company on the side. Problem is I'm bored. I know all the design programs, from the Adobe apps on down the line to Microsoft publisher. I'm familiar with three RIP systems and various image-setters. I've used all of the major pagination and imposition software. I've taught myself web-design in my free time. I've got a pretty good theoretical knowledge of the nitty-gritty aspects of how the big presses work, whether they're web, offset, or screen-print.

But I think I plateaued. I'm constantly bored at work.

With my skill-set, where do I go from here? I've got very little interest in sales, but that's the only avenue open for me. Am I missing something really obvious? Should I just ride it out?

Do US stock option market-maker have to buy and sell?

catcatwomanman — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 13:45:10 -0800

Regular old US stock options (not employee stock options): Anyone know if a) the market-maker / clearinghouse is required to buy and/or sell every call and put listed? b) and, if so, how many contracts are they required to buy and/ sell? MORE INSIDE... I've looked everywhere, on the CBOE website, through McMillan's book and others and lots and lots of other websites. Basically, I'm sure that I once read that the option clearinghouse (aka the market-maker) is required by law to buy and sell a certain # of calls and puts of every series listed, even if they are trading at $.05. IOW, if you are willing to pay or sell at whatever their buy or ask price, they have to sell or buy. Do I remember this right? And how many contracts? I seem to remember 20. Does that sound right? And is it x number of contracts per transaction or per client or per day or what?

Did I mention I've been trying to figure this out for nearly a month? Arrrgh.