Trading terminology. Part 2

8 Stock Trading Terms Every Trader Needs to Know

1. Bid
The bid is the amount of money a trader is willing to pay per share for a given stock. It’s balanced against the ask price, which is what a seller wants per share of that same stock, and the spread is the difference between those two prices.

2.Close
The NYSE and Nasdaq close at 4 p.m., with after-hours trading continuing until 8 p.m. The close simply refers to the time at which a stock exchange closes to trading.

3. Day Trading
The practice of buying and selling within the same trading day, before the close of the markets on that day, is called day trading. This is my primary trading strategy, although I have a long-term portfolio, as well. Traders who participate in day trading are often called “active traders” or “day traders.”

4. Dividend
A portion of a company’s earnings that is paid to shareholders, or people that own that company’s stock, on a quarterly or annual basis. Not all companies pay dividends. For instance, if you trade penny stocks, you’re likely not after dividends.

5. Exchange
A place in which different investments are traded. The most well-known exchanges in the United States are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq.

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

7. Haircut
In its most simplest stock market terms, a haircut is an extremely thin spread between the bid and ask prices of a given stock. It can also refer to a situation in which a stock price gets reduced by a specific percentage for margin trades or other purposes.

8. High
A high refers to a market milestone in which a stock or index reaches a greater price point than previously. Record highs can signal that a stock or index has never reached the current price point, but there are also time-constrained highs, such as 30-day highs.