Glossary O

Official Award

Confirmation by an issuer that the municipal bonds offered through a competitive bidding process have been awarded to an underwriting syndicate.

Official Statement (OS)

Document prepared by or for the issuer that gives in detail security and financial information about the issuer.

Open-End Fund

Mutual funds where new shares are sold when there is a request, with the expectation that the seller will request to buy back the shares at no extra charge.

Open-End Investment Company

A firm that is obligated to repurchase on demand its outstanding shares at prices determined by their current net asset value, which may be more or less than the investor paid for them. Usually referred to as mutual funds.

Open Order

This message, which appears in the Online Services Transaction Summary, indicates that an order has not yet been fully executed.

Opposite Side Order

Where a buy order is being entered, a pending sell order of the same security would be deemed an opposite side order. Where a sell order is being entered, a pending buy order of the same security would be deemed an opposite side order.

Option

The right to buy (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) a specific amount of a given stock, commodity, currency, index, or debt, at a specified price (the strike price) during a specified period of time. For stock options, the amount is usually 100 shares.

Optional Period

The time during which orders may be entered for bonds from a new issue. All orders of a similar priority group entered during the order period receive equal standing. See also Allocation and Priority.

Optional Put

A put feature which is exercised at the bond holder's discretion. See also Mandatory Put.

Order Type

Order type specifies the price and duration conditions of an order. Examples of order types are: Market, Limit, Stop, Stop/Limit. See Also: Duration (Equity).

OTC Bulletin Board

An electronic listing of bid and asked quotations of over-the-counter stocks not meeting the minimum-net worth and other requirements of the NASDAQ stock-listing system.

Out-of-Balance

For PACESM accounts only. A PACE portfolio is considered to be out of balance if any one fund has deviated more than 2.5% from its designated benchmark allocation. If you have selected automatic rebalancing, your current portfolio allocation should always be within balance at quarter-end.

Out-of-the-Money

A call option is out-of-the-money when the strike price is above the price of the underlying security. Likewise, a put option is out-of-the-money when the exercise price is below the price of the underlying security. An out-of-the-money option is one that has no intrinsic value.

Overbought

Refers to a stock that has risen sharply in price or to the market as a whole after a period of vigorous buying which, it is sometimes said, has left prices "too high".

Oversold

A single security (or a market) believed to have declined to an unreasonable level. Opposite of overbought.