Option basics · Lesson 02 of 9 · Concept
What a put option is worth
A put option is the right to sell at a fixed strike price. At expiry it is worth the gap between that strike and the closing level, and nothing if the close is higher. NIFTY closed at 23,329 on 22 September 2026: the 23,450 put settled at ₹121.15, and the 23,300 put at ₹0.05.
NIFTY weekly expiry, 22 September 2026 · MarketCue one-minute option-chain capture
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Prices captured at the open on Tuesday, 22 September 2026. NIFTY spot at the open: 23,460. The highlighted row is nearest the money.
NIFTY closed at 23,329, down 131 points from the open. Bought 23,450 PE at ₹34.85 → settled ₹121.15. Net gain of ₹86.30 per unit, or +248% of what was put up. This was the expiry, so those closing prices are settlement values.
The mirror of a call
A put gives its buyer the right to sell the underlying at the strike price. It gains value as the underlying falls, and at expiry it settles at the strike minus the closing level, or at nothing when the close sits above the strike.
NIFTY closed at 23,329. The 23,450 put settled at ₹121.15 — the 121 points between strike and close. The 23,500 put settled at ₹170.60, the 23,550 at ₹220.65. Below the close the arithmetic runs out: the 23,300, 23,250 and 23,200 puts all settled at ₹0.05.
A fall is not sufficient
The index dropped 131 points across the session, which is a substantial move for a single day. Even so, the 23,300 put returned −99% to a buyer who held from the open.
It reached 23,288.35 at 14:01 — 11.65 points below that strike — so for a few minutes the contract did hold intrinsic value. The index then recovered more than 70 points inside ten minutes and closed above the strike, and a position that is in the money at two o'clock settles at whatever is true at half past three.
A put needs the close below the strike. Direction alone does not decide the outcome; the level reached at 15:30 does.
Common questions
What is a put option?
A put option is the right to sell an underlying at a fixed strike price until expiry. It gains value as the underlying falls. At expiry it settles at max(0, strike − closing level).
Can a put lose money on a day the market falls?
Yes. On NIFTY's 22 September 2026 expiry the index fell 131 points and the 23,300 put still settled at ₹0.05 against ₹7.65 paid at the open, because the close of 23,329 finished above that strike.
All 9 lessons in Option basics →
Written and maintained by MarketCue research · Updated 9:30 AM IST · 23 October 2026
How these figures are produced
Every price on these pages was traded on the exchange and is read from our own option-chain capture, which records the NIFTY and SENSEX chains once a minute through the session. Each page names the session its figures come from.
Figures that a model produced rather than the market — the Greeks, implied volatility — are labelled as model outputs wherever they appear, and never presented beside traded prices without saying which is which. The pricing is checked against published reference values on every change.
Where our own data cannot support a claim, the page says so instead of generalising. MarketCue is not a registered investment adviser, research analyst or broker under SEBI regulations.