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Options on Theta Labs are cash-settled call options on a prediction market’s probability. Instead of buying shares directly, you buy the right to profit if a market’s price finishes above a specific threshold — the strike — at expiry. This lets you express a view with a fraction of the capital, while capping your downside to the premium you paid.
Options on Theta Labs are real-money trading, funded by your pUSD balance. The premium you pay is the most you can lose on a contract you buy — but losses are real.

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Yes Calls and No Calls

Every options market offers two sides:
  • A Yes Call pays off when the market’s Yes price finishes above your strike at expiry. Buy Yes Calls when you think the probability is going up.
  • A No Call is a call on the market’s No price — it pays off when the No price finishes above your strike, i.e. when the event becomes less likely. Buy No Calls when you think the probability is going down.
There are no puts: a No Call plays the same role, since the No price rises as the Yes price falls.

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Key terms

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The capital efficiency case

A market is trading at 40% and you think the probability is going higher. Two ways to play it (illustrative numbers):
The calls cost a fraction of the capital and deliver multiples of the return — with your downside capped at the premium regardless of how far the price falls.

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How payoff works

At expiry, each contract pays:
  • A Yes Call with a 40% strike, on a market that settles at 65%, pays $0.25 per contract.
  • If the settlement price is at or below your strike, the contract expires worthless and you lose only the premium.
Every options market page includes a “How & When This Settles” explainer with the exact rules for that market.

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Reading the options chain

Pick Yes Calls or No Calls and an expiry, and the chain lists the available strikes: A Spot marker highlights the row nearest the market’s live probability. Strikes close to the current price cost more because they’re more likely to pay off; strikes further away are cheaper but need a bigger move.
Every contract is fully backed by collateral locked by the platform’s dealer desk, so each strike has limited supply. The chain shows how many contracts are available, and a strike can show Sold out once its capacity is taken.

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Placing a trade

1

Pick a market

Open the Options page (the app’s default view). Each card shows the market, its live probability, and Yes Calls / No Calls buttons.
2

Choose your side and expiry

Select Yes Call or No Call, then pick an expiry from the dropdown (shown as “Expiring (d)”).
3

Add strikes to your ticket

Tap the Ask price on any strike to add it to the ticket. The ticket supports multiple legs, and you can size in Contracts or Dollars.
4

Review the payoff chart

The ticket shows a payoff-at-expiry chart — drag the cursor to any settlement level to see your P&L there — along with Max profit, Max loss, and Breakeven.
5

Buy

Click Buy for $X. Your order fills instantly against the platform dealer at the quoted ask. The minimum order is 1¢ total.

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Pricing, spreads, and fees

Options are priced by a probability-space model built for prediction markets, accounting for time to expiry, volatility, and the distance between the current price and the strike. Theta Labs charges no explicit fee on options trades. Quotes include a market-making spread (roughly 2% in normal conditions, wider as a strike’s remaining capacity fills up) — the price you see in the ticket is the price you pay.

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Expiries

Contracts are listed on several cadences, chosen per market:
  • Daily
  • Mon / Wed / Fri
  • Weekly (Fridays)
  • Monthly (third Friday)
The standard expiry time is 8:00 pm ET. Some markets also carry an earlier final expiry on their resolution day (for example, before a game starts).

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Settlement

Settlement is automatic — no action needed:
  • The settlement price is the time-weighted average of the market’s Yes/No price over the final 60 minutes before expiry. If the underlying market resolves before your expiry, the contract settles at exactly 0 or 1.
  • In-the-money contracts pay settlement − strike per contract, credited to your pUSD balance. Out-of-the-money contracts expire worthless.
  • Settlement runs automatically on an hourly cycle after expiry.

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Managing positions

Your open options positions live on the Portfolio page. Each row shows the market, your side and strike (e.g. “Yes call · 20% strike”), Qty, Avg (your entry price), Now (the current mark), Exp (days to expiry), and unrealized P&L in dollars and percent. Each position has three actions:
  • Buy — jump back to the market to add to the position
  • Sell — close early via a sell ticket showing the live bid, your entry, what you’ll receive, and your realized P&L; click Sell for $X to fill at the dealer’s bid
  • Share — generate a shareable card of the position
You can only buy options on Theta Labs (and sell to close what you own). Writing contracts — selling to open — isn’t available; all contracts are written and fully collateralized by the platform’s dealer desk.