S
Secondary Market
A market that provides for the purchase or sale of previously sold or bought options through closing transactions.
Series
All option contracts of the same class that also have the same unit of trade, expiration date and strike price.
Settlement Price
The official price at the end of a trading session. This price is established by The Options Clearing Corporation and is used to determine changes in accou...
Short Position
A position wherein a person's interest in a particular series of options is as a net writer (i.e., the number of contracts sold exceeds the number of contr...
Specialist
An exchange member whose function it is to both make markets--buy and sell for his own account in the absence of public orders--and to keep the book of pub...
Spread Order
An order to simultaneously transact two or more option trades. Typically, one option would be bought while another would simultaneously be sold. Spread ord...
Spread Strategy
Any option position having both long options and short options of the same type on the same underlying security.
Standard Deviation
A measure of the volatility of a stock. It is a statistical quantity measuring the magnitude of the daily price changes of that stock.
Stop Order
An order, placed away from the current market, that becomes a market order if the security trades at the price specified on the stop order. Buy stop orders...
Stop-Limit Order
Similar to a stop order, the stop-limit order becomes a limit order, rather than a market order, when the security trades at the price specified on the sto...
Straddle
The purchase or sale of an equal number of puts and calls having the same terms.
Strategy
With respect to option investments, a preconceived, logical plan of position selection and follow-up action.
Strike Price
The fixed price at which an option holder can exercise the contract.
Striking Price Interval
The distance between striking prices on a particular underlying security. Normally, the interval is 2.50 points for stocks under $25, 5 points for stocks s...
Sub-Index
See narrow-based index.
Suitability
A requirement that any investing strategy fall within the financial means and investment objectives of an investor.
Suitable
Describing a strategy or trading philosophy in which the investor is operating in accordance with his (her) financial means and investment objectives.
Support
A term in technical analysis indicating a price area lower than the current price of the stock, where demand is thought to exist. Thus a stock would stop d...
Synthetic Put
A strategy equivalent in risk to purchasing a put option where an investor sells stock short and buys a call.
Synthetic Stock
An option strategy that is equivalent to the underlying stock. A long call and a short put is synthetic long stock. A long put and a short call is syntheti...