Author here. You are right this is convoluted and confusing. I wanted to write an informal introduction to options using a more tangible example for those who

Author here. You are right this is convoluted and confusing. I wanted to write an informal introduction to options using a more tangible example for those who are put off by the maths but still would like to gain an intuitive understanding. At the same time I wanted to show things I found were interesting in the data. It may have been better to separate the two ideas. As you rightly say, one is confusing the other in the current form.