Important Definitions
Call Option: An agreement that gives an investor the right (but not the obligation) to buy a stock, bond, commodity or other instrument at a specified price within a specific time period.
Put Options: An option contract giving the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specified amount of an underlying security at a specified price within a specified time. This is the opposite of a call option, which gives the holder the right to buy shares.
Index: An index is an unmanaged group of stocks considered to be representative of different segments of the stock market in general. You cannot invest directly in an index. The referenced indices are shown for general market comparisons and are not meant to represent the Fund.
Covered Call: An options strategy whereby an investor holds a long position in an asset and writes (sells) call options on that same asset in an attempt to generate increased income from the asset. This is often employed when an investor has a short-term neutral view on the asset and for this reason holds the asset long and simultaneously has a short position via the option to generate income from the option premium.
Overwritten: A type of covered-call strategy that consists of writing call options on stocks that the writer already owns to generate maximum current income from options premiums and dividends.
Option: A financial derivative that represents a contract sold by one party (option writer) to another party (option holder). The contract offers the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a security or other financial asset at an agreed-upon price (the strike price) during a certain period of time or on a specific date (exercise date).
The S&P 500 Index: An unmanaged composite of 500 large capitalization companies. This index is widely used by professional investors as a performance benchmark for large-cap stocks. You cannot invest directly in an index and unmanaged index returns do not reflect any fees, expenses or sales charges.
The Russell 1000 Index: a subset of the Russell 3000 Index, represents the 1000 top companies by market capitalization in the United States.
The BXM: tracks the performance of a hypothetical covered call strategy on the S&P 500 Index.
Called Away: A term used to describe the elimination of a contract due to the obligation of delivery. This occurs if an option is exercised, if a redeemable bond is called before maturity or if a short position held in a security requires delivery.
Exercise Price: The price at which a specific derivative contract can be exercised. Strike price is mostly used to describe stock and index options, in which strike prices are fixed in the contract. For call options, the strike price is where the security can be bought (up to the expiration date), while for put options the strike price is the price at which shares can be sold.