They focused on this database because it contained reliable information on when the companies' chief executives exercised their options.

In particular, the executive exercises all three types of function.

The other is by controlling the way in which the executive exercises the powers which it is given.

To profit, the executives must exercise the options and sell the shares.

That is why tax professionals often recommend that executives exercise options over time.

But because the study covers 1995 through 2005, it's a fair guess that executives at these companies exercised boatloads of options and banked huge gains.

But only if America's chief executives exercise their "nuclear option."

What is intriguing is the professor's assumption that corporate executives actually exercised self-restraint at some time in the American past.

Faceless financial executives exercise far more control over politicians than the voters who elected them.

Yet companies get a tax deduction when executives exercise the options.