Stock trading lingo

This article was written by: Peter Saro

Long – trading operation when you buy in expectation of price increase

Short – selling operation with expectation of price decrease

Bull – trader looking for increase in price of the stock

Bear – trader looking for drop in price of the stock

Cover – closing short position – equals to buying

Pay offer – taking liquidity from the offer (used for getting long or covering)

Hit the bid – taking liquidity from the bid side (used for getting short or hitting out)

Ticker – stock symbol under which companies trade on the stock exchanges. 1, 2 or 3 letters for NYSE stocks, 4 letters for Nasdaq stocks (e.g. GOOG – Google, GS – Goldman Sachs)

NYSE – New York Stock Exchange, includes human factor - specialists

NASDAQ - National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, the biggest electronic market in the world, no human factor

Bid – buyers show their interest for buying at certain price

Offer – sellers show their interest for selling at certain price

Spread – difference between bid and offer

Gap – difference between closing and opening price of the stock. Gap up – to the upside, gap down – to the downside.

Beta – volatility indicator. Equals 1 – stock moves exactly like the market, negative number – stock goes opposite direction to market, positive number – stock goes same direction as the market

Bread and butter – stock that trader trades on regular day-to-day basis and provides him/her with the biggest portion of profits

ECN – electronic communication network – additional channel for liquidity on stock exchanges. For example ARCA, ISLD, UBSS, BATS, FLOW, EDGX, ...

52 week high/low – the highest level in the stock in last year

EPS – earning per share

NYOB – New York Open Book – feature on the trading platform providing info about buying and selling orders coming to specialist on NYSE

Support – area of buying, price does not go below this level

Resistance – area of selling, price does not go higher than this level

Print – actual trade where buyer meets seller and both agree on price

Consolidation – sideways trading. After substantial move in one way or another stock takes some time to make another move

Tanking – sudden drop in the price of the stock that is bigger than usual

Chopping up – making money

Getting smoked – getting killed, losing money

Jigged out – sudden change of price move that was in your favor and turns against you

Stuck order – order that was sent out but is not executed because of technical problems

Bottom fishing – trying to buy the lowest price of the stock while the stock keeps falling down

Chasing the stock – trying to buy the stock after it went up significantly, buying the top

Black box trading – computerized trading systems