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The private offering of a security to a small group of buyers. Resale of the security is limited. See Best Efforts and Bought Deal Underwriting.

Earnings without considering certain expenses such as inventory write downs, severance pay, depreciation and amortization charges, or just about anything else the company feels like excluding to make its earnings look better. Also known as core earnings, ongoing earnings, earnings excluding special items, or operating earnings. 

What is left over for the owners of a business after all expenses have been deducted from revenues. Gross profit is the profit before corporate income taxes. Net profit is the final profit of the business after taxes have been paid.

Bottom line (after tax) earnings divided by sales.

Trades based on signals from computer programs. These are usually entered directly from the traders computer to the market’s computer system. Program trading accounts for an increasingly larger and larger portion of all trades throughout the day. Additionally, these large trades may be hedged by an offsetting position in index futures.

With respect to stocks split or dividends, a pay date is the date that a company pays a dividend or stock split out, which is usually the day before the ex-dividend date.

A payment made by a market maker to a broker as a thank you for directing your stock trade to that market maker.

Percentage of earnings paid out in dividends.

Price to earnings ratio divided by the forecast annual earnings growth rate. Traditionally, stocks were said to be fairly valued when the p/e and the forecast growth rate were equal.

We use this with respect to options trades in determining if we like an option enough to buy it or if we are in an option, if we want to stay in it. This calculation tells you how far the underlying stock must move before the option will double in value. We prefer a 7%-10% value, less if we can get it. This does not mean we will not buy an option, but it does give us insight as to how long we will hold it. Percent to double is a Smith Barney proprietary calculation.