A put option in finance allows you to sell a share of stock at a given price in the future. There are different types of put options. A European put option allows you to sell a share of stock at a given price, called the exercise price, at a particular point in time after the purchase of the option. For example, suppose you purchase a six-month European put option for a share of stock with an exercise price of $26. If six months later, the stock price per share is $26 or more, the option has no value. If in six months the stock price is lower than $26 per share, then you can purchase the stock and immediately sell it at the higher exercise price of $26. If the price per share in six months is $22.50, you can purchase a share of the stock for $22.50 and then use the put option to immediately sell the share for $26. Your profit would be the difference, $26 $22.50 = $3.50 per share, less the cost of the option. If you paid $1.00 per put option, then your profit would be $3.50 $1.00 = $2.50 per share. The point of purchasing a European option is to limit the risk of a decrease in the per-share price of the stock. Suppose you purchased 200 shares of the stock at $28 per share and 75 six-month European put options with an exercise price of $26. Each put option costs $1.