Stock Terminology

1. Averaging Down
This is when an investor buys more of a stock as the price goes down. This makes it so your average
purchase price decreases.


2. Bear Market
This is trading talk for the stock market being in a down trend, or a period of falling stock prices.
This is the opposite of a bull market.


3. Beta
A measurement of the relationship between the price of a stock and the movement of the whole
market.


4. Blue Chip Stocks:
These are the large, industry leading companies. They offer a stable record of significant dividend
payments and have a reputation of sound fiscal management.


5. Bull Market
This is when the stock market as a whole is in a prolonged period of increasing stock prices.
Opposite of a bear market.


6. Broker
A person who buys or sells an investment for you in exchange for a fee (a commission).


7. Day Trading
The practice of buying and selling within the same trading day, before the close of the markets on
that day.


8. Dividend
This is a portion of a company’s earnings that is paid to shareholders, or people that own hat
company’s stock, on a quarterly or annual bas


10. Execution
When an order to buy or sell has been completed. If you put in an order to sell 100 shares, this
means that all 100 shares have been sold.


11. Hedge
This is used to limit your losses. You can do this by taking an offsetting position.


12. Index
An index is a benchmark which is used as a reference marker for traders and portfolio managers.


13. Initial Public Offering (IPO)
The first sale or offering of a stock by a company to the public, rather than just being owned by
private or inside investors.


14.​Margin
A margin account lets a person borrow money (take out a loan essentially) from a broker to
purchase an investment.


15. Moving Average
A stock’s average price-per-share during a specific period of time. Some time frames are 50 and 200
day moving averages.


16. Order
An investor’s bid to buy or sell a certain amount of stock or option contracts. You have to put an
order in to buy or sell 100 shares of stock.


17. Portfolio
A collection of investments owned by an investor. You can have as little as one stock in a portfolio
to an infinite amount of stocks.


18. Quote
Information on a stock’s latest trading price. This is sometimes delayed by 20 minutes unless you
are using an actual broker trading platform.


19. Rally
A rapid increase in the general price level of the market or of the price of a stock.


20. Sector
A group of stocks that are in the same business. An example would be the “Technology” sector
including companies like Apple and Microsoft.


21.​Spread
This is the difference between the bid and the ask prices of a stock, or the amount someone is
willing to buy it and someone is willing to sell it.


22. Stock Symbol
A one-character to three-character, alphabetic root symbol, which represents a publically traded
company on a stock exchange.Apple’s stock symbol is AAPL.


23. Volatility
This refers to the price movements of a stock or the stock market as a whole. Highly volatile stocks
are ones with extreme daily up and down movements and wide intraday trading ranges.


24.Volume
The number of shares of stock traded during a particular time period, normally measured in
average daily trading volume.


25. Yield
This usually refers to the measure of the return on an investment that is received from the payment
of a dividend. This is determined by dividing the annual dividend amount by the price paid for the
stock.