Glossary - O
This section provides an explanation for some of the jargon used to describe structured retail products. If you would like us to add additional words then please let us know by clicking here.
Offer period
Most structured products are tranche products, meaning that they are only available for a limited period. This period, which is usually around 4 to 8 weeks, is called the offer period and is the period during which the product is available for investment.
Offshore
Offshore products are those that are regulated outside of the UK. They are typically set up in centres such as Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man. These products have different tax implications to onshore products.
Open Ended Investment Company
A type of investment company with no fixed maturity date. Shares are typically listed on a stock exchange and can be bought or sold on a continuous basis.
Open-ended investment company (OEIC)
An OEIC is a form of mutual fund offered in the EU that satisfies certain regulations regarding the composition of the underlying assets, pricing, availability, etc.
In the UK many funds that were previously structured as Unit Trusts have converted to OEICs in order to have a single price rather than two prices for buying and selling units.
Open-ended product
Some structured products are open-ended products, meaning that they are available for investment for an unlimited period. They are also known as continuous products. Structured products that are available for investment during a limited period only are called tranche products.
Do note that "Leverage" and "Flow & Others" products are not considered as being "Tranche" or "Continuous" in our "Product Style" categorisation.
Opening index level
This is the level of an equity index calculated at the start of the trading day. It is not necessarily the same as the initial index level used in calculating the return on a structured product.
Option
An option is a form of derivative contract. The owner of an option has the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a fixed quantity of some underlying asset or index, at a fixed price, on or before a given future date (see call option and put option).
Others
Underlying is composed of non-traditional asset classes such as sport, temperature, election results, etc
Out-of-the-money
This is the term used to describe any option which has a strike price that is far above (for a call option) or below (for a put option) the current level of the underlying.
So for example a call option on the FTSE100 index with a strike price of 6000 would be called out-of-the-money if the current level of the FTSE100 was 4500.