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If there are several orders competing for a stock at the same price, a priority determines when one of these orders will be filled before any other at this price. Priority is based on the time at which the order is received into the system.

The private offering of a security to a small group of buyers. Resale of the security is limited. See Best Efforts and Bought Deal Underwriting.

Earnings without considering certain expenses such as inventory write downs, severance pay, depreciation and amortization charges, or just about anything else the company feels like excluding to make its earnings look better. Also known as core earnings, ongoing earnings, earnings excluding special items, or operating earnings. 

What is left over for the owners of a business after all expenses have been deducted from revenues. Gross profit is the profit before corporate income taxes. Net profit is the final profit of the business after taxes have been paid.

Bottom line (after tax) earnings divided by sales.

Trades based on signals from computer programs. These are usually entered directly from the traders computer to the market’s computer system. Program trading accounts for an increasingly larger and larger portion of all trades throughout the day. Additionally, these large trades may be hedged by an offsetting position in index futures.

A legal document describing securities being offered for sale to the public. It must be prepared in accordance with provincial securities commission regulations. Prospectus documents usually disclose pertinent information concerning the company’s operations, securities, management and purpose of the offering.

Material given to stockholders when the corporation solicits shareholder votes. The proxy statement usually contains details on the corporation’s executive compensation plans. 

The number of issued and outstanding shares of a company, excluding shares held by persons who, individually or in conjunction with other persons, hold 20% or more of the issuer’s voting securities.

A push-out occurs during a stock split when new shares are forwarded to the registered holders of old share certificates, without the holders having to surrender the old shares. Both the old and new shares have equal value.