tually obligated to reduce its investment and management fees or reimburse the International Opportunities Fund to the extent that total ordinary operating expenses, as defined, exceed in any one year 1.60% expressed as a percentage of the Funds’ average daily net assets. For the year ended December 31, 2012 OAM reimbursed the Micro-Cap Fund, the Small-Cap Opportunities Fund, the International Opportunities Fund, and the Asia Opportunities Fund in the amount of $477, $33,783, $219,894 and $129,735, respectively.
Officers and trustees. Certain officers and trustees of the Trust are also officers and/or directors of OAM and OSI. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Trust made no direct payments to its officers and paid $74,000 to its unaffiliated trustees.
Distribution and shareholder service agreement. The Funds have a distribution and shareholder services agreement with OSI. For services under the distribution and shareholder services agreement, the Funds pay OSI a fee at the annual rate of .25% of the average daily net assets as compensation for services. For the year ended December 31, 2012, the Micro-Cap Fund, Emerging Growth Fund, Small-Cap Opportunities Fund, China Opportunities Fund, International Opportunities Fund, and Asia Opportunities Fund incurred distribution fees totaling $51,667, $154,067, $19,559, $301,807, $43,801, and $15,163, respectively.
Affiliated Commissions. For the year ended December 31, 2012, the Micro-Cap Fund, Emerging Growth Fund, Small-Cap Opportunities Fund, China Opportunities Fund, International Opportunities Fund, and Asia Opportunities Fund did not execute any security transactions through OSI and therefore did not pay commissions to OSI.
3. Investment transactions
The cost of securities purchased and proceeds from securities sold during the year ended December 31, 2012, other than options written and money market investments, aggregated $10,010,536 and $14,213,710, respectively, for the Micro-Cap Fund, $33,783,238 and $47,924,275, respectively, for the Emerging Growth Fund, $7,579,916 and $8,655,091, respectively, for the Small-Cap Opportunities Fund, $135,890,792 and $163,227,037, respectively, for the China Opportunities Fund, $46,583,355 and $46,149,975, respectively, for the International Opportunities Fund and $9,782,059 and $10,859,583, respectively, for the Asia Opportunities Fund. The Funds did not hold government securities during the year ended December 31, 2012.
The Funds may write covered call options. The premiums received provide a partial hedge (protection) against declining prices and enables each Fund to generate a higher return during periods when OAM does not expect the underlying security to make any major price moves in the near future but still deems the underlying security to be, over the long term, an attractive investment for each Fund. The Funds write covered call options for which premiums received are recorded as liabilities and are subsequently adjusted to the current value of the options written. Premiums received from writing options that expire are treated as realized gains. Premiums received from writing options, which are either exercised or closed, are offset against the proceeds received or amount paid on the transaction to determine realized gains or losses. Amounts recovered for securities litigation are included in the realized gains of the Fund and are recorded when received. The Funds did not write covered call options for the year ended December 31, 2012.