Glossary of Terms

Bear Market, bearish: Markets are very weak
Best Ask (Offer): The best price to buy a stock
Best Bid: The best price to sell a stock
Block: A transaction of 10,000 shares or more.
Broker: An individual or a firm that charges a fee or commission for executing buy- and sell-orders submitted by another individual or firm.
Bull Market, bullish: Markets going up strong.
Chat Room: With a chat software people can exchange information in real-time over the internet. In a chat room all people can get the information at the same time.
Crossed Market: The Bid is greater than the Ask
ECN: Electronic Communication Network. Privately owned trading networks.
Futures: Contracts about buying something in the future at a price agreed upon in advance.
Going Long: Buying a stock with the intention later to sell it at a higher price
Going Short: Selling a stock that you don't own with the intention to buy it back later at a lower price.
Halt (Trading Halt): When a stock is halted trading is temporarily suspended. A halt may last for a few minutes up to several hours and shall give investors time to judge a special situation, important news, for example.
Inside Market: The best Bid price to buy a stock and the best
Ask price to sell a stock.
Inside Spread: price difference between the best Bid and Ask, inside market
IPO: Initial Public Offering. A new stock.
Level I: Level I only shows the inside Bid and Ask price without share size and the price of the last reported trade.
Level II: A Level II window shows the Bid and Ask Price of all market makers and ECNs with share size
Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a certain price.
Live Order: An order waiting to be filled.
Locked Market: Bid=Ask
Market Depth: The market depth refers to the total numbers of buyers and sellers in a stock as shown in a Level II window
Market Maker: A registered NASD member serving as intermediary between buyers and sellers.
Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at the best displayed price. If the price changes and the order is still live the order will fill at the changed price.
mIRC: mIRC is the name of a chat software
NASD: The National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. The NASD is operating the NASDAQ
NASDAQ: The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System, an electronic stock exchange
Odd lot: Number of shares not matching a regular trading unit
Open Order: An order to buy or sell a stock that is valid until it is either executed or cancelled.
Pace: Ticks per minute. Shows how many trades are made per minute in a particular stock. High pace means many trades per minute. Pace is another form of measuring liquidity and interest in a stock.
Partial (fill): The order is only filled with a part of the share size originally wanted. The order may stay live until all shares are filled or may be rejected, depending on the way how the order has been delivered.
Pending Order: Undelivered order that is good until it is either canceled or filled
Quote: Highest Bid and lowest Ask.
SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission.
SelectNet: Electronic communication network for market makers.
SOES: The Small Order Execution System of the NASDAQ.
Spread: The difference between Bid and Ask price.
Time & Sales: Reports time, price and share size of executed trades in a particular stock.
Volatility: The rate of change in the price of a stock or index over a given period of time
Volume: Total number of shares traded for the day in a stock or a market

Chat Room Terms