American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)
Receipt for shares of foreign-based companies that entitle the shareholder to all dividends and capital gains. ADRs allow Americans to buy shares of foreign-based corporations' securities at American Exchanges instead of having to go to overseas exchanges.

AMEX
American Stock Exchange

Annual High
The highest price at which the security was traded for the past year.

Annual Low
The lowest price at which the security was traded for the past year.

Best Ask
The lowest price at which someone is willing to sell a security.

Best Bid
The highest price at which someone is willing to buy a security.

Beta Coefficient
A measure of the volatility of a stock relative to the overall market. Beta is calculated by applying linear regression, the security's week-to-week percent price change to the correlating index’s week-to-week percent change for a given period of time. A beta value of 1.1 indicates a 1.10-% movement for a 1% move in the index, regardless of direction.

Change/Percent Change
Price change (net or percent wise) between the current price and the close from the previous trading day.

Class Notes
Information about a particular class of a stock such as an IPO (initial public offering).

Close
The price of the last sale for a given security at the end of the trading day.

Company Notes
Information about a company such as filing for bankruptcy, former name, etc.

CIK code
A unique identifier assigned by the SEC to all companies that file with the SEC.

Daily High
The highest price that was paid for a stock during a day.

Daily Low
The lowest price that was paid for a stock during a day

Dividend
A portion of company’s quarterly profit paid to its shareholders in the form of cash or stock.

Dually Quoted Stocks (Pink Sheets and OTC BB)
Stocks that are quoted on both the Pink Sheets and the OTC Bulletin Board.

Earnings/Share (Earnings per Share or EPS)
Earnings per Share number reflects the company's profit divided by its number of outstanding shares. Companies usually use a weighted average number of shares outstanding over reporting term.

Form 211
SEC Rule 15c2-11 requires that, before a broker or dealer publishes proprietary quotes on a quotation medium, it must gather, review, and retain certain information about the issuer. The market maker must file a Form 211 with the NASD OTC Compliance Unit, along with two copies of the required issuer information. After a successful review, the NASD Compliance Unit will notify the market maker that it may enter a quotation on the Pink Sheets. Form 211 (pdf)

Exchange Act Rule 15c2-11
SEC Rule 15c2-11 establishes requirements for the publication and submission of quotations for over-the-counter securities.

Estimated Market Cap (Market Capitalization)
It’s calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding times previous close price. This number reflect the total dollar value of company’s outstanding shares.

Halt
An issue is halted when it is temporarily halted from trading, usually for 30 minutes, during the time when news from the issuing company is being disseminated over the news wires. A trading halt gives investors an equal opportunity to evaluate news and make their buy, sell and hold decisions accordingly. A trading halt may also be imposed for purely regulatory reasons, either by the Nasdaq Stock Market or an exchange.

Issuers
A company or municipality offering its securities for sale to investors.

Last Sale
The price at which the last trade was executed.

Market Makers
Firms that publish bid and/or ask price(s) for a given security by using their own capital, research, retail and/or systems resources . Market Makers compete with each other for orders to buy or sell at publicly quoted prices (called making a market).

NASDAQ
National Association of Securities Dealer Automated Quotations system, designed to facilitate over-the-counter stock trading.

NYSE
New York Stock Exchange

Opening Price
Price for a given stock at the beginning of the trading day.

Other OTC
Or otherwise known as the "Grey Market" is the trading of a security that is not listed, traded or quoted on any stock exchange, the OTCBB or the Pink Sheets. Other OTC trades are reported by broker-dealers to their Self Regulatory Organization (SRO) and the SRO distributes the trade data to market data vendors and financial websites so investors can track price and volume. Since Other OTC securities are not traded or quoted on an exchange or interdealer quotation system, investor's bids and offers are not collected in a central spot so market transparency is diminished and Best Execution of orders is difficult.

OTC Bulletin Board
An electronic quotation medium for unlisted, non-Nasdaq, over-the-counter securities. The OTC Bulletin Board allows Market Makers to display firm prices for domestic securities, foreign securities, and ADRs that can be updated on a real-time basis.

P/E Ratio (Price/Earnings Ratio)
P/E Ratio is calculated by dividing stock’s market price by the company’s earnings per share.

Piggy-Back Rule
A "piggyback qualified" security is one that meets the frequency-of-quotation requirement described in SEC Rule 15c2-11(f)(3). The frequency-of-quotation test or "piggyback" exception is based on whether a broker/dealer has itself published quotations in the security in the applicable interdealer quotation system on at least 12 business days during the preceding 30 calendar days, with not more than four consecutive business days without quotations. Once this criteria has been satisfied, authorized participants may register on-line in a security. As long as the security remains piggyback qualified, any participant may quote the security without a Form 211 submission.

Pink Sheets
The Pink Sheets is a centralized quotation service that collects and publishes market maker quotes for OTC securities in real time. Pink Sheets is a nexus of OTC dealer markets that enhances price transparency in the OTC markets so investors can more efficiently buy and sell OTC securities.

Securities quoted exclusively on the Pink Sheets have primary venue as Pink Sheets. Bonds exclusively quoted on the Pink Sheets have primary venue as Yellow Sheets.


Previous Close
The price of the last sale for a given security at the end of the previous trading day.

Primary Venue
The market , exchange or quotation service where a given security is primarily quoted.

Quarterly report (10Q)
A report providing unaudited financial information required by the SEC for all U.S. public companies to be filed quarterly.

Quote Request Leaders
Stocks quote for which are most frequently requested

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Primary federal regulatory agency responsible for administering federal securities laws, promoting full disclosure and protecting investors against fraudulent and manipulative practices in the securities markets.

SEC Filing
A document, usually containing a financing statement, filed with the SEC and made available to the public.

SEC Suspension
The SEC can suspend a stock from trading for up to ten trading days when it serves the public interest and will protect investors. The SEC will act when it believes public information about a company is not current, accurate, or adequate. For stocks that trade in the OTC or the over-the-counter market, quotation does not automatically resume when a suspension ends. (The OTC market includes the OTC Bulletin Board® and the Pink Sheets.) After a suspension, SEC regulations require a broker-dealer to review information about a company before publishing a proprietary quote. If a broker-dealer does not have confidence that a company's financial statements are current and accurate, especially in light of the questions raised by the SEC, then a broker-dealer may not publish a proprietary quote for the company's stock. However broker - dealers may publish quotes representing an unsolicited customer order.

Outstanding Shares
The total number of shares of a given security currently owned by shareholders.

Stock Symbol
A system of letters used to designate a security for trading. Symbols with up to three letters are used for stocks that are listed and trade on an exchange. Symbols with four letters are used for NASDAQ and OTC stocks. Symbols with five letters are used for NASDAQ and OTC stocks other than single issues of common stock. Symbols with five letters ending in X are used for mutual funds.

Tick
The change in price, either up or down.

Unsolicited Quote
An unsolicited quote is one which represents an "Unsolicited Customer Order". Publishing unsolicited quotes allows a broker/dealer to meet an exception to Rule 15c2-11, which requires a broker to have in its possession current information, including financial information, about the issuer of the securities . To avail itself of this exception to SEC Rule 15c2-11, an NASD member firm must ensure that the quotation published or submitted: (1) is solely on behalf of a customer; (2) represents the customer's indication of interest; and (3) does not involve the solicitation of the customer's interest.

Volume
The total number of shares traded on a given day.

Yield
The annual rate of return on an investor’s capital investment, expressed as a percentage. For bonds, yield is the coupon rate of interest divided by the purchase price.

52 Week High
The highest price for a given security for the last 52 weeks.

52 Week Low
The lowest price for a given security for the last 52 weeks.

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New terms have been added to the Stock Market Dictionary.