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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.

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.

Pledging of assets as collateral. 

Occurs when new securities are posted for trading, and trading takes place before the closing (formal original issuance) of the prospectus. Also known as the “grey market”. The term is used only for listing of new securities, either on a listing of a new issuer, a supplemental listing, or an additional listing of existing listed securities. Settlement occurs on the closing of the prospectus. The time from posting for trading to closing is generally within a week.

A measurement of the volatility of a stock. Current price rather than historical price is used. Generally, if the price of an option rises without a corresponding rise in the underlying equity, implied volatility is considered to have risen.

Trades executed outside normal market hours. 

A dividend/distribution paid in addition to the regularly established dividend/distribution of the issuer. Like all dividends/distributions, it may be paid in securities or cash and the amount, payable date, and record date are established by the issuer. The exchange that the issue is listed on sets the ex-dividend/distribution (ex-d) date for entitlement. Extra dividends/distributions are sometimes referred to as special dividends/distributions.

Charges for items that are both unusual in nature and infrequent in occurrence, such as earthquake-related losses. 

The cash denomination of the individual debt instrument. It is the amount of money that the holder of a debt instrument receives back from the issuer on the debt instrument’s maturity date. Face value is also referred to as par value or principal.

The true value of a stock based on criteria of the user’s choosing. A stock is said to be overvalued when the share price exceeds the fair value.