This term is used for several purposes. First, it describes the time you must hold your stock options before they vest. For this, the holding period typically begins on your grant date, and ends when specified in the terms of the grant (or potentially, when the company is acquired by another firm). It’s also used to describe how long you must hold a stock before its capital gains are treated as short- or long-term, as well as how much time must pass before an incentive stock option sale becomes qualified.
