Tracking Stock Options

Stock option ticker symbols can be used in both Watchlists and Portfolios. Finding option ticker symbols is easy using the built-in Ticker Symbol search or directly on Yahoo Finance! Read our guide for more details on finding option ticker symbols.

Adding Option Contracts to a Portfolio

You can track option contracts in your portfolio. The following steps should help get you started.

1. In your portfolio, click on the "Buy Stock" button on the toolbar. The "Purchase Details" window will open.
2. If you have the option ticker symbol from Yahoo Finance already, paste it into the Ticker Symbol field. Otherwise, search for the option symbol you're interested in in the Ticker Symbol field or at Yahoo Finance!
3. Set the purchase Date and select "Buy" as the transaction Type. If you are shorting with Puts, have a look at the section on entering short sales.
4. Shares field - Yahoo Finance, like most financial websites, reports option prices for individual options. However, options are normally sold in lots of 100. So the value of one option lot is the option’s price (as reported by Yahoo Finance) times 100. For example, 1 lot (100 options) priced at 0.52 per option would be worth: 0.52 * 100 = $52. If you had 5 lots, they would be worth (0.52 * 5 * 100) = $260.
   1. Note that the number of shares controlled by one option lot is 100 for standard options. However, for “mini” option contracts, there are only 10 shares associated with the lot. In the Yahoo ticker symbol, a mini-option contract is denoted by a “7” just after the ticker symbol. For example, AAPL140606C00615000, is a normal option ticker symbol. But AAPL7140606C00615000 (note the “7” directly after AAPL) is a mini-option.
   2. When using StockMarketEye, what this means is that when entering the Shares, you should multiply the number of lots you purchased by the number of shares controlled by that lot. If you have a normal option, multiply by 100. If you’re using a mini-option, multiple by 10. For example, say you bought 5 normal JNJ Put options, you would then enter 500 shares (5 x 100) in the Shares field.
5. Price - The buy price should be the price of an individual option, not the price of the entire lot. If you only have the total price you paid, you can first divide it by the number of lots, then divide it by the number of shares controlled by the lot (100 or 10) to get the individual option price.
   1. For example: if you bought 5 normal lots of a JNJ Put option for $250, you can divide that by 5 to get the amount for one lot, then divide that by 100 to get the price for one option. 250 / 5 / 100 = 0.5
6. Enter any transaction Commissions or Fees associated with this option’s purchase in the corresponding field. If the costs of this purchase should be deducted from the portfolio’s cash balance, check the “Update the cash balance” box.
7. Click “OK” to add the option holding to your portfolio.

Now, when StockMarketEye updates the prices for the items in your Portfolio, the value of the option contract will also be updated and you’ll see the exact value of your option holdings.

Tracking Option Prices in a Watchlist

To track option prices in a watchlist, either search for the option symbol in the Ticker Symbol field of the "Watchlist Symbol Details" screen (after clicking on the Add button on the Watchlist's toolbar). Or get the ticker symbol from Yahoo! Finance and paste it into the Ticker Symbol field.