A

AON / All or None Order Type

Term used to describe a trading order instructing the broker to buy or sell the entire amount of the order in one transaction or not at all

Archip or ARCA

Archipelago... designation used by traders using MBTrading for a broker, as well as others using RT3 software

Ask

The lowest price at which a dealer or market maker will sell a security. (See "Bid," "Offer," "Quote")

Average Down

When you buy the same security at different times and at sequentially lower prices, in effect you are lowering, or averaging down, your cost per share. For example, if you bought 100 shares at $18, then 100 shares at $14, you would have invested a total of 200 shares at an average cost of $16 per share. Buy another 100 shares for $10 and your average would drop to $14 per share. Many traders/investors who are confident in the potential for a particular stock will consider falling prices a buying opportunity and accumulate more shares at lower prices. Carries more risk for the daytrader however

Ax

A particular market maker very active in the stock. Probably has a large institutional order to work trying to get the best price. Remains on the inside bid/ask for extended periods of time. Will often sell into strong buying instead of raising the price, or buy in the face of panic selling, instead of letting the price fall

B

Band

 A stochastic reading ; values from 0 to 100

BB

Bulletin Board. A segment of the Nasdaq not as totally automated as the rest of the Nasdaq market. Usually micro cap stocks, high risk component. Often, stocks not meeting Nasdaq listing requirements move to the BB

BBL

Be Back Later (Internet slang)

Bid

Highest price at which a dealer or market maker will purchase a security. (See "Ask," "Offer," "Quote")

Block

Transaction involving a large number of shares or other units of a security. Blocks may vary in size depending on the liquidity of the security traded and the number of shares in the block transaction. Often, however, blocks are transacted at a discount to the current market as an accepted cost of trading a large number of shares "away" from the market.

BRB

Be Right Back (internet slang)

Breakout

Used in technical analysis of securities, referring to a pattern where the price of a security changes significantly, either up or down, from a previous range where the price held relatively steady

Briefing

a story mentioned on www.briefing.com, usually on the In Play page

BW play

A play based on a story in this week's Business Week magazine. Released every Thursday night, therefore in play on Friday and/or the following Monday

C

Chips/Chippies

Gold refers to them as scalpers

CNBC Play

A play based on a CNBC story/mention. Most traders have CNBC tuned in while trading

Coiled (market or individual stock)

The downward action of the market or stocks that creates value in which the next move is anticipated to be UP" The tighter the coil the farther the upward momentum. It is a consolidation of upward energy or momentum

Crossed Market

Orders for buying and selling stocks are imbalanced to the extent that the highest bid is greater than the lowest offer; shares will not trade until market makers or exchange specialists adjust bids and asks accordingly.

CYA

See ya (internet slang)

D

Day Order

Order to buy or sell securities that expires at the end of the day it is entered.

Deadzone

 A period in the trading day from 11:00 am to 2:30 PM EST characterized by low volume, momentum and frequent market maker head fakes

Downtick (DT)

The price of the bid or ask of a stock moves down by one trading range.

Dumper

  A stock that opens significantly lower than its previous day trading range

E

Emoticons

:-) happy face

:-( sad face

;-) winking happy face

8-) happy face, person with glasses

EOD

End of Day

EPS / Earnings Per Share

Measure of a company’s earnings expressed per share of common stock outstanding; equals net income before taxes divided by common shares outstanding.Exception

A stock that does not behave in the expected manner given the percentages for that type of trade.

F

FAQ / F.A.Q.

Frequently Asked Questions

Float

Number of a company's shares that are outstanding and available for trading by the public; generally represents shares outstanding less shares restricted to insiders, affiliates, control persons, and individuals holding shares restricted under Rule 144.

FUTS

nasdaq 100 e minis futures contracts

G

Gap

Either positive or negative... difference between previous day's closing price and today's opening or pre-opening price of a stock

Gapper

A stock that opens at a price higher than previous day's closing price

<G>

Grinning

GTC / Good Till Cancelled Order

Order to buy or sell a security at a limit for an indefinite period of time; often used with limit orders for illiquid securities.

H

Halt

When trading of a stock is suspended. Can happen for any number of reasons, such as unusual price movement, or news pending

Head and Shoulders

In technical securities analysis, a price-chart pattern resembling the head-and-shoulders outline of a person.

heads up

used by traders to bring attention to a particular stock... does not indicate a buy or sell signal necessarily. Use caution

Hit the Bid

Trader's term used when a seller places market orders with the intention of selling to the highest bidder, regardless of price.

I

IC

I see (internet slang)

IMO

In My Opinion (internet slang)

IMHO

In My Humble (Honest) Opinion (internet slang)

IPO

Initial Public Offering... new stock

IRC

Internet Relay Chat. software program that allows connections to the various IRC public and private networks. mIRC is one of the IRCs.

L

L8R

Later - see ya later (internet slang)

Level 1 / L1

Basic service of the NASDAQ stock market that displays current bid and ask quotes on many over-the-counter stocks.

Level 2 / L2

Level II consists of color coded boxes seen in more costly "feed" services (data, charts, news, quotes). Level II not only shows you the topmost Level I Bid/Ask prices, but also the secondary and tertiary prices that are lined up "behind the scenes."

Level 3 / L3

Service of the NASDAQ stock market that allows a market maker or registered broker-dealer to enter a bid or ask on the electronic trading system. Not available to traders

Limit Order

Order to execute a trade at a specific price.

Listed Stock

Stock listed on the NYSE or Amex exchanges, rather than traded on NASDAQ

Long

Trader's term referring to ownership of a security. "His account was long 100 shares of ABCD"

LOL

Laughing Out Loud (internet slang)

LOT

Usually and order of 1000 shares

M

Margin

Amount a customer deposits with a broker when borrowing from the broker to purchase securities. Trading on margin allows investors to control, or leverage, a greater amount of securities with the same cash and thus potentially increase profits. The amount of margin an investor can use is determined by the value of cash and certain qualifying securities in the client’s account as regulated by Federal securities laws.Margin Call

Demand to deposit additional cash and securities into a client’s account to satisfy minimum margin requirements set by Federal regulationMacro

The overall market macro momentum, the general direction of the prevailing wind as indicated by the leader list of stocks

Market Order

Order to buy or sell a security at the best available price; often used to ensure the fastest transaction execution but carry the risk of buying or selling at a price unknown to the trader placing the order.

mIRC

One of several Internet Relay Chat (IRC) software programs that allows connections to various IRC public and private networks. Used by mtrader for the chatroom.. more powerful than current web based chat systems.. Download our Mirc TA Chat Client here !!!

MOMO

Momentum of movement

MM

NASDAQ Market Maker, or Money Manager, or even Market Minder screen in RT3, depending on context

N

Newbie

New user of internet/computer (internet slang)

O

Odd Lot

Securities trade made for less than a normal prescribed lot; Order for any amount other than a lot rounded to the nearest 100 shares. Many brokers charge an additional fee or limit the types of trading orders they will accept for an odd lot.

Open Short

OPEN short is simply a trade in which we wish to short very close to the open in anticipation of strong profit taking. More discussion...

P

Paper Trades

Traders noting down trades on paper, rather than executing with real cash. Used by begining traders, or by traders taking a break from real trading. Usual suggestion is to allow about 30 seconds for execution time to get a realistic stock price.

Ping

To determine the propagation delay to some one on IRC.

Pivot Points

A point, based on Fibonacci numbers,  at which market direction is expected to transition to a different trend.

Ping? Pong!

Found in the Status window of MIRC. When you see PING PONG the server sends a PING to your client. If your client does not return a PONG, then the server thinks you are not there and will disconnect you. It is a way to measure time delay (lag) between the server and you. The less active you are in a channel, the more PING PONG you will see.

ROFL

Rolling on the floor laughing

RT3 / Real Tick 3

Name of software developed by Townsend Analytics (TAL), used by many different brokers

scalp trade

a trade entered for a very short term profit, as short as seconds... reserved for experienced traders, within limits of .05 up to .50 cents

Short Sale

Selling of a security not owned or held by the seller. Short selling is often used as a strategy by traders to profit from an expected decrease in the price of a security. By selling short, the seller receives credit as if the sale of a long, or normally held, security had occurred. Later, the short seller will buy back the same security, hopefully for a price less than credited from the sale, thus pocketing the difference as a profit. Short selling involves unlimited risk and is not suitable for conservative traders.

sideways market

Neutral market that has little upward or downward momentum

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission

spread

difference between bid and ask of a stock

spread changer

stock that keeps changing bid/ask rapidly without orderly movement to the next level

 Spoos

 Slang term for S&P 500 futures

SPIKE

Usually termed for a stock moving in upward momentum. "Spike up"

"Spike down"

stairstepping

an upward movement in price, rising, leveling off and rising again. Looks like stairs on a chart

stochastics

The Stochastic Oscillator is a technical indicator that compares a security's recent price to price range over a given time period The Stochastic Oscillator displays two lines. the first is %K line, the second is a moving average of the first & is referred to as the %D line. (used in charts)

Stop

a preset amount in fraction that a trader is willing to lose when a trade go against him/her, i.e., 1/8 or 1/4

T

TAL

Townsend Analytics, developer of RT3 software

Tanking

as in: "ABCD is tanking" ... rapid drop in stock price

Tape

Slang term for any device displaying current or recent market trading data. The term originates from antique ticker tape machines that printed out long, continuous strips of paper reporting stock trades.

Technical play

A trade where the technical or analytical considerations are significant factors in the price movements...i.e. bottom buying at a support level such as the 50 day moving average

Teetering

The price going up momentarily then falling back to the low by one trading range. This behavior often occurs in fast trading stocks at or near the top or bottom

Thin Market

Market for a particular security that is characterized by a lack of bids and offers; used to describe an overall lack of liquidity.

Tick

Measurement of the movement in a stock price. (See "Up Tick," "Down Tick")

TOS / T&S

Time and Sales. A screen in RT3 that allows the trader to see all updates in bid/ask as well as all trades executed as they are posted. The only accurate indication of pre-market trading, more accurate than Level 2 during trading hours.

TRIN

or the ARMS index defined as:

Advancing Issues/Declining Issues

Advancing Volume/Declining Volume

Up trending TRIN trend indicates higher risk in market

Triple Witching

Occurring on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, it is the date on which many options and futures contracts on indexes simultaneously expire. Triple Witching day sometimes causes market volatility from frenetic computer or program trading.

U

Up tick (UT)

The price of the bid or ask of a stock moves up by one trading range.

Up tick Rule

This SEC rule limits when shorting a stock is permitted. On NASDAQ traded stocks shorting is only allowed when the last previous trade was on an up tick (the price higher than the previous price)

Slang Terms often heard

Crank

Market markers pushing up a stock price

Squeeze

A play that consist of momentum upwards that pushes shorters out of the stock forcing them to cover a position

Net Slang

 brb:  be right back

 btw:  by the way

 fwiw: for what its worth

 imho:  in my humble opinion

 imo:  in my opinion

 lol:  laugh(ing) out loud

 ma: moving average

 rof:  rolling on the floor

 roflmao: rolling on the floor laughing my as$ off

 tia:  thanks in advance

 ttfn: ta ta for now

 wtg:  way to go

Ecn's and Market Makers

ARCA:   Archipelago ECN
 BEST:   Bear, Stears & Co., Inc.
 BTAB:  BT Alex Brown Inc.
 DLJP:   Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities
 FBCO:  Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation
 GSCO:   Goldman, Sachs & Co.
 HMQT:  Hambrecht & Quist LLC
 HRZG:   Herzog, Heine, Geduld, Inc.
 INCA:   Instinet Corp. (ECN)
 ISLD:   The Island ECN
 MASH:   Mayer & Schweitzer, Inc.
 MLCO:  Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc.
 MSCO:   Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc.
 NITE:   Knight Securities, Inc.
 PIPR:   US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc.
 PRUS:   Prudential Securities Inc.
 RSSF:  Bancboston Robertson Stephens Inc.
 SBSH:   Salomon, Smith Barney Inc.
 TNTO:   Terra Nova Trading, LLC
 TSCO:   Troster Singer Corporation

SHWB: Charles Shawab and company