[throwawaymath]

I agree with the spirit of your comment. But this:

> The option, for an institution, is a hedging instrument, not a speculative instrument.

is not entirely correct. It's not at all uncommon for institutional capital to use options for directional leverage. Options are sophisticated derivatives for increasing upside, not just limiting downside.

[goodmattg]

Fair point. Looked back in my notes and can't find a percentile breakdown of the use of options in markets. For the derivatives markets as a whole less than 7% are even options.