When I "sell to open" an options contract, I have to own the stock?
925703
The brokers catagorize their clients.  You have been catagorized as not allowed to sell naked options.  It is that simple.  I had the same problem and quite frankly it made me very unhappy.  If you have your heart set on that strategy, try Optionsxpress.  They might be more understanding.
879502
First of all, don't think your question is even right, but that's OK. This is option, not some software engineering - life cycle?\n\nWhen u said u paid $5 premium for a $10 call option, u mean the stock is currently trading at $10. If you exercise the call option u need to paid extra $1000 for the 100 shares of $10 stock xyz. You just paid $500 + $1000 = $1500 for 100 shrs  $10 stock means your  $1500 now becomes $1000 means you just lost $500.\n\nMy advice: Go to cboe.com, 1888options.com or buy the Mcmillan book and study...\n\nAnd by the way you remember don't use any broker that charge u more than $1 for 1 contract...\n\nGood luck!
781023
If the acquisition is approved by the shareholders then on closing date all shareholders of record will be given $10/share.  That means if you bought the stock at $9, you would make $1/share.  I believe that answers your question, but if you're asking if the stock price has to trade at $10 during market hours, not necessarily.  This is just a broad brushstroke.  If you would like additional details on this feel free to drop me a line.  Good luck!
510550
When trading in in futures, an option is a contract which gives its holder the right to buy or sell an asset at some predetermined price within a specific period. \n\nif you have 100 shares of compnay XYZ, and u sell someone the right to buy ur shares at a certain price within 3 months, that person has the right to 'CALL' your shares at the price. these are called call options. I hope it makes sence.
209360
In general terms, yes you can (assuming the company is not set up as an S corp.); IF (like Trade mentioned) you can find a broker willing to administer the account for you. There are two caveats to think about, however.\n\nWhen you go off the beaten path investment-wise, be prepared for extra expenses, extra paperwork and dealing with potentially reduced liquidity.\n\nYou CANNOT own private equity within an IRA if you are also owner of the company issuing the stock. Self Dealing is a prohibited activity and it includes putting any asset into the plan that you benefit from, such as living in a house purchased by the IRA as an investment, or selling personal property to the IRA as well as selling your own company stock to the IRA.
520222
Well, your stock is not worthless, its worth $3 per share right now (and thats up from just $2 per share a few days ago), you can simply open an account and sell it if you want.\n\nNo telling what the stock will do from here.  They filled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization), not Chapter 7 (liquidation), meaning they are trying to cut costs, sell whatever they can, and emerge from the bankruptcy.  When (if) they emerge they will try to give the stockholders as much value/ownbership of the new company as they can, but no telling what they will be able to give you (if anything).  \n\nThey may say we had to give 90% ownership to other people to get enough money to reopen, or they may be able to get money to reopen with less (or more) of the company given away, again no way to tell (or they may never get the money to reopen and they will eventually end up liquidating the company and then you'll almost certainly get nothing)\n\nSo, you can just sell what you have for 3$ per share (as of today), or you may want to say what the heck lets roll the dice and see what happens, and hold on to the stock (realizing down the road you could get alot more or alot less than that 3$ per share, again very hard to say).\n\nGood luck with it.\n\nBy the way, here is the link to your stocks current sell price.\n\nhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DCNAQ.PK
27508
It depends on the terms of the buyout. Likely you will get stock in 123, but you could get 123 stock and cash or just cash and no stock. All depends on the terms of the sale.
155802
If you have stock options, you have the right to purchase stock at a set price. The price you'll pay is set by the Board of Directors (usually). If the company is pre-IPO, the price may be quite low. The hope is that when the company goes public, your stock will be worth more than the option price.\n\nThe vesting schedule sets forth the time and amount of stock you can purchase.
928096
It depends on your state law and whether you have a shareholders' agreement in place.  It also depends on what you mean by "selling the company."  If you mean selling your assets, in some states, a 50% vote is required to sell the company's assets.  In other states (such as TX, I believe), the requirement is 66 2/3%.  If you mean selling a controlling block of shares (i.e., your shares), you generally do not need anyone's consent to sell your own shares unless your shareholders' agreement says otherwise and provided that you properly discharge your fiduciary duties to the minority shareholders.  A majority shareholder has substantial fiduciary duties to minority shareholders and these vary from state to state.  \n\nThe problem with just selling your shares is that they buyer is going to have to deal with the minority shareholders because you generally cannot force them to sell unless the shareholders' agreement permits it.  That may make selling difficult unless you own 80% or so of the shares.  If you own that many of the shares, in a lot of states you can do a "short form merger" and squeeze out the minority shareholders by paying fair value to them.  If you do that, you will probably want to get a fairness opinion.  There are a lot of ways to squeeze out minority shareholders, but there is a fair amount of risk with doing it because the minority might claim you aren't giving them a fair price.\n\nThis is not legal advice and is merely a discussion of some of the pertinent issues which you need to fully investigate before moving forward.  The question you pose is not subject to being properly answered without a lot of additional information.  That's why my answer to your question is "it depends."
1097286
It's a bit unclear how your father came by the stock.  Assuming he retired from the RR and wants to liquidate his shares than simply call the RR retirement plan custodian and ask them to liquidate and distribute proceeds.  They may not want to do that and you'll have to roll the shares into a Discount Brokerage House IRA prior to selling and taking a distribution.  \n\nIf you father came by the shares through consultinig or being employed--special incentive than they may/might be restricted and you'd have to check with the RR's Treasurer to find out what those restrictions are/may be prior to liquidating.  Regardless, be aware of the tax consequences of a sale.
937091
I have no idea why anyone would want to buy stock so they can take a loss.  Would you like to explain that to me?  \n\nThere are no tax consequences for letting worthless options expire.
839709
If you're talking about a publicly traded corporation such as General Electric, Wal-Mart, etc....NO, a stockholder can sell his shares to anybody he wants to...even if not selling via the services of a stockbroker.   However, if you're talking about a privately held corporation...almost anything is possible.  Many privately held corporations have all kinds of buy-sell agreements among the stockholders so that the remaining stockholders don't end up being in business with a stockholder they don't know or don't want to be in business with.  It is not inconceivable that a corporation could have a clause in their bylaws that would indeed require that a stockholder must get approval of the Board of Directors before he could sell his stock to someone beside one of the existing stockholders or the company itself.  As a matter of fact, I'd likely put this kind of clause in any company that I would form.  It's a good protection for the stockholders...even though it does limit the marketability (and hence the value) of the underlying corporation shares.
171313
1) Employee Buyout\n2) Sell to another entity (company or person)\n3) Sell stock publicly (ipo)\n4) Sell off / license assets of the company
379290
That's the definition.. but this is how they work:\n\nCall options: buy if you expect a stock to go up.\nPut options: buy if you expect a stock to go down.\n\nOptions were intended at first as insurance, you would buy option 'contracts' at a certain 'strike price' that would let you to buy 100 shares per contract at the specified strike price, regardless of whatever the stock was trading at. \n\nHowever, many people realized you can make A LOT of money by buying and selling the option contracts themselves. You can also lose everything. They have higher spreads (usually minimum of $0.10), and a lot more volatile since they're cheap. Use at your own discretion.
460933
They don't really buy the stock.  Normally, they can get stock options granted to them as part of their compensation package.  Usually, though, the exercise price of the options is above 0.  This doesn't really matter.  They're still getting "free" money in that they don't have to buy the stock on the open market.
936271
You can trade options on Ameritrade.\n\nAlso, I read a good book titled Options Made Easy. It helped me become a the current profitable options trader that I am. I am currently running a series on my blog about using options called 'creating investment cashflow'. I just wrote part I and will write the next two parts in a few weeks. The point is that you can easily be profitable on options and lower risk with a few principles. Mostly, I try to stay on the sell side of (short) options. Once I started doing that, my investment returns greatly increased, to 80-100% yearly. You may find it interesting. I try to explain step by step how to do it, but they are long reads.\n\nHere is the address: \nhttp://www.gmoolah.blogspot.com/
1177983
Liquidating a "position", whether long or short; whether in options, puts or calls, warrants, or stocks