Defendant fired plaintiff wrongfully in 2018 thereby disentitling plaintiff to stock options he would otherwise have held in 2020 when defendant went public with an IPO, guaranteeing a profit on exercise of the stock options.  This decision holds that plaintiff’s breach of contract damages need not be measured as of the date of breach (2018) but may properly be measured after the IPO and expiration of the 6-month legal lock-up period when plaintiff would have been able to exercise his options and sell the shares to the public.  Damages in breach of contract actions involving personal property (unlike real property) need not be determined as of the date of breach. Valuation as of the date of breach is not required when there is no market for purchase or sale of the stock at the time of breach.  The date of breach rule works when the plaintiff can cover the breach by buying or selling substantially similar goods in a ready market, but not when cover is not possible.  Measuring the stock option loss by the price after the lock-up period ended best compensated plaintiff for what he would have had if defendant had fully performed.  However, stock options are not wages because they “are not ‘amounts.’ paid for labor. They are not money at all. They are contractual rights to buy shares of stock.  So, the plaintiff may recover in contract, but not in tort for the employer’s refusal to allow the wrongly terminated employee to exercise his stock options.