ABSTRACT
If the notion of futures markets appears somewhat strange to many, options appear even more difficult. The enormous increase in options trading during the 1980s has resulted in the rapid development of trading techniques which appear hopelessly complex to the outsider. The different positions of grantors and purchasers of options can be illustrated by considering a range of outcomes for this transaction. The rights and obligations carried by options are not symmetrical. In a futures market transaction, losses and profits are realized in equal measure by the buyer and seller of each contract, since each futures position is both a right and an obligation to buy or sell at the contracted price. In the case of options on traded commodity futures, grantors and purchasers are no more known to each other than are buyers and sellers of futures contracts.
