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Odd Lot - Securities trade made for less than a normal prescribed lot; order for any amount other than a lot rounded to the nearest 100 shares. Many brokers charge an additional fee or limit the types of trading orders they will accept for an odd lot.
Offer - Also called the "ask," it is simply an offer to sell a security.
Offering Date - Date on which a new security is offered to the public, typically via an initial or secondary public offering. (See "Initial Public Offering," "Secondary Offering")
Offshore - Term used for any investor, account or security not domiciled in the United States. Some securities offerings are targeted only to offshore investors under special registration or exemptions.
Open - Refers to the start of a trading day or the initial trade of a particular security at the start of a trading day. "XYZ traded 100,000 shares at the open" means 100,000 shares of XYZ shares transacted in the first trade of that day.
Open-End Fund - Mutual fund accepting new investments or withdrawals. Most mutual funds are open-end funds. (See "Closed-End Fund")
Open Interest - Total number of unexercised contracts for a particular option or futures contract.
Option - Contract to buy (call) or sell (put) a certain number of shares of a security (usually a stock) at a specified price for a specified period of time.
Option Series - Entire group of options contracts associated with a particular underlying security.
Options Prices Reporting Authority (OPRA) - Self-regulatory agency which sets the strike prices, expiration dates and ticker symbols for listed stock options and reports prices.
Order - Instruction for a broker or dealer to buy or sell a security or commodity.
Out of the Money - Term used in options trading to describe a client's position that would result in a loss if exercised at a particular point in time. (See "At the Money," "In the Money")
Outstanding Stock - Stock in the hands of the public; issued stock minus treasury stock (stock reacquired by the issuing company).
Over The Counter (OTC) - Any security not listed or traded on an organized exchange; popularly refers to an issue failing to meet listing requirements of the New York or American stock exchanges and quoted only on the OTC Bulletin Board or the NQB Pink Sheets.
Overbought - Analyst's opinion that more and stronger buying has occurred in a market or a specific stock than its fundamentals normally would justify.
Oversold - Analyst's opinion that more and stronger selling has occurred in a market or a specific stock than its fundamentals normally would justify.
Overvalued - General term used to describe a company's stock whose current price does not appear to be justified by a fundamental analysis of the company. | 
