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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 market that occurs when there are comparatively few bids to buy or offers to sell, or both. The phrase may apply to a single security or to the entire stock market. In a thin market, price fluctuations between transactions are usually larger than when the market is liquid. A thin market in a particular stock may reflect lack of interest in that issue, or a limited supply of the stock.

A market that has only buy orders or only sell orders booked for a particular security.

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.

Slang used for minimum spread. Depending on the stock price it could be a half-cent, one cent or five cents.

The government agency that administers the Securities Act (Ontario) and the Commodity Futures Act (Ontario) and regulates securities and listed futures contract transactions in Ontario.

Each time a stock is bought and sold, it is displayed on an electronic ticker tape. It is a record of current trading activity on an exchange.

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.

This is the price at which a security opens for the trading day. A stock can open at the previous closing price, gap up or gap down.

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.