3-09 Resources
Ok new investor, you should be ready to begin. You can now leave the bleachers, put on a uniform, cross the white lines, and play. Stay focused, positive, and realistic. You might not make the Majors right away, but you can enter the investment world armed with solid knowledge, upon which you can expand by practice and repetition at a virtual trading simulation.
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Glossary
Ticker Symbol – 1 to 5 letters identifying a company’s stock on a stock exchange.
Dow Jones Industrial Average – A list of 30 US stocks, compromising the most commonly-traded stocks on US exchanges. This is the oldest “Stock Index” in the United States, and frequently used as a metric for the health of the stock market as a whole.
Stock Quote – Information about a specific stock at a specific point in time. This usually includes, at minimum, the last price, current bid/ask prices, and the day’s trading volume.
Volume – How many shares of a stock have traded in a single day. This is part of a stock quote.
Divided Yield – The percentage of a stock’s price that is paid out in dividends per year.
Ex-Div Date – The date when you must own a stock in order to receive a dividend. If you own a stock on the Ex-Div date, but sell it before the dividend is paid out, you will still be paid the dividend.
Market Order – An order that is sent to the stock market with the instructions “buy this stock now at the current ask price”.
Limit Order – An order that is sent to the market to maximize gains based on the price set.
Limit Buy – A “buy” order sent to market, with a “limit price” set below the current market price. If the market price falls below the “limit price”, the order converts to a market order and executes.
Limit Sell – a “Sell” order sent to the market, with a “limit price” set above the current market price. If the market price rises above the “limit price”, the order converts to a market order and executes.
Stop Order – An order that is sent to the market to protect against loss.
Stop Buy – A “Buy” order set above the current market price. If the market price rises above the “Stop Price”, the order converts to a market order and executes.
Stop Sell – A “Sell” order set below the current market price. If the market price falls below the “Stop Price”, the order converts to a market order and executes.
Trailing Stop Order – A type of stop order that has the “stop” set as a dollar amount or percentage above (for a buy) or below (for a sell) the market price. If the market price moves farther away from the trailing stop, the trailing stop automatically adjusts to match it.
Order Term – How long an order is valid when sent to market.
Good Till Day – An order term that, if not filled, expires at the end of the trading day.
Good Till Cancelled – An order term that will not expire – it will stay open until it executes or the investor manually cancels it. In most brokerage accounts, “Good Till Cancelled” orders do still expire after a few months and must be re-placed.
Good Till Date – An order term that, if not filled, expires at the end of a specific calendar day.
Margin Trading – The act of borrowing money from your brokerage to buy additional investments. The amount borrowed is charged interest.
Short – The act of borrowing shares of a stock from your brokerage, and immediately selling them. At a later date, the investor buys back the shares at market price and returns them to their brokerage. If the stock’s price fell during that time, they earn a profit.
Cover – The act of buying back a “shorted” stock and returning it to your broker.
Unrealized Gains (Losses) – The increase (decrease) in value of stocks that you currently own.
Realized Gains (Losses) – The increase (decrease) in value of stocks that you have sold, from when you bought them until you sold them. This would be your cash profit from trading.
First In, First Out (FIFO) – An accounting method that considers the price of your oldest stocks when selling to calculate the realized gain or loss.
Last In, First Out (LIFO) – An accounting method that considers the price of your newest stocks when selling to calculate the realized gain or loss.
Average Cost Basis – An accounting method that considers the average purchase price of your stocks when selling to calculate the realized gain or loss.
Exercise
If you haven’t done so yet, go to your virtual account and make at least 6 trades:
- Place a market order and see if it gets filled quickly
- Place a buy limit order to below the current market price of a stock and see if and when it gets filled.
- Place some of these orders as day orders and some as GTC.
- Place a stop loss order on one of the stocks that you have bought.
- Place a limit sell on one of your stocks that you have bought.
- Don’t forget to short a stock that you think is overpriced.
Don’t worry if you haven’t done a lot of research for your stocks at this point. This is just for the practice of looking up ticker symbols and placing orders.