InvestCouple has a lot to remember. Thus, an attempt to document all the stock market terms here as a quick reference may help the couple to quickly understand and pick a stock to invest. A glossary of stock market terms!
Price – This is the stock price. This is the highest amount someone in the stock market is willing to pay for a stock of a company.
Previous close – This is the prior day’s price of a stock
Open Price – This the price of a stock at the beginning of a day of trading on the stock market. The open price may differ from its closing price of the day before due to Post=Market and Pre-Market price movements.
Bid – This is the highest price at which a buyer is prepared to buy the stock
Ask – This is the lowest price a prospective seller is willing to sell the stock
Day’s range – This is the stock’s trading range and is the highest and lowest prices at which the stock traded during a single day. Traders can gauge stock trading activity (volatility) by looking at the differences, big disparity equals to high volatility.
52-week range – This is the stock’s lowest and highest price traded in the previous 52 weeks. Traders can see trading pressure around this range as it reflects a company’s ability to profit/loss on a year-over-year basis. See https://tradingsim.com/blog/52-week-range/ for more techniques
Volume – This is the number of shares traded in a stock for a given period. Both high and low frequency trade volume matters, for example, less frequently traded stocks can have its stock price overshoot and reverse itself many times a day as small number of investor rush to agree a new price for the stocks, making it risky.
Avg. volume – This is the total amount traded in that period, divided by the length of the period, mostly 1 day.
Market cap – Or, Market Capitalisation or market value of outstanding stock. This can be calculated using stock price multiplied by the total number of shares outstanding.
Beta – Indicates volatility of a stock. For example, if a stock’s beta is 1.35, it’s theoretically 35% more volatile than the market.
PE ratio (TTM) – This is comparing the stock’s current share price to its earnings per share for a twelve-month period. Used to determine if a company is under or over value, a high PE ratio meant the they possess growth stocks. See this article for a detailed example.
EPS (TTM) – This is the company’s earnings per share, the portion of company’s profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. Earnings per share serves as an indicator of a company’s profitability, measurement of management performance.
Earnings date – This is the date where a company reports will report earnings for the previous quarter. – quarterly earning report. i.e. each company reports its results 4 times in a financial year.
Dividend & yield – This is the ratio that indicates how much dividends is paid by a company each year to its share price.
Ex-dividend date –
1y target est
Valuation measures
Market cap (intra-day)
Enterprise value
Trailing P/E
Forward P/E
PEG Ratio (5 yr expected)
Price/sales (ttm)
Price/book (mrq)
Enterprise value/revenue
Enterprise value/EBITDA
Financial highlights
Fiscal year
Fiscal year ends
Most-recent quarter (mrq)
Profitability
Profit margin
Operating margin (ttm)
Management effectiveness
Return on assets (ttm)
Return on equity (ttm)
Income statement
Revenue (ttm)
Revenue per share (ttm)
Quarterly revenue growth (yoy)
Gross profit (ttm)
EBITDA
Net income avi to common (ttm)
Diluted EPS (ttm)
Quarterly earnings growth (yoy)
Balance sheet
Total cash (mrq)
Total cash per share (mrq)
Total debt (mrq)
Total debt/equity (mrq)
Current ratio (mrq)
Book value per share (mrq)
Cash flow statement
Operating cash flow (ttm)
Levered free cash flow (ttm)
Trading information
Stock price history
Beta
52-week change 3
S&P500 52-week change 3
52-week high 3
52-week low 3
50-day moving average 3
200-day moving average 3
Share statistics
Avg vol (3-month) 3
Avg vol (10-day) 3
Shares outstanding 5
Float
% held by insiders 1
% held by institutions
Shares short
Short ratio
Short % of float
Shares short (prior month)
Dividends & splits
Forward annual dividend rate
Forward annual dividend yield
Trailing annual dividend rate
Trailing annual dividend yield
5-year average dividend yield
Payout ratio
Dividend date
Ex-dividend date
Last split factor (new per old)
Last split date
