Firstrade and the Options Symbol Initiative (OSI)
Filed in Firstrade on Jan.20, 2010
Back in November we first touched upon OSI, the initiative by the Options Clearing Corporation to make option symbols simpler. Instead of the cryptic 5 symbol system used today, which includes the “root symbol” (eg. GOP for Google), plus two more characters to describe the expiration date and strike price. The new symbology is very descriptive, using over 20 characters to communicate exactly what the option represents.

