24 Part I: Basic Properties ol Stock Options 
THE STRIKING PRICE CODE 
This is also a one-character symbol, designed to identify the striking price of the 
option. Things can get ve:iy complicated where striking price codes are concerned, 
but simplistically the designations are that the letter A stands for 5, B stands for 10, 
on up to S for 95 and T for 100. If the stock being quoted is more expensive - say, 
trading at $150 per share - then it is possible that A will stand for 105, B for 110, S 
for 195 and T for 200 (although, as will be shown later, a more complicated approach 
might have to be used in cases such as these). It should be noted that the exchanges 
- who designate the striking price codes and their numerical meaning - do not have • 
to adhere to any of the generalized conventions described here. They usually adhere 
to as many of them as they can, in order to keep things somewhat standardized, but 
they can use the letters in any way they want. Typically, they would only use any strik­
ing price code letter outside of its conventional designation after a stock has split or 
perhaps paid a special dividend of some sort. 
Before getting into the more complicated option symbol constructions, let's 
look at a few simple, straightforward examples: 
Stock Stock Symbol Description Option Symbol 
IBM IBM IBM July 125 call IBMGE 
Cisco csco Cisco April 75 put CYQPO 
Ford Motor F Ford March 40 call FCH 
General Motors GM GM December 65 put GMXM 
In each option symbol, the last two characters are the expiration month code and the 
striking price code. Preceding them is the option base symbol. For the IBM July 125, 
the option symbol is quite straightforward. IBM is the option base symbol (as well as 
the stock symbol), G stands for July, and E for 125, in this case. 
For the Cisco April 75 put, the option base symbol is CYQ (this was given in the 
previous table, but if one didn't know what the base symbol was, you would have to 
look it up on the Internet or call a broker). The expiration month code in this case is 
P, because P stands for an April put option. Finally, the striking price code is 0, which 
stands for 75. 
The Ford March 40 call and the GM December 65 put are similar to the oth­
ers, except that the stock symbols only require one and two characters, respectively, 
so the option symbol is thus a shorter symbol as well - first using the stock symbol, 
then the standard character for the expiration month, followed by the standard char­
acter for the striking price.