It makes absolute no sense whatsoever to think that Dr. Mungall and NN would have exercised their options at this time.

An option is a chance to buy a certain number of shares at a certain price before an expiration date. When the option is exercised, the shares have to be paid for.

If you had a chance to buy 100,000 shares of NOT at 3.90, then you would wait til the price hits $30/share. Then you would exercise the option, acquire the shares, and sell some of the shares to pay for the purchase price of $3.90.

If the price falls below $3.90, then you never exercise the option since you would end up losing money.

As for David Bruce and Michael Feeney not showing a price in the cost column, I would suggest that they simply missing filling in that box on their initial insider trading report form, which they have to file to establish their starting position when they become officers of the corporation.

Options give executives a vested interest in improving the value of the shares of the corporation. And in the case of NOT with spectacular geology and the hope of a very high future share price, options enable NOT to attract first class talent to take us to the top.