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A false signal which indicates that the price of a stock or index has reversed to an upward trend, but ultimately proves to be false.

Rather than simply acting as an agent, an investment bank or other underwriters directly purchase securities from the issuer, usually at a discount to the market price, and then sells them to investors.

A type of underwriting where the brokerage firm acts as principal. The brokerage firm risks its own capital to purchase all of the securities to be issued. If the price of the securities decreases before the brokerage firm has had a chance to resell the securities to its clients, the firm absorbs the loss.

This occurs when a stock hits support in the form of an old high, a moving average, a trend line, or a combination of these, and moves up sharply. It is like dropping a ball onto a concrete sidewalk-the sidewalk is hard support and the ball bounces sharply. Not all support is strong enough for a bounce-we look for old tops (highs on the way up), breakout points (they act as resistance until the breakout-if the breakout is on good volume, it should act as support and give you a bounce). If money flow is good and the market is not tanking, we usually see a bounce off of this solid support.

Option arbitrage in which a profitable position is established with no risk. One spread is established with call options. The other spread is established using put options.

An electronic record of all pending buy and sell orders for a particular stock.

The ratio of a company’s new orders to shipments in the same period. A book to bill ratio greater than 1.0 indicates sales growth. Ratios less than 1.0 reflect shrinking sales. Used mostly in the semiconductor industry.

Orders that do not trade immediately upon entry. These orders are also known as outstanding orders.

After-tax earnings. Literally, the bottom line on an income statement (a.k.a. net income or profit). 

A single purchase or sale of a stock involving 10,000 or more shares.