An incorrectly valued stock that is attractive because its combined asset value is greater than its market capitalization. This type of stock is called an asset play because the impetus for purchase is the fact that the company's assets are being offered to the market relatively cheap. Typically, investors involved in an asset play will buy these stocks in hopes that there will be price corrections causing the market capitalization to increase and thus lead to a capital gain.
A trading system that is not regulated as an exchange, but is a venue for matching the buy and sell orders of its subscribers. Alternative trading systems are gaining popularity around the world and account for much of the liquidity found in publicly traded issues. Regulation ATS was introduced by the SEC in 1998 and is designed to protect investors and resolve any concerns arising from this type of trading system. Regulation ATS requires stricter record keeping and demands more intensive reporting on issues such as transparency once the system reaches more than 5% of the trading volume for any given security. Many alternative trading systems are specifically designed to match buyers and sellers who trade in very large quantities (primarily professional traders and investors). Also, institutions will often use an ATS to find counterparties for transactions, instead of trading large blocks of shares on the normal exchange, a practice that can skew the market price in a particular direction, depending on a particular share's market capitalization and trading volume.Examples of alternative trading systems include, but are not limited to, electronic communication networks (ECNs), crossing networks and call markets.
A combination order whereby two separate orders are entered on the same security. The execution of one order cancels the other. For example, if you purchased shares of XYZ at $5, you could enter an alternative order to sell at either $2.50 or $7.50. If the order to sell at $2.50 was executed, the $7.50 order would be cancelled and vice versa. This would limit potential losses and gains, thus mimicking a collar strategy.
An official notification from an options clearing firm to the writer of an option that the current option holder has exercised and, therefore, the writer must produce the underlying security. This may require the option's writer to purchase or sell securities on the open market to fulfill the contractual obligation. Allocation notice can also refer to how a broker or advisor would inform a client who has shown interest in an IPO whether his or her requested allocation of IPO shares is available in full, or if only a fraction of the requested total is available for purchase. Because such a high percentage of options expire worthless, investors tend to overlook the fact that every contract can be exercised by the current holder. While most options traders avoid holding their contracts at expiration, someone will always be holding the in-the-money options, and will call upon the writer of the option to deliver the goods. For example, if an owner of a large block of stocks has been writing covered calls to generate income, and the stock has appreciated enough to make the option exercise profitable, whoever is holding the contract at expiration will call on the stockholder to deliver the shares through his or her brokerage firm.
The party in a trade that initiates the deal. The aggressor works with the dealer, who takes a passive role and posts the bid and ask quotes. The aggressor in a transaction will typically attempt to instigate the deal and push it forward in order to obtain financial benefit. In order flow, trades are considered "positive" or "negative" depending on whether the aggressor is buying or selling. For example, an aggressor selling 10,000 units will create an order flow of -10,000 with the dealer. Because commodity futures must have a buyer and seller who execute a trade simultaneously, the dealer in the aforementioned example will have a positive 10,000 order flow.
The action of a trader/investor increasing a position in an asset when its price is heading in the direction that's opposite to what the investor/trader desires. This is generally not a wise investment decision because unless the asset begins to move in the desired direction, the investor's losses will increase. An investor might add to a losing position instead of closing it because he or she gets emotionally attached to the asset and has a hard time accepting that it was a bad investment. once the trade moves substantially in the wrong direction, however, it may be time to consider closing out or re-evaluating the reason for having the position rather than putting more money at risk.
The use of a human element, such as a single manager, co-managers or a team of managers, to actively manage a fund's portfolio. Active managers rely on analytical research, forecasts, and their own judgment and experience in making investment decisions on what securities to buy, hold and sell. The opposite of active management is called passive management, better known as "indexing". Investors who believe in active management do not follow the efficient market hypothesis. They believe it is possible to profit from the stock market through any number of strategies that aim to identify mispriced securities.Investment companies and fund sponsors believe it's possible to outperform the market, and employ professional investment managers to manage one or more of the company's mutual funds. The objective with active management is to produce better returns than those of passively managed index funds. For example, a large cap stock fund manager would look to beat the performance of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Unfortunately, for a large majority of active managers, this has been difficult. This phenomenon is simply a reflection of how hard it is, no matter how smart the manager, to beat the market.
An investment strategy involving ongoing buying and selling actions by the investor. Active investors purchase investments and continuously monitor their activity in order to exploit profitable conditions. Active investing is highly involved. Unlike passive investors, who invest in a stock when they believe in its potential for long-term appreciation, active investors will typically look at the price movements of their stocks many times a day. Typically, active investors are seeking short-term profits.