When a company’s existing shares are automatically divided into multiple shares it is known as a stock split.  Splits are typically bullish in nature and are commonly used to both identify the health of a company and lower the overall stock price.

A stock symbol, also known as a ticker symbol, is a string of letters that identify every publicly traded company. Investors use ticker symbols all day every day to identify stocks quickly, with each symbol being completely unique from the other.

A golden parachute is a term used to describe what benefits top executives receive when their company gets taken over (bought out, etc.) by another company, and they lose their jobs as a result.

When placing an order to buy shares of stock investors have sub-options such as “fill or kill” and in this case “all or none”. These expressions are actually types or orders and have specific meaning to how the order is filled / completed.

Outstanding shares by definition is the total number of shares held by all investors.

When trading large amounts of stock the lingo changes from simply, “I bought 15 shares of Apple today Bob.” Institutions such as mutual funds and hedge funds are typically trading so many shares at once that they tend to stick to whole amount standards, one of which is called a “block” of shares.

Conservative investors looking to invest in a mutual fund that is more consistent in performance regardless of the overall market trend should consider a All Weather Fund.

When a stock investment performs better than its sector or the overall market it is known to be bucking the trend.