What Is an Order Paper? An order paper, or order instrument, is a negotiable instrument that is payable to a specified person or its assignee. An instrument such as an order paper is negotiable only if it is payable to the order of a specified person; meaning that it must designate an individual’s name to
What Is an Order Book? The term order book refers to an electronic list of buy and sell orders for a specific security or financial instrument organized by price level. An order book lists the number of shares being bid on or offered at each price point, or market depth. It also identifies the market participants
What Is an Order Book Official? An order book official (OBO) is the trading floor participant responsible for maintaining a list of public market or limit orders of a specific option class using the “market-marker” system of executing orders. The purpose is to maintain a fair and orderly market in the assigned options, including executing
What Is an Order Driven Market? An order-driven market is a financial market where all buyers and sellers display the prices at which they wish to buy or sell a particular security, as well as the amounts of the security desired to be bought or sold. This kind of trading environment is the opposite of
What Is an Order Imbalance? Order imbalance is a situation resulting from an excess of buy or sell orders for a specific security on a trading exchange, making it impossible to match the orders of buyers and sellers. For securities that are overseen by a market maker or specialist, shares may be brought in from
What Is an Orderly Market? An orderly market is any market in which supply and demand are reasonably equal. An orderly market is said to be in a state of equilibrium. This term can also refer to a site of exchange for goods, services, or financial securities that are traded in a fair, reliable, secure
What Is the Order Protection Rule? The Order Protection Rule is one of the four main provisions of the Regulation National Market System (NMS). The rule is meant to ensure that investors receive an execution price that is equivalent to what is being quoted on any other exchange where the security is traded. The rule eliminates
What Is an Ordinary Annuity? An ordinary annuity is a series of equal payments made at the end of consecutive periods over a fixed length of time. While the payments in an ordinary annuity can be made as frequently as every week, in practice they are generally made monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. The opposite
What Are Ordinary Dividends? Ordinary dividends are a share of a company’s profits passed on to the shareholders periodically. One of the primary advantages of owning stocks, also known as equities, is the regular payment of dividend income. Dividends are considered “ordinary” by default, although there are cases when a dividend may be classified as
What Is an Ordinary Loss? An ordinary loss is loss realized by a taxpayer when expenses exceed revenues in normal business operations. Ordinary losses are those losses incurred by a taxpayer which are not capital losses. An ordinary loss is fully deductible to offset income thereby reducing the tax owed by a taxpayer. Understanding Ordinary Loss Ordinary losses
