What are index options? What are currency options?

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In todays video we will learn about options on foreign exchange and index options.

These classes are all based on the book Trading and Pricing Financial Derivatives, available on Amazon at this link.
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Options on Stock Indices - what are index options?
A stock market index is a method of measuring the price movements of a basket of stocks in a market. Many indices are cited by the media and are used as benchmarks to measure the performance of portfolios such as mutual funds. Some are price indices and some are total return indices, meaning that they include reinvested dividends over time.
There are a number of different index types. National indices represent the performance of the stock market of a given nation. Sector indices track the performance of specific industry sectors in the market. Ethical indices include only those companies that satisfy certain ecological, religious, or social criteria.
Index options exist on broad-based indices like the S&P500 or the Russell 3000. They also exist on more narrowly based indices like mining indices or semiconductor indices. The global market for exchange-traded stock market index options is notionally valued by the Bank for International Settlements at hundreds of billions per year. When OTC options are added to that, you can see that it is a very large market indeed.
An index option is a financial derivative that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a basket of stocks, such as the S&P500, at a pre-agreed price on a specified date. An index option is similar to other options contracts, the difference being the underlying instruments are indexes. Index options are typically cash settled.

Uses of Index Options
There are two main reasons that investors will pursue index options.
1. Portfolio insurance: Investors with large stock portfolios may wish to insure their downside risk by buying put options.
2. Speculation: Portfolio managers may wish to use index options to speculate on the direction of the overall market, or on the volatility of the overall market.

Foreign Exchange Options - What are currency options?
A foreign exchange option is a derivative where the owner has the right but not the obligation to exchange money denominated in one currency into another currency at a pre-agreed exchange rate on a specified date. European and American options on foreign exchange are actively traded on both exchanges and OTC. Companies frequently use them to hedge foreign exchange risk, and they are commonly used to speculate on the price and volatility of various foreign exchange pairs. The foreign exchange options market is mostly an OTC market.
A GBP/USD foreign exchange call option, can also be viewed as being a USD/GBP put option, as they each give the option owner the right but not the obligation to exchange a certain amount of US dollars for British pounds at a pre-agreed exchange rate on a specified date.
The Black-Scholes model can be modified to price options on foreign exchange. The modified Black-Scholes model was developed in 1983 by Garman and Kohlhagen and is known as the Garman-Kohlhagen model. It is a modification of the Black-Scholes model which accounts for the different interest rates of each currency.
You can think of options on currencies as being an options position with an annual percentage dividend embedded in the form of the foreign currencies’ risk-free rate.