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A temporary stoppage of trading of the listed securities of an issuer, which may be imposed by the Exchange, its agent (Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS)), or voluntarily requested by the issuer. Usually an issuer’s listed securities are halted pending a public announcement of material information about the issuer, but the Exchange or RS may also impose a halt if the issuer is not in compliance with Exchange requirements or if the Exchange determines that it is in the public interest to do so.

The buyer of an option contract who has the right to exercise the option during its lifetime.

The total number of shares issued by a corporation.

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.

Support levels are levels where a declining stock will find bottom and bounce up from. Supports are formed when a stock breaks above resistance and holds above that level: the old resistance then becomes support. Support levels are also formed when a stock spends a lot of time at one level and then breaks upward. The level that the stock spent most of the time at will most likely act as support. Key moving averages, such as the 18, 50, and 200, also act as support. We like to buy stocks as they bounce upward off of support levels and are backed by good money flow and buying.

This is a reversal signature pattern. It can be either negative (typical head and shoulders), or positive (inverted head and shoulders). A head and shoulders pattern is one of the more common and reliable patterns. It is comprised of a rally which ends a fairly extensive advance. It is followed by a reaction on less volume. This is the left shoulder. The head is comprised of a rally up on high volume exceeding the price of the previous rally. And the head is comprised of a reaction down to the previous bottom on light volume. The right shoulder is comprised of a rally up which fails to exceed the height of the head. It is then followed by a reaction down. If the right shoulder does not reach the height of the left shoulder, this indicates that the fall could be even more severe. This last reaction down should break a horizontal line drawn along the bottoms of the previous lows from the left shoulder and head. This is the point in which the major decline begins. The major difference between a head and shoulder top and bottom is that the bottom should have a large burst of activity on the breakout.

An individual option contract for a given security.

This is a condition resulting from selling an option and not owning the related securities.

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

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.