EBIT

Earnings before interest and taxes. Also known as operating income. 

EBITDA

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adds these items back to reported earnings to more accurately reflect real cash earnings of company. Similar to operating cash flow, except operating cash flow also considers changes in levels of inventories and receivables.

Stock List Deletion

A security issue that is removed or delisted from the list of tradable security issues of an exchange. It is usually accompanied with a reason for deletion and the deletion date.

ECN

Electronic Communication Network. ECNs are expected to supplement or even replace conventional stock exchanges over the next one to two years.

Stock Price Index

A statistical measure of the state of the stock market, based on the performance of certain stocks. Examples include the S&P/TSX Composite Index and the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index.

Stock Split

A corporate action that increases the number of securities issued and outstanding, without the issuer receiving any consideration for the issue. Approval by security holders is required in many jurisdictions. Each security holder gets more securities, in direct proportion to the amount of securities they own on the record date; thus, their percentage ownership of the issuer does not change. For example, a two-for-one stock split involves the issuance of two new securities for every old security.

Energy or Royalty Trust

Investment vehicles that may engage in the development, acquisition, and/or production of oil and gas reserves. The trust receives royalty income from producing properties (essentially, net cash flow) and then sells interests in the trust (called trust units) to investors. Conventional oil and gas royalty trusts are actively managed portfolios holding assets of mature producing properties. Substantially all of the cash flow generated by the oil and gas assets, net of certain deductions, such as administrative expenses and management fees, is passed on to the unit holders as royalty income. Capital expenses may also be deducted, but are usually subject to restrictions on the amount. The distributions are highly dependent upon the cash flow generated by the trust. In general, the largest variable in determining the level of cash flow is the price of crude oil and natural gas. Royalty trusts provide an alternative (from owning the shares of individual companies) for investors to participate in the oil and gas sector.

Short Sale

Selling stock you don’t own. You hope it drops in price so you can buy it back later at a lower price. You must have a margin account with your broker to sell short.