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An exchange-traded, fixed income-like instrument consisting of a subordinated debt security and a share of common stock packaged together to form a tax-efficient delivery mechanism to distribute an issuer’s free cash flow to its investors. Investors are paid dividends from the common share component and interest from the subordinated debt.

Support levels are levels where a declining stock will find bottom and bounce up from. Supports are formed when a stock breaks above resistance and holds above that level: the old resistance then becomes support. Support levels are also formed when a stock spends a lot of time at one level and then breaks upward. The level that the stock spent most of the time at will most likely act as support. Key moving averages, such as the 18, 50, and 200, also act as support. We like to buy stocks as they bounce upward off of support levels and are backed by good money flow and buying.

See Operating Income.

A temporary stoppage of trading of the listed securities of an issuer, which may be imposed by the Exchange, its agent (Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS)), or voluntarily requested by the issuer. Usually an issuer’s listed securities are halted pending a public announcement of material information about the issuer, but the Exchange or RS may also impose a halt if the issuer is not in compliance with Exchange requirements or if the Exchange determines that it is in the public interest to do so.

The character or characters that may follow the stock symbol to uniquely identify a listed security. It can be a single alphabetic character, two alphabetic characters, or a combination of two plus one characters with a maximum of eight characters for the stock symbol, extension and separator dots in between. For example, BMO.PR.U. Currently, they include: A-B – class of shares B – debentureE – equity dividendH – NEX marketIR – installment receiptsNO, NS, NT – notesP – Capital Pool CompanyPR – preferredR – subscription receiptsRT – rightsS – special U.S. termsU, V – U.S. fundsUN – units W – when issued WT – warrants

This is a reversal signature pattern. It can be either negative (typical head and shoulders), or positive (inverted head and shoulders). A head and shoulders pattern is one of the more common and reliable patterns. It is comprised of a rally which ends a fairly extensive advance. It is followed by a reaction on less volume. This is the left shoulder. The head is comprised of a rally up on high volume exceeding the price of the previous rally. And the head is comprised of a reaction down to the previous bottom on light volume. The right shoulder is comprised of a rally up which fails to exceed the height of the head. It is then followed by a reaction down. If the right shoulder does not reach the height of the left shoulder, this indicates that the fall could be even more severe. This last reaction down should break a horizontal line drawn along the bottoms of the previous lows from the left shoulder and head. This is the point in which the major decline begins. The major difference between a head and shoulder top and bottom is that the bottom should have a large burst of activity on the breakout.

An order placed which is not at the current market price. It becomes a market order once the security touches the specified price. Buy stop orders are placed above the present market price. Sell stop orders are placed below the present market price (also known as a stop loss). If a stock gaps past the stop order, it becomes a market order and is filled at the next trading price.

Pledging of assets as collateral. 

Order with broker to sell stock at market price when it goes down to specified (limit) price.

These are certificates registered in the name of a securities firm rather than the owner of the security. This makes the certificate easily transferable to a new owner.