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An order with a volume that combines any number of board lots and an odd lot.

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.

Cost of materials and labor required to produce products or services. Gross profit is sales minus cost of sales. 

A special-term order placed with the intention of trading at a later date when the price of the stock reaches the specified stop price. An on-stop order becomes a limit order once a trade at the trigger price has occurred.

A strategy for selecting stocks using screening criteria that have been found to work in the past.

An investment fund that continuously offers its securities to investors and stands ready to redeem its securities at all times. Transactions in shares/units of mutual funds are based on their net asset value (NAV), determined at the close of each business day. Examples of an open-end fund are traditional mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Pledging of assets as collateral. 

The interest rate on a bond. 

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

Usually involves looking for stocks in a strong uptrend (high relative strength), strong earnings growth, and increasing earnings forecasts. In today’s market, may include relative strength only.