Hi, Does anyone know what a "vanilla" call option is and how it differs to a standard call option? Thanks
"vanilla" means standard, so there is no difference. It's used to distinguish a standard option from more exotic ones with unusual features.
Gosh, how were we supposed to know that? Some of us looked at that question and decided to ignore it completely because we thought vanilla meant 'very weird'
I expect they'd say it's just common usage! It's possibly guessable since vanilla is the most common/default flavour of ice cream, rather than more exotic flavours like rum and raisin. It was in an old Subject 109 question, so you can hope the papers are vetted a little more carefully these days, to avoid issues like this.
