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The difference between the previous day’s closing price and the last traded price.

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.

The difference between a company’s or individual’s total assets and its total liabilities. Also known as shareholders’ equity for a company.

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.

Occurs concurrently with the posting of the new issuer’s securities for trading. The preconditions for listing include the acceptance by the Exchange that all listing requirements and conditions have been satisfied. The effective listing date is the date when the listed securities open for trading.

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.

An IPO (initial public offering) is an issuer’s first offering of its securities made to the public in accordance with a prospectus. The offering is often made in conjunction with an issuer’s initial application for listing on an exchange.

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 issuer listing as a result of a plan of arrangement. A plan of arrangement is a form of corporate reorganization that must be approved by a court and by the corporation’s shareholders or others affected by the proposed arrangement, all as prescribed by corporate legislation. A plan of arrangement can take various forms, including:An amalgamation of two or more corporations A division of the business of the corporation A transfer of all or substantially all of the property of the corporation to another corporation An exchange of securities of the corporation held by security holders of the corporation for other securities, money, or other property that is not a takeover bid A liquidation or dissolution of the corporation A compromise between the corporation and its creditors or holders of its debt Any combination of the foregoing.

We often write about stocks that test their breakout prices. Stocks breaking to new highs or out of consolidations often come back to test the breakout point before continuing with the breakout. This is most likely due to certain investors taking profits. If the breakout is a strong one, buyers come back in at some point before the stock falls below the breakout. This starts the stock back up on the next leg. This test can happen the next day, or it can happen after a week of upward movement. That is why we advise those in on the breakout move to watch for a test. If the stock has had a good move, you don?t want to lose profit on a big test-you can always get back in when the stock moves back up. For a small test soon after the break, you can ride it down, but you have to be careful the stock does not fall back within its previous trading range. Good breakout volume is a sign that this is less likely to happen. There are two plays on the breakout test: when the stock turns back up on good volume, or when the stock tops its breakout high. The former is riskier in that the breakout high can act as resistance, but we will play this move if the other indicators are good-volume, money flow, relative strength. The safer play is the break over the recent breakout high as this shows there is no resistance. If the volume is still good, the stock will most likely continue its breakout.