Options Trading Tutorial

Can I sell stock options even if I have not purchased them yet?

I received 400 stock options through my company a few years back and have not had the opportunity to buy them. I want to know if there is a way of selling those options instead of having to purchase them.

Public Comments

1. Almost certainly you can; but to be within the law call a reputable broker and ask.
2. Need more specifics. You can do a same day sale in which your broker will exercise the options to purchase the shares, and then sell the shares on the open market to cover the cost of the purchasing the shares, and send you the balance. Now if you actually want to sell the option, not exercise it that is another question.
3. you would do a purchase and then a sale, you would have to be vested,, meaning they are all yours,, you need to ask a financial advisor or the company benfits person... if your looking for some good stock ideas once you sell the options, you should check out the folks at www.thewallstreethunter.com they have a pretty good track record for picking stocks and have lots of articles for wall street newbies like us.. Good luck...
4. 400 stock options. That's a good sized lot. If you're a participating in a LESOP (a Leveraged Employee Stock Option Program) you'll need to be sure you have 4, 400 options or 400 shares, and whether those options haven't expired. Because they're leveraged, I don't think you'll be able to sell them on the open market because they're priced specifically for employees. They're given as incentives to get employees in as 'employee-owners' at bargain rates. The strike price of the option is usually much lower than the current market price the stock is trading at. Additionally, 400 options is quite a lot, and they can be valuable if you decide to sell, or pricey if you want to exercise. You'll need to check with a broker to see if you can do some sort of combo transaction. I had a similar situation before I left one company worked for. I couldn't afford to purchase all the stock I had options for, so I used half the options to finance the purchase for the other half.