ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Black–Scholes model

Okay kiddo, let's talk about the Black-Scholes model. Imagine that you have some money, and you want to invest it in something like a stock, but you're not sure how much it could be worth in the future. The Black-Scholes model is a tool that helps investors predict how much a specific stock or option will cost later on.

Now, do you know what an option is? It's like a contract that gives you the right to either buy or sell a stock at a certain price, called the "strike price," at a certain time in the future. The thing is, the value of an option changes depending on a lot of factors, such as the price of the stock, time until the option expires, and even the rate of interest in the market.

The Black-Scholes model uses fancy math to calculate the "fair price" of an option based on all these factors. It's like a recipe that takes all the ingredients to cook up the perfect price of an option.

The model is based on a few assumptions, like that the stock price changes in a way that's random (we call this "stochastic"), and that investors don't want to constantly 'buy low and sell high' to make profit. Also, there is no guarantee that the stock market will always work like the model assumes.

In the end, the Black-Scholes model is a tool that helps investors make smart decisions about buying or selling options, by predicting how much they might be worth. It helps them manage their risk and reward in a smarter way.