For stock options, each contract covers 100 shares. The Options Market. Participants in the options market buy and sell call and put options. Those who buy options are called holders. Sellers of options are called writers. Option holders are said to have long positions, and writers are said to have short positions. First, an Option is a leveraged contract purchased at a premium, representing the control of 100 shares of a given stock. In other words, when buying an option, you are buying a contract with the "option" to purchase 100 shares per contract at any time within the contract period. Below is an example of a Call Option table for Apple. New CBOE Mini options with physical settlement began trading on March 18, 2013. The new Mini options represent a deliverable of 10 shares of an underlying security, whereas standard equity options