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Some important trading terminologies to provide our investors a head-on understanding of terms frequently used in securities markets.
ASK: The price a seller is willing to accept for a security, also known as the offer price. Along with the price, the ask quote will generally also stipulate the amount of the security willing to be sold at that price
ADSM: Abu Dhabi Security Market
Best ASK: The lowest quoted ask price for a particular stock among those offered from competing market makers.
Best Bid: The highest quoted bid for a particular stock among all those offered by competing market makers.
Bid: An offer made by an investor, a trader or a dealer to buy a security. The bid will stipulate both the price at which the buyer is willing to purchase the security and the quantity to be purchased.
Broker: A juristic person authorized pursuant to the provisions of the Law to conduct brokerage business in the Market.
Brokerage: The act of executing sale or purchase orders received by the broker from clients.
Broker's Representative: A natural person appointed by a Broker to conduct on its behalf acts of Brokerage in dealings relating to securities and commodities.
Buy Order: It is an instruction given by an investor to a broker to buy a specified amount of securities of a certain company.
CDS: Clearing, Deposits, and settlements.
Clearing: The procedure by which an organization acts as an intermediary and assumes the role of a buyer and seller for transactions in order to reconcile orders between transacting parties.
Current Ratio: A liquidity ratio that measures a company's ability to pay short-term obligations.
Closing Price: The final price at which a security is traded on a given trading day. The closing price represents the most up-to-date valuation of a security until trading commences again on the next trading day.
Current price: The 'real time' price of a security trading on an exchange.
DFM: Dubai Financial Market
Face Value: The nominal value or dollar value of a security stated by the issuer. For stocks, it is the original cost of the stock shown on the certificate.
Gainers: Stocks that have increased value the most.
Grey Market: A market where a product is bought and sold outside of the manufacturer's authorized trading channels.
Immediate or Cancel Order: An order requiring that all or part of the order be executed immediately after it has been brought to the market. Any portions not executed immediately are automatically cancelled.
Index: A statistical measure of change in an economy or a securities market. In the case of financial markets, an index is essentially an imaginary portfolio of securities representing a particular market or a portion of it
Initial Public Offering (IPO): The first sale of stock by a private company to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller, younger companies seeking capital to expand, but can also be done by large privately-owned companies looking to become publicly traded.
Interest rate: The amount of ownership a stockholder has in a company, usually expressed as a percentage.
Losers: stocks that have decreased the most
Limit Order: An order placed with a brokerage to buy or sell a set number of shares at a specified price or better. Limit orders also allow an investor to limit the length of time an order can be outstanding before being canceled.
Limit Up: The maximum amount by which the price of a commodity futures contract may advance in one trading day.
Limit Down: The maximum amount by which the price of a commodity futures contract may decline in one trading day.
Market Index: An aggregate value produced by combining several stocks or other investment vehicles together and expressing their total value against a base value from a specific date. Market indexes are intended to represent an entire stock market and thus track the market's changes over time.
Market price: The price of the stock that is currently offered in the market.
Market Value: The current quoted price at which investors buy or sell a share of common stock or a bond at a given time.
Matching Order: Entering identical buy and sell orders at the same time to create the appearance of active trading in that security.
Online trading: The act of placing buy/sell orders for financial securities and/or currencies with the use of a brokerage's internet-based proprietary trading platforms.
Opening Price: The price at which a security first trades upon the opening of an exchange on a given trading day.
Order Book: This is an option found in the online trading homepage. Where all the stocks that are ordered but not yet processed and executed are recorded.
SCA: Securities and commodities Authority.
Short Market Value: The total values of all short sales in place in a customer's account at the end day of the trading day.
Stock: type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings.
Stock Market: The market in which shares are issued and traded either through exchanges or over-the-counter markets. Also known as the , it is one of the most vital areas of a market economy as it provides companies with equity marketaccess to capital and investors with a slice of ownership in the company and the potential of gains based on the company's future performance.
Stop Order: An order to buy or sell a security when its price surpasses a particular point, thus ensuring a greater probability of achieving a predetermined entry or exit price, limiting the investor's loss or locking in his or her profit. Once the price surpasses the predefined entry/exit point, the stop order becomes a market order.
Stop Limit Order: An order placed with a broker that combines the features of stop order with those of a limit order. A stop-limit order will be executed at a specified price (or better) after a given stop price has been reached. Once the stop price is reached, the stop-limit order becomes a limit order to buy (or sell) at the limit price or better.
Stop-Loss order: An order placed with a broker to sell a security when it reaches a certain price. It is designed to limit an investor's loss on a security position.
Trading: The activity of buying and selling stocks
Volume: The number of shares or contracts traded in a security or an entire market during a given period of time. It is simply the amount of shares that trade hands from sellers to buyers as a measure of activity. If a buyer of a stock purchases 100 shares from a seller, then the volume for that period increases by 100 shares based on that transaction. |