The owner is also known as the holder, purchaser or long the option. The purchaser of an option pays a premium which grants the buyer the right to exercise the claim on the underlying market. It should be noted that long the option is not necessarily synomous with long the market. This is so because a long put indicates a position with negative or bearish market attributes. However, there is a variety of calls and puts and associated strategies.
Call options grant the purchaser the right to exercise into the underlying instrument or market.
Assuming an investor exercised a call on IBM then, that investor would acquire 100 shares of IBM at the agreed strike price. The seller of the call at that time would be either short the stock or would transfer ownership of 100 shares of a previously existing long IBM position. This exercise against a short option position is called an assignment. If the option expired unexercised, then it is referred to as abandoned. Options are used for risk management, investing, and speculative purposes.