Descriptionary

bottom fisher an investor who seeks out a stock whose price has dropped to its lowest levels.

boutique a small brokerage house dealing in spe­cialized stocks.

broad tape in brokerage firms, the enlarged, elec­tronic Dow-Jones ticker tape that continuously dis­plays new financial developments.

broker one who buys and sells securities on behalf of another.

bucket shop a brokerage firm that illegally gambles with its clients' holdings without the clients' aware­ness.

Buck Rogers a security whose price soars or rises sharply in a short period.

bull one who is optimistic about the market and who believes prices will continue an upward trend. Opposite of a bear.

bull market a prolonged period of rising stocks in the market. An optimistic market.

buying on margin buying securities on credit.

buyout the purchase of a controlling interest in a company.

cash cow a company that generates a lot of surplus cash flow.

cats and dogs speculative stocks with unproven track records; high-risk stocks.

churning the unethical frequent trading of a client's holdings in order to generate more commissions.

closely held of a corporation's controlling stock, held by only a small number of shareholders.

Comex Commodity Exchange; the New York-based exchange that trades in aluminum, copper, gold, and silver.

commodities grains, foods, metals.

common stock in a corporation, shares of owner­ship granting the holder a vote on important com­pany issues as well as entitling him to dividends or a share of the profits.

contrarian an investor who follows a buying or selling strategy opposite or contrary to what most other investors are doing.

controlling interest owning 51 percent or more of a corporation's voting shares.

cornering the market buying a security or com­modity in a large enough volume to control its price, an illegal practice.

correction a reversal, usually downward, of a stock's price trend.

crash a collapse of the stock market.

credit default swap a form of insurance to cover losses on securities in which a buyer makes a payment to a seller, who must pay the buyer if the financial instrument, such as a bond or loan, goes into default, which could occur in a bankruptcy.

cyclical stock a stock that rises or falls in accor­dance with the strength or weakness of the economy.

day order a purchase or sell order given to a broker that is good for only one day.

debt instrument a collective term for any formal IOU, such as a bond.

dividend earnings distributed to shareholders, usu­ally paid quarterly.

dog a poorly performing stock.

dollar-cost averaging investing a set amount of money on a regular schedule, regardless of share prices or market conditions, a strategy which ulti­mately results in more shares purchased at lower cost, increasing long-term profits.

Dow-Jones industrial average the daily price aver­age of 30 selected blue chip stocks, used as a market indicator or barometer.

Dun Bradstreet a firm that obtains credit infor­mation on various companies and publishes same in reports and a ratings directory.

exchange traded fund (ETF) a basket of securities that serves as an alternative to mutual funds. ETFs are traded on the American Stock Exchange just as individual stock is; unlike mutual funds, ETFs may be purchased on margin or sold short. They must, how­ever, be purchased through a broker.

Fannie Mae nickname for the Federal National Mortgage Association, a corporation that buys mort­gages from lenders and sells them to investors.

Fed, the the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank.

fill or kill a purchase or sell order that will be can­celed unless it is executed immediately to take advan­tage of brief price changes.

flag market a market in which prices are neither rising nor falling.

floor the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

floor broker a person who executes buy and sell orders on the floor of an exchange.

floor trader a person who executes orders on the floor of an exchange on his or her own behalf.

foreign crowd members of the New York Stock Exchange who trade in foreign bonds.

401K an employee retirement plan, through which a portion of one's pay is put aside, matched by the employer, and saved tax-deferred until withdrawal.

fourth market institutional investors who trade securities in large volume between one another to save on broker commissions.

Freddie Mac nickname for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) and the mortgage- backed securities it packages and sells.