Welcome back to the world of options. My reality exists in three dimensions and far more combinations of potential positions than does the one-dimensional world of the stock trader.

As pundits chatter about an economic recovery, 80 miles east of San Francisco you'll find a city (pop. 292,000) facing bankruptcy:

Stockton is on the verge of becoming the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy... San Francisco Chronicle (3/4)

The peculiar vocabulary and concepts inhabiting an options trader’s thoughts are often the source of confusion to visitors to my world. I have often pondered that learning to understand options is a lot like learning a foreign language. When you arrive in the country whose language you seek to learn, you need a functional vocabulary immediately.