A Lot Of Hot Air?(use of stock options as compensation programs)(Statistical Data Included)

Stock option fever is sweeping the country, leaving employees more overheated than the U.S. economy. Experts fear that many of these workers, buoyed by Wall Street's unprecedented bull run and spurred by media tales of dot-com millionaires, are placing an inflated value on stock grants that's out of proportion to their real worth.

The attractions of using stock options in compensation programs are obvious: Companies that issue them at fair market value need not take any charge on their balance sheets; all gains are funded by investors rather than profits. If the value o