What is a Delta Options?

The term "delta options" is one that is commonly called "the Greeks" in the Exchange Option, but understanding its meaning can make a big difference to your business decisions.

In its simplest form, the delta is a number that describes the relationship between the movement in the price of the underlying financial instrument (stocks, commodities, currencies, etc.) and the pricing option that follows .

This refers to an option whose strike price is exactly the same as the current price of the underlying market. If we talk call or put options, an option the currency still has a theoretical delta of 0.50 or 50 percent. The reason is that this position "in the money", the option contract has a chance to beat out-of-the-money 50/50. Whatever the result, the chances are 50 percent, or 0.50 each way.


Now, provided that the exercise price of the underlying movements, causes the option to go "out-of-the-money", the less that the option agreement will be of no intrinsic value on the expiration date. Thus, the delta decreases. Secondly, if the underlying moves their favor, making the option contract "in-the-money" greater likelihood exists that the option expires with a certain intrinsic value. Therefore, delta options increases, but only up to 1.0 percent or 100 which indicates safety.

Using the Delta options in business decisions

Now that you understand how the delta options works, you can use to your advantage to assess the potential risk of any trade. You decide to sell put options on 100 points below the index of current price and buy the same amount of put options on 110 lower points, creating a line of credit of 10 points. You can see the delta options for the price of 100 strike is 0.10 or 10 percent. This means that, theoretically, there is only a chance of 10 percent that the index is likely to fall below this level, the expiry date. Delta showed.

But imagine that the next two weeks, the index falls for it approaches its put option exercise price "sold". This being the case, the delta will increase to reflect the new probability that the index will close below your chosen level at the expiration date. So if the delta is 0.25 or 25 percent, this means that there is now a chance of 25 percent that the index is below the strike price sold to date.

Understanding delta options gives you a valuable tool to make options trading decisions. Some even say that the best and safest commercial options adjusts their positions and "management by delta options."