Alternatively, the investor could wait another year (i.e. to maturity of the option), and observe where the stock price has gone. If the stock price has gone down to, say, US$ 80, he or she would be happy to have waited since a loss would have been avoided. If, on the other hand, the stock rose further to, say, US$ 130, the investor could still exercise the option and put down the strike price of US$ 100. If he or she had exercised earlier, a stock worth US$ 130 would be held. However, the later the strike price needs to paid, the more interest can be earned on that money. Therefore, also in this scenario, it was wiser to wait as long as possible, i.e. until maturity. It follows that a longer maturity is more valuable, i.e. results in a higher option price, even if the option cannot be exercised before maturity.

As just seen, the remaining time to maturity is valuable. Consequently, the option price must be worth more than the intrinsic value (i.e. the US$ 10 that are collected in the above example if exercised immediately). That additional value is related to time to maturity and volatility. Higher volatility makes it more valuable to wait and see, i.e. to have the chance of avoiding a large loss by not exercising early. This difference between the option value and its intrinsic value is thus often called the time or volatility value.