Order Book Official
An Order Book Official is an exchange employee who oversees the public limit order book on certain options exchanges. A limit order book is simply the running list of buy and sell orders at specific prices that haven't been filled yet, waiting for the market to reach them. On the exchanges that use this role, the Order Book Official manages that list, making sure orders are recorded fairly and executed in the proper sequence when the market moves to their price.
This role exists as part of what's often called a "market-maker" or "multiple market-maker" system, where several competing market-makers (firms or individuals who quote both buy and sell prices to keep trading flowing) provide liquidity for a given options contract. That setup is different from the older "specialist system," where a single designated specialist on the floor was responsible for both making a market in a stock and managing its order book. Because no single specialist wears both hats in a multiple market-maker system, the exchange assigns the order-book duties to a neutral employee instead — the Order Book Official.
The nuance that trips people up is that this is an exchange-side administrative and oversight role, not a trader making bets with their own money. The Order Book Official doesn't take positions or try to profit from the orders; they're there to maintain order and fairness in how the book is handled, somewhat like a referee rather than a player. Retail day traders will essentially never interact with an Order Book Official directly — the term mostly surfaces in older options-market structure discussions or exchange rulebooks.
It's also worth knowing this role and terminology are tied to specific exchange rulebooks (historically associated with certain U.S. options exchanges) and structures have evolved significantly with electronic trading, so the exact duties, and whether the title is still in active use, can vary by exchange and era.
This term depends on a rule or threshold that changes over time, so no specific figure is quoted here. This term references a specific exchange market-structure role and its distinction from the 'specialist system.' A human should confirm, against current exchange rulebooks (e.g., Cboe or other options exchanges), whether the 'Order Book Official' title and role are still formally used today, which exchanges currently use it, and whether the specialist system it's contrasted with still exists in its described form, since options market structure has changed substantially with electronic and hybrid trading.
Day traders rarely deal with this role directly, but understanding it clarifies how limit orders are queued and prioritized on exchanges that don't use a single specialist, which affects how quickly and fairly your resting orders might get filled.
Imagine an options exchange listing contracts on a stock, with several competing market-makers quoting prices instead of one specialist. A trader places a limit order to buy calls at $2.10 when the market is at $2.15. That order sits in the book until the price comes down to $2.10. The Order Book Official is the exchange employee responsible for making sure that resting $2.10 order is properly recorded and executed in correct order relative to other orders at the same price, rather than a market-maker or specialist handling that bookkeeping themselves.
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