The myStockOptions Editorial Team
Incentive stock options (ISOs) are potentially quite valuable. However, they are more rule-bound, complex, and risky than nonqualified stock options (NQSOs). In fact, mistakes with ISOs can be quite costly. This article presents five key aspects of ISOs that you must know at the time of grant, before you exercise the options, and when you sell the shares.
Bruce Brumberg
With expert insights from the editor-in-chief of myStockOptions.com, this video covers the essential aspects of employee stock options that you must know to make the most of them, including the key concepts of vesting, exercise, and the option term. Running time: 4:12.
The myStockOptions Editorial Team
Stock options rose to fame in the 1990s. Even on the TV sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine got lucrative stock options and couldn't stop talking about them (provoking George's resentment, of course). Options remain a major form of employee equity. This article compares the two types and how they work.
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Matt Simon
Podcast included! So your company has granted you stock options. Now what? Stock options give you a potential share in the growth of your company's value without any financial risk to you until you exercise the options and buy shares of the company's stock. Before you exercise your options, their built-in value is subject to pre-tax growth—which can be significant. This article explains the essential facts that you must know to understand your options and make the most of them.
William Baldwin
Podcast included! Stock options are a major element of your long-term incentive compensation, offering tremendous potential to accumulate personal wealth. Given your stock options' complexity, it’s essential to develop a strategy to realize their full potential.
Marilyn Renninger
Stock options aren't just for the folks on mahogany row any more. But turning stock options into the real green stuff takes some know-how. You need to know certain features of your grant to decide when to exercise your options and sell the stock.
Marilyn Renninger
You cannot cash in your stock options immediately. The options must first be vested, and you don't own them forever.
Marilyn Renninger
Exercising stock options is like playing a hand of cards: if your plays are strategic, you'll probably "know when to hold them and when to fold them." But, as always, rules and regulations apply to what you can do.
Beth Walker
Avoid the fumbles others made with options during past ups and downs in the stock markets. Situations where common errors tend to arise can be classed into nine categories, including option-term expiration, job termination, corporate mergers, financial planning, and various life events.
Beth Walker
Avoid the mistakes others made during prior ups and downs in the stock markets. Common errors arise in nine different situations, including job termination, mergers, financial planning, term expiration, and various life events.
Richard Friedman
Podcast included! Get a sense of what you should, and should not, expect in the terms of your stock option grant. A major survey of companies looks at trends in vesting schedules, post-termination exercise rules, and other plan features.
myStockOptions.com Editorial Staff
PowerPoint presentation (in PDF) that the editorial team of myStockOptions.com developed to provide a convenient crash course on the basics of incentive stock options. myStockOptions Pro members may request permission to use it for company employees or financial-planning clients.
Tax errors can be costly! Don't draw unwanted attention from the IRS. Our Tax Center explains and illustrates the tax rules for sales of company stock, W-2s, withholding, estimated taxes, AMT, and more.
Listen to our podcast on the basics of stock options, or watch our videos on core concepts and ISO taxes.
Basics
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