Archives

An electronic record of all pending buy and sell orders for a particular stock.

As reported in exchange trading statistics, represents the total number of trades for a specified period.

The price you are asked to pay when you buy a stock (see ‘Bid Price’).

If a broker fails to deliver securities sold to another broker on the settlement date, the receiving broker may buy the securities at the current market price of the stock and charge the delivering broker the cost difference of such a purchase.

A model used to estimate the price of an option.

The process of dividing your funds among different classes of investments such as stock, bond, or real estate. You could further allocate your stock funds into value, growth, foreign, etc.

The ratio of a company’s new orders to shipments in the same period. A book to bill ratio greater than 1.0 indicates sales growth. Ratios less than 1.0 reflect shrinking sales. Used mostly in the semiconductor industry.

The aggregate size in board lots of the most recent ask to sell a particular security.

A mathematical model used to calculate the theoretical price of an option.

To an economist, capital means machinery, factories and inventory required to produce other products. To investors, capital means their cash plus the financial assets they have invested in securities, their home and other fixed assets.