Let’s follow up on the Canadian OSI and look at real example of the new symbology. Under the actual symbology, options classes are represented using the following information:

The code for Bombardier January 4.50 calls is BBD AX, where:
BBD represents the option three-character symbol
A represents the expiry month code
X represents the strike price code

Under the new symbology, this class will be represented BBD 090117C4.50, where:
BBD represents the option root symbol (in the vast majority of cases the options symbols will be the same as the underlying symbol). Up to six characters are available.
090117 represents the expiry date (January 17, 2009 – Saturday following the third Friday, last trading day, of the expiry month)
C represents the option indicator for calls
4.50 represents the strike price

You can see just how explicit the new symbology is.

Again, I want to point out that this is what exchanges will adopt. Your service providers might show a slighlty different representation. So long as you remember the four types of information (option root symbol, expiry date, call/put indicator and strike/decimal), you should be able to recognize your options classes on any end-user application.