Unrealized Profit & Loss for Non-Stock Securities
"Suddenly its not just comparing the current price to the price of the contract, or is it? Sure it is.  Suppose you bought 100 option contracts (each for 100 shares) and paid a $1 per share premium ($10,000 total).  Now those options are trading for $1.50 per share.  You have an unrealized $0.50 gain per share, or $5,000. The $10,000 in options you bought are now worth $15,000.  It holds whether they were bought to open or close a position, or whether they are puts or calls.  The only difference is whether you bought or sold the options (the arithmetic is just reversed for selling an option). But lets say we have an Option, where the payoff is max(St-K, c0) where ct is the market price. What do you do then? Your current, unrealized P&L is different than the payoff.  The payoff only happens at maturity.  The current P&L is based on current market prices, just like stock.  Option prices all have a ""time premium"" making them worth more than their payoff (intrinsic) value prior to maturity."
All securities must be registered with the SEC. Securities are defined as (1) The term “security” means any note, stock, treasury stock,   security future, security-based swap, bond, debenture, evidence of   indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in any   profit-sharing agreement, collateral-trust certificate,   preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share,   investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit   for a security, fractional undivided interest in oil, gas, or other   mineral rights, any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege on any   security, certificate of deposit, or group or index of securities   (including any interest therein or based on the value thereof), or any   put, call, straddle, option, or privilege entered into on a national   securities exchange relating to foreign currency, or, in general, any   interest or instrument commonly known as a “security”, or any   certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim   certificate for, receipt for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to   subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing. thus currencies are not defined as securities. While OTC transactions of securities is not outright forbidden, there are numerous regulations issued by the SEC as a result of the 1943 Exchange Act and others that make this difficult and/or costly. Many other securities are exempted from registration thus trade in a way that could be called OTC. Different countries have variances upon US law but are very similar. Any security could be traded OTC, but law prohibits it expressly or in such a way to make it relatively expensive; further, stock options are so tightly regulated that expiration dates, expiration intervals, strike intervals, and minimum ticks are all set by the authorities. "To be able to truly short something you technically need to be able to borrow the security so you can sell it.  There needs to be a system for borrowing in place to be able to do this which is very robust for large U.S. stocks but doesn't exist for CDOs mainly due to the complex legal structures around them.   However, the word ""short"" is commonly used in finance to mean profiting from a loss of value of something.  So the use in the movie title, though a bit confusing, was fine. Credit Default Swaps are not technically insurance as you don't need own the thing you are ""insuring"" (and for a few other reasons).  However, I agree with the movie that thinking of them as insurance is a pretty good way to understand them.  As you are playing a monthly premium to for a contract that pays out when something goes very wrong.   However, the movie was a little fast a loose as CDS of various types were regularly traded well before the bubble even started.  Though maybe not that particular type of CDS.  So while they may have been ""expensive"" it was the easiest route and reasonable idea." In the United States investing towards donation is a great idea because you can donate appreciated securities directly rather than donating cash.  Notice how much this can benefit you: So you get to both (a) donate untaxed money and then (b) deduct that unrealized money from your income total on your tax return. With the above in mind, a good strategy for investing towards this type of donation would be to pick securities that are likely to increase in market value but not likely to produce any other sort of income.  So bonds (which produce lots of interest income), or stocks with dividends, or equity mutual funds (which distribute dividends as capital gains) would all be suboptimal for this purpose. Of course, an even better strategy would be to establish a widely diversified investment portfolio without thought to future donations.  Then, once a year (or whenever), evaluate all your investments and find some where the market value has increased.  Then donate some of those shares.  No special advance planning necessary. Note that your tax consequences could be more complicated depending on your exact situation.  Read the section about Capital Gain Property in IRS Pub. 26 for all the details.  There may be special limits on the amount you can deduct.  Also, donations of short term capital gains are treated much less favorably, so make sure you donate only long term capital gain property. ACWI refers to a fund that tracks the MSCI All Country World Index, which is  A market capitalization weighted index designed to provide a broad measure of equity-market performance throughout the world. The MSCI ACWI is maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is comprised of stocks from both developed and emerging markets.  The ex-US in the name implies exactly what it sounds; this fund probably invests in stock markets (or stock market indexes) of the countries in the index, except the US. Brd Mkt refers to a Broad Market index, which, in the US, means that the fund attempts to track the performance of a wide swath of the US stock market (wider than just the S&P 500, for example). The Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index, the Wilshire 5000 index, the Russell 2000 index, the MSCI US Broad Market Index, and the CRSP US Total Market Index are all examples of such an index. This could also refer to a fund similar to the one above in that it tracks a broad swath of the several stock markets across the world. I spoke with BNY Mellon about the rest, and they told me this: EB - Employee Benefit (a bank collective fund for ERISA qualified assets) DL - Daily Liquid (provides for daily trading of fund shares) SL - Securities Lending (fund engages in the BNY Mellon securities lending program) Non-SL - Non-Securities Lending (fund does not engage in the BNY Mellon securities lending program) I'll add more detail. EB (Employee Benefit) refers to plans that fall under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which are a set a laws that govern employee pensions and retirement plans. This is simply BNY Mellon's designation for funds that are offered through 401(k)'s and other retirement vehicles. As I said before, DL refers to Daily Liquidity, which means that you can buy into and sell out of the fund on a daily basis. There may be fees for this in your plan, however. SL (Securities Lending) often refers to institutional funds that loan out their long positions to investment banks or brokers so that the clients of those banks/brokerages can sell the shares short. This SeekingAlpha article has a good explanation of how this procedure works in practice for ETF's, and the procedure is identical for mutual funds: An exchange-traded fund lends out shares of its holdings to another party and charges a rental fee. Running a securities-lending program is another way for an ETF provider to wring more return out of a fund's holdings. Revenue from these programs is used to offset a fund's expenses, which allows the provider to charge a lower expense ratio and/or tighten the performance gap between an ETF and its benchmark. As I recall, the gain for ISOs is considered ordinary income, and capital losses can only negate up to $3000 of this each year.  If you exercised and held the stock, you have ordinary income to the exercise price, and cap gain above that, if you hold the stock for two years.  EDIT - as noted below, this answer works for USians who found this question, but not for the OP who is Canadian, or at least asked a question at it relates to Canada's tax code. You need a source of delisted historical data.  Such data is typically only available from paid sources. According to my records 20 Feb 2006 was not a trading day - it was Preisdent's Day and the US exchanges were closed. The prior trading date to this was 17 Feb 2006 where the stock had the following data: Open: 14.40 High 14.46 Low 14.16 Close 14.32 Volume 1339800 (consolidated volume) Source: Symbol NVE-201312 within Premium Data US delisted stocks historical data set available from http://www.premiumdata.net/products/premiumdata/ushistorical.php Disclosure: I am a co-owner of Norgate / Premium Data. "Suppose the stock is $41 at expiry. The graph says I will lose money. I think I paid $37.20 for (net debit) at this price. I would make money, not lose. What am I missing? The `net debit' doesn't have anything to do with your P/L graph. Your graph is also showing your profit and loss for NOW and only one expiration. Your trade has two expirations, and I don't know which one that graph is showing. That is the ""mystery"" behind that graph. Regardless, your PUTs are mitigating your loss as you would expect, if you didn't have the put you would simply lose more money at that particular price range. If you don't like that particular range then you will have to consider a different contract. it was originally a simple covered call, I added a put to protect from stock going lower.. Your strike prices are all over the place and NBIX has a contract at every whole number.... there is nothing simple about this trade. You typically won't find an ""always profitable"" combination of options. Also, changes in volatility can distort your projects greatly." In the second example you are giving up future  free cash flows in exchange for a capital gain on the original investment. With that respect  the money you will not gain will be the difference of the future cash flows ( net of related costs) minus the net gain on the panel you have sold. The financial result can be considered as the opposite of a sunk cost, that is a cost you have already incurred ( and cannot be recovered)  vs net future gains you are giving up.  In more sophisticated financial terms we are talking about the  benefit-cost ratio:  ( from Investopedia)