Stock Market

Charts of the Week: 7 Stocks to Watch

This week we feature seven key charts to watch. The first is Applied Materials (AMAT), which looks like it’s getting ready to take off and challenge its prior high somewhere between 14.77 and 14.80, maybe even as high as 14.98. It closed at 14.47 on Friday, but looks like it’s poised to

Mega-Cap ETFs Give You the Bluest Blue Chips

People often associate “big” with “safe.” They think big ships are safer than small boats. Big banks are safer than small banks. Big stocks are safer than small stocks. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way … the gigantic Titanic turned out to be quite a

Five Tips for Trading ETFs By Ron Rowland

Every week I tell you about exchange traded funds (ETFs) that you can use for various investment purposes. You could be wondering, though, what’s the best way to buy them. So in today’s column I’ll give you some practical information that will help you implement whatever ETF invest

Speculative Bubble

A rapid run-up in prices caused by excessive buying that is unrelated to any of the basic, underlying factors affecting the supply or demand for a commodity or other asset. Speculative bubbles are usually associated with a “bandwagon” effect in which s

Specialist System

The specialist is part of a centralized marketplace, such as the NYSE. The specialist system is commonly used for the exchange trading of securities in which one individual or firm acts as a market-maker in a particular security. The specialist is obliged to provide fair and orderl

SPDR

Referred to as Spiders, SPDR stands for Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipt. SPDR’s are designed to track the value of the S&P 500, and trade just as stocks do on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol SPY. One SPDR unit is valued at app

SOES Bandit

SOES Bandit refers to a group of traders who use the Nasdaq Small Order Execution System to execute their trades directly with market makers.

SOES

The Small Order Execution System or SOES is an automated execution system that routes orders of up to 1,000 shares directly to Nasdaq market makers. Market makers can have one order executed against them automatically for every 20 seconds they remain on the inside

Small Cap

Small cap is a category used to describe stocks that have a market capitalization of between $250 million and $1 billion. Small cap stocks are less risky than micro cap stocks while also having significant growth potential. See also: Micro Cap, Mid Cap, Large Cap, Ultra Cap

Asset Class

An asset class is a group of similar investments such as blue chip stocks. In order to build a diversified portfolio it is necessary to diversify among various asset classes, for example blue chip stocks, bonds and real estate.