How to Find Out If Options Are Available for a Particular Stock

Video Transcript

"Have you made the decision to buy puts or calls or some other types of option on a specific company? Hi this is Roger Groh at Groh Asset Management. Today we're here to talk about how you can find out if options exist in a company. Well the easiest way to do it is to call the company itself. You might first start by looking on their website for a phone number perhaps of the treasurer or investment officer of that company and then call them and ask them. Frequently they will not speak with smaller investors which means that then you're left with their website perhaps or going back through the website of the stock brokerage firm where you do your business. Depending upon the firm, their websites may be a little more sophisticated meaning the firms that deal with hundred million dollar investors are probably going to have more sophisticated and lengthy list of options available then firms that deal with smaller investors. But many options though trade privately, not all options are listed publicly. And as a result you need to also ask are there any privately traded options that the management team knowns about. Why is that important? Because you want to know what their motivation is in terms of the share price, are they long, are they short, have they bought a option privately to hedge their position in a company? Maybe. But it's worth asking and doing your homework. Last but not least, if you're a sophisticated investor and you get Bloomberg, you can type in the company symbol and then type in all options and up will come a long list of options that are available for you to buy or sell stock within that business. That's only available to subscribers and for more information you can contact Bloomberg.com. I hope that helps, I'm Roger Groh at Groh Asset. Thank you very much for spending time with me."