Surprise

Difference between reported earnings and analysts’ consensus forecasts. It’s a positive surprise if reported earnings exceed forecasts, and a negative surprise when reported earnings come in below forecasts.

Suspended Issue

The status of a listed security of an issuer whose trading privileges have been revoked by the Exchange. All securities of the issuer remain suspended until trading privileges have been reinstated, or the issuer is delisted.

Special Terms

Orders which must trade under special conditions. For example, a cash order will be settled sooner than the usual three-day settlement period.

Speculator

Someone prepared to accept calculated risks in the marketplace for attractive potential returns.

Split Shares

Capital and preferred shares issued by a split-share corporation. A split-share corporation holds common shares of one or more companies. The corporation then issues two classes of shares – capital shares and preferred shares. The objective is to generate fixed, cumulative, preferential dividends for the holders of preferred shares and to enable the holders of the capital shares to participate in any capital appreciation (or depreciation) in the underlying common shares.

Spread

The spread is the gap between bid and ask prices of a stock, option, or other security. This term is also used to generally describe a number of strategies that make use of different spreads between calls, puts and the underlying stock, e.g., Bull Spread with Calls, Bull Spread with Puts, Bear Spread with Puts, Bear Spread with Calls, Butterfly Spread, Calendar Spread, Ratio Call Spread.