Stock Market Glossary

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Actuals - Actual physical commodities, as distinguished from futures.
Adaptive Filter - Smoothing and forecasting prices with continuously updated weighting of past prices.
ADTV (Average Daily Trading Volume) – The average number of shares traded on an exchange per trading session. This metric is used to judge liquidity in the counter.
ADX (Average Directional Movement Index) – Is measuring the market trend intensity.
After-hours Trading – Any share market trade you conduct after the market close. This facility allows you to buy and sell securities outside of the designated or regular trade timings.
Arbitrage – The simultaneous purchase and sale of two different securities to take advantage of a disparity in their prices.
Ask Price (Offer) – The minimum price a seller is willing to take for their stock. Back Testing – A strategy tested on historical data and then applied to new data to check for consistency.
Basket Trades – Transactions made up of a number of different stocks.
Bear Market – When the market experiences continuous and prolonged price declines.
Beta – The measure of volatility that tells how much a stock moves in relation to an index.
Bid Price – The price an investor is ready to pay for a security.
Bid-Ask Spread – The difference between the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay for a certain digital asset and the lowest price that a seller is willing to sell it for.
Black Box – A proprietary, computerised trading system whose rules are not disclosed.
Blockchain – A decentralized record-keeping technology that provides accurate and secure data storage on a digital ledger.
Blue Chip Stocks – Stocks which are a reliable investment.
Breakout – The point when the market price moves out of the trend channel.
Bull Market – A market trend characterised by rising stock prices.
Buy and Hold – An investment strategy under which you buy stocks and other market securities and hold them for an indefinite period, irrespective of market fluctuations. Candlestick Chart – A charting method, originally from Japan, in which the high and low are plotted as a single line and are referred to as shadows.
Capital Market – The marketplace wherein buyers and sellers trade financial securities such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.
Catastrophe Stop – An absolute level where positions must be exited because existing exits have not yet activated.
Channel – In charting, a price channel contains prices throughout a trend.
Chaos Theory – A branch of mathematics focusing on irregular and complex behaviour that has an underlying order.
Commodities – Raw materials that are used every day by millions of consumers.
Common Stock – A security issued representing ownership of a corporation.
Convergence – When futures prices and spot prices come together at the expiration.
Convertible Securities – Any stocks, or other market instruments, that you can change from their initial form into another form.
Crack Spreads – The spread between crude oil and its products, heating oil and unleaded gasoline.
Cyclicals – Stocks whose performance is heavily influenced by the business cycle. Day Trade – The buying and selling of the same security on the same day.
Dead Cat Bounce – A temporary, short-lived recovery of asset prices from a prolonged decline or a bear market that is followed by the continuation of the downtrend.
Debit Spread – The difference in value of two options, where the value of the long position exceeds the value of the short.
Delta – A financial ratio that compares the change in the price of an underlying asset, typically marketable securities, with the change in the price of an option or a derivative.
Derivatives – Financial contracts the value of which depend on the value of the underlying instrument – commodity, bond, equity, currency or a combination.
Digital Share – Shares that have the same properties as paper shares, just that they are recorded in electronic form.
Direct Public Offerings – Offering through which a company offers its share units directly to the general public in order to raise capital for funding and expansion.
Diversification – Investing in a variety of different securities. This strategy also has the opportunity to maximize investment returns and balancing the risk.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – An indicator showing generally how well the market is going, found by averaging the prices of 30 industrial blue-chip stocks trading in the New York Stock Exchange. Economic Bubble – When an asset rises in value based on investor sentiment that is not supported by fundamental or technical analysis of the stock.
Elliott Wave Theory – A form of technical analysis that helps traders in analyzing financial market cycles. It refers to pattern recognition technique, holding that the stock market follows a pattern of five waves up and three waves down to form a complete cycle of eight waves.
Emerging Market – Generally, economies that are in the process of growth and industrialization. Investing in emerging markets may provide significant rewards, as well as significant risks.
Equilibrium Market – The price region that represents a balance between demand and supply.
ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) – A special type of financial trust that allows to buy an entire basket of stocks through a single security.
Exponential Moving Average – Similar to a simple moving average but gives greater weight to the latest data and responds to changes faster. FAANG Stocks – An acronym for five individual companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.
Face Value – The value printed on the face of a stock, bond, or other financial instrument or document.
Fibonacci Retracements – Connect any two points that the trader views as relevant, typically a high point and a low point. If a retracement is taking place within a trend, you could use the Fibonacci levels to place a trade in the direction of the underlying trend. Some experts believe that Fibonacci retracements can forecast about 70% of market movements, especially when a specific price point is predicted.
Fibonacci Sequence – A series of numbers in which each Fibonacci number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. The simplest is the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.
Fill or Kill (FOK) Order – Is eligible to receive a full fill and if not fully filled is cancelled immediately.
Fill Order – An order that must be filled immediately (or cancelled).
Financial Bubble – An economic cycle characterized by rapidly increasing prices of an asset to a point that is unsustainable, causing the asset to burst or contract in value. Financial bubbles follow five stages: displacement, boom, euphoria, profit taking and bust.
Fundamental Analysis (FA) – An analysis of stocks based on fundamental factors, such as company growth potential and earnings, to determine a company's worth, strength, and potential for growth.
Futures – Contracts to buy or sell securities at a future date. Futures are a way for investors to hedge current investments - a risk management strategy intended to offset potential losses in other investments. Gap – The day in which the daily range is completely above or below the previous day’s daily range.
Gap Down Stocks – Stocks that open at a lower level, often signified by a sharp price move, with no other trading occurring before or after, therefore creating a price gap.
Gap Up Stocks – Stocks that open at a higher level, often signified by a sharp move, with no other trading occurring before or after the gap.
Going Public – The first public selling of shares of an institution that previously sold shares privately.
Golden Ratio – Ratio of any two consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, equal to 0.618.
Greeks – A set of risk variables used by options traders. Head and Shoulders – A well-known technical indicator that identifies the emergence of a bullish-to-bearish trend.
Hedging – The practice of offsetting potential losses from an investment by taking an opposite position in a related asset. Hedging is an effective risk management strategy, although it typically results in a reduction of potential profits. Impulse Wave – A wave that carry the current trend further in the same direction.
Income Stock – A security with a solid record of dividend payments with a dividend yield higher than the average common stock.
Inside Information – Non-public information pertaining to the business affairs of a corporation that could affect the company's share price.
Intraday Trading – Opening and closing an investment position on the same day.
Investment Consultant (Advisor) – A person or organization hired by an investment fund or an individual to give professional advice on investments and asset management practices.
IPO (Initial Public Offer) Aftermarket – Trading in shares of a company that has listed after completing its IPO. Large Capitalization (Cap) – A reference to either a large company stock or an investment fund that invests in the stocks of large companies.
Limit Order – An order to buy or sell an asset at a certain price or better. A buy order will be executed at a target price or higher, while a sell will only occur at a chosen or lower price.
Liquid Market – A liquid market features a large number of buyers and sellers where all the trades are executed with ease and at a low cost.
Liquidity – A measure of how easy it is to obtain and use your money. Can also mean the degree to which an asset or security can be quickly bought or sold in the market without adversely affecting the asset’s price.
Long Position – Buying a particular asset with the hope that its value increases in the future.
Lumpsum – Making a single payment for making the investment. It is preferred by high-net-worth individuals who have a good tolerance for risk as well. Margin – An account in which purchase of stock may be financed with borrowed money.
Market Analysis – A quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market, demonstrating its dynamics and attractiveness within the industry from the financial viewpoint. Market analysis are often a key part of a project proposal and provide a holistic picture of the market in which a project should be implemented.
Market Capitalization (Market Cap) – The price of an asset multiplied by circulating supply represents the total value of a given asset and its market. It is often used as a measurement of a project's success.
Market Maker – A broker or bank prepared to make a two-way price to purchase or sell for a security or currency.
Market on Close – Order specification that requires the broker to get the best price available on the close of trading.
Market Order – An order to purchase or sell stock at a current price.
Market Sentiment – A measurement of bullish or bearish attitudes among investors and traders.
Moving Average (MA) – A mathematical procedure to eliminate data fluctuations and to assist in determining when to buy and sell. Narrow Range Day – A trading day with a smaller price range relative to the previous day’s price range.
NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) – A composite index that measures the performance of more than 5,000 U.S. and non-U.S. companies traded “over the counter” through NASDAQ.
Neckline – Trendline drawn along the support or resistance points of various reversal and consolidation pattern.
Negative Convergence – When two or more averages or indicators fail to show confirming trends.
Neural Network – An artificial intelligence (AI) program capable of learning through a training process of trial and error.
New Listing – A security issue that is newly added to the list of tradable security issues of an exchange.
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) – The largest stock exchange in the U.S. located in New York City, also known as Wall Street.
News Sentiment – One component of market sentiment and can be bullish or bearish.
Non-fungible token (NFT) – A blockchain-based financial security. Each NFT represents a unique digital asset like a piece of art, digital content, or media. Dragon Man was the first ever NFT and web3.0 movie to hit the market. OHLC (Open-High-Low-Close) – The representation of the price movement of a particular asset in a specific timeframe. Open or open price is the price of an asset at the start of the timeframe.
One-sided Market – A market in which there are only either buyers or sellers. It typically occurs when there is a lot of greed or fear in the market.
Open Trades – Current trades that are still held active.
Opening Range – Range of prices that occur during the first 30 seconds to five minutes of trading
Oscillator – A technical indicator used to identify overbought and oversold price regions.
Over-the-Counter Market – A communications network, supervised by the National Association of Securities Dealers, which trades bonds, non-listed stocks, and other securities.
Overbought/Oversold Indicator – Defines when prices have moved too far and too fast in either direction and thus are vulnerable to a reaction. Penny Stocks – Stocks that have a very low market price.
Pivot Point – A technical analysis indicator, or calculations, used to determine the overall trend of the market over different time frames.
Portfolio – The securities an investor holds.
Portfolio Manager – A financial professional responsible for making investment decisions, investing a fund's assets, implementing an investment strategy and managing day-to-day portfolio trading.
Profit Margin – One of the most commonly used profitability ratios that help investors understand what percentage of their sales has become profitable.
Program Trading – Trades based on signals from computer programs.
Pyramid – To increase holdings that an investor has by using the most buying power available. Rally – A brisk rise of the market or price of a stock.
Random Walk – A theory that states there is no sequential correlation between prices from one day to the next.
Range – The difference between the high and low price during a given period.
Relative Strength – A comparison of the price performance of a stock to a market index such as S&P 500 stock index.
Resistance – Price level at which rising prices have stopped rising.
ROI (Return on Investment) – A performance measurement that shows the profit on an investment as a percentage of the overall investment.
Round Lot – Generally 100 shares, the basic trading unit for stock. S&P 500 Index – An unmanaged, market capitalization-weighted index of 500 stocks of leading large-cap U.S. companies in leading industries.
Sector Fund – A fund that invests in a particular or specialized segment of the marketplace, such as stocks of companies in the software or real estate industries.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – A US government agency created by congress in 1934 to regulate the securities industry and to help protect investors, ensuring that the securities markets operate fairly and honestly.
Sentiment Analysis – The use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify and study affective states and subjective information. The most common use of sentiment analysis in the financial sector is the analysis of financial news, particularly news related to predicting the behavior and possible trend of stock markets.
Shares – Units of ownership in part of a company’s total stock.
Short Position – When you sell a security with the aim of buying it again at a lower price.
Slippage – The difference between estimated transaction and actual transaction costs.
SMA (Simple Moving Average) – Average price of a series of prices over a period.
Spread – The gap between the bid and the ask prices of a stock.
Stock – A share that represents ownership in the company that issues it.
Stock Broker – The middleman between an investor and the stock exchange.
Stop-Limit Order – An order placed with a stockbroker to buy or sell at a certain price or better during a limited period of time.
Stop-Loss Order – An order placed with a stockbroker to buy or sell a designated stock once a designated price has been reached.
Stop Order – A trading mechanism that automatically issues a market order to buy or sell a stock once its price reaches a predetermined target.
Support – Historical price level at which falling prices have stopped falling.
Support Level – A technical indicator of price movement. When an asset is said to be at a support level, it has reached a price floor. Technical Analysis (TA) – The analysis of historical trends of price, volume, and other related market indicators to aid in predicting future trends.
Tick – The minimum upward or downward movement in the price of a security. Since 2001 and the advent of decimalization, the minimum tick size for stocks trading above $1 is one cent.
TMA (Triangular Moving Average) – Shows the average price of an asset over a specified number of data points—usually a number of price bars.
Trading Range – The range of prices within which a stock is normally traded.
Trailing Stop – Stop-loss order that follows the prevailing price trend.
Trend – The direction of the price movement of an asset in the market. Upside/Downside – Analysts use either fundamental or technical analysis to arrive at conclusions about a stock’s future price movement. When a stock has upside, analysts will typically upgrade the stock. Conversely, when a stock has downside, an analyst may downgrade the stock. Value Fund – A fund that invests primarily in stocks that are believed to be priced below what they’re really worth.
Vertical Spread – A trading strategy that involves trading two options at the same time. Involves the simultaneous buying and selling of options of the same type, but at different strike prices.
Volatility – The amount and frequency of fluctuations in the price of a stock. An investment with high volatility is said to have higher risk. Wall Street – An eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Wall Street is used to refer to the financial world in the United States in general and to large corporations and their interests rather than small ones.
Wash Trading – A price manipulation strategy, involves a trade operation where the buyer and seller are the same entity, creating an illusion that the asset is more popular than it actually is.
Wedge – A pattern in which two converging lines connect a group of price peaks and troughs.
Whipsaw – Losing money on both sides of a price swing.
Wilshire 5000 Equity Index – A stock market index composed of approximately 7000 securities, including most issues from NYSE, AMEX, and the over-the-counter markets (This index formerly consisted of only 5000 securities). Yankee Market – A slang term for the stock market in the United States.
Yield – The income an investor receives from an investment. Yield, however, is not a measure of total return since it does not include capital gains or losses.

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