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The lowest price at which someone is willing to sell the security. When combined with the bid price information, it forms the basis of a stock quote.

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

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

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.

An investor involved in financing a company’s operations before going public in exchange for an ownership percentage.

When the market or security tends to vary often and wildly in prices, it is said to be volatile.

The measurement of how much an underlying security fluctuates over a period of time.

Volume is the daily number of shares of a security that are traded. Volume is one of the most important indicators we watch. Its relation with price movements tells us 90% of the story behind a stock?s movement and future movements. At its simplest, increased volume on increasing prices shows accumulation. Increased volume on lower prices shows distribution. There are many variations on this theme, and we spend a great deal of time poring over price/volume relations to determine which way a stock will move.

A group of stocks or funds that you are tracking, but don’t currently own.

Occurs when the security has been listed and posted for trading, but the certificate representing the security itself is not yet issued and available for settlement. The exchange bulletin issued on listing of the security indicates if the trading will be done on a when-issued basis. In this case, the issuance of the security is guaranteed and the delay in issuance is often due to factors relating to the printing and distribution of the security. The period for when-issued trading is usually less than one week.