News Focus
News Focus
icon url

milplease

10/24/03 12:00 PM

#49184 RE: owd3 #49177

You ask... how does one exercise a "share"??

First off it has nothing to do with weights at the gym...


You see, there's a whole vocabulary when dealing with stock options but in simple terms, a stock option (also known as a "share option") is a contract that gives an employee the right to buy or sell ("exercise") shares in the company at a set price ("grant", "strike" or "exercise price") within a certain amount of time ("the exercise period").

For example, upon starting employment with Company A, you may receive 2000 stock options at a strike price of $1. Therefore, you have $2,000 worth of shares in the firm.

The term “exercise” is used to describe the action of buying those shares at the strike price so they may be held or sold by the employee. In this example the employee would have to produce the $2,000 to take possession of the shares.

Hope that helps with your education. Good luck, the markets can be hard to understand until you grasp some of the basic terms.