Option Pricing — Black-Scholes and the Greeks
The Black-Scholes model is one of the most consequential equations ever written — it turned option pricing from guesswork into engineering and arguably created the modern derivatives industry. Its genius is not a formula to memorize but an idea: you can price an option by continuously replicating it with the underlying and cash, so no-arbitrage pins down its value without any forecast of the market. This post builds that idea and the Greeks that make it operational.
Black-Scholes turned option pricing into engineering: price an option by the cost of continuously replicating it, so no-arbitrage pins its value and the underlying's expected return drops out entirely. Risk-neutral valuation, what the model assumes, implied volatility, and the Greeks traders actually hedge. (Educational, not financial advice.)