Above the Market
An order to buy or sell at a price set higher than the current market price of the security. Examples of above the market orders include: a limit order to sell, a stop order to buy, or a stop-limit order to buy.This is a strategy that is often used by momentum traders. For example, a stop order would be placed above the resistance level to buy. Should the security's price break through the resistance level, the investor may be able to participate in the upward trend.

Absolute Breadth Index - ABI
A market indicator used to determine volatility levels in the market without factoring in price direction. It is calculated by taking the absolute value of the difference between the number of advancing issues and the number of declining issues. Typically, large numbers suggest volatility is increasing which is likely to cause significant changes in stock prices in the coming weeks.This tool is classified as a breadth indicator because the number of advancing/declining values are the only values used to create it. This index can be calculated using any exchange, or a subset of an exchange.

Active Investing
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.

Adding To A Loser
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.

Advance/Decline Index
A technical analysis tool that represents the total difference between the number of advancing and declining security prices. This index is considered one of the best indicators of market movements as a whole. In general, rising values of the advance/decline can be used to confirm the likelihood that an upward trend will continue. If the market is up but there are more declining issues than advancing ones, it's usually a sign that the market is losing its breadth and may be getting ready to change direction.

Accounting Noise
The effect of complex and extensive accounting rules that regulate financial statement reporting and are thought to distort a company's true operating performance.Accounting noise can be seen as either a consequence of necessary rules regarding generally accepted accounting principles or a result of management's attempts to massage the numbers to present a rosier financial picture of the firm.For example, a company that has recently undergone a significant merger may look very unprofitable on the income statement; because the merger may cause serious one-time charges for the company, it may be useful for investors to cut through the accounting noise to get a more accurate picture of the company's prospects. Conversely, an underperforming company could engage in earnings manipulation, creating accounting noise to hide its poor performance.

Air Pocket Stock
When the price of a stock plunges unexpectedly, similar to an airplane when it hits an air pocket.This is almost always caused by shareholders selling because of unexpected bad news.

Arbitrageur
A type of investor who attempts to profit from price inefficiencies in the market by making simultaneous trades that offset each other and capture risk-free profits. An arbitrageur would, for example, seek out price discrepancies between stocks listed on more than one exchange, buy the undervalued shares on the one exchange while short selling the same number of overvalued shares on the other exchange, thus capturing risk-free profits as the prices on the two exchanges converge. Arbitrageurs are typically very experienced investors since arbitrage opportunities are difficult to find and require relatively fast trading. Arbitrageurs also play an important role in the operation of capital markets, as their efforts in exploiting price inefficiencies keep prices more accurate than they otherwise would be.

Asset Play
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.

Breakout
A price movement through an identified level of support or resistance, which is usually followed by heavy volume and increased volatility. Traders will buy the underlying asset when the price breaks above a level of resistance and sell when it breaks below support. In practice, a breakout is most commonly used to refer to a situation where the price breaks above a level of resistance and heads higher, rather than breaking below a level of support and heading lower. Once a resistance level is broken, it is regarded as the next level of support when the asset experiences a pullback  Most traders use chart patterns and other technical tools such as trendlines to identify possible candidates that are likely to break through a support/resistance level.

Bottom Fisher
An investor who looks for bargains among stocks whose prices have recently dropped dramatically. The investor believes that the recent price drop is temporary and a recovery is soon to follow.A bottom fisher attempts to find stocks that the market has undervalued. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell the difference between a bargain and a stock that has fallen for a fundamental reason.

Bubble
An economic cycle characterized by rapid expansion followed by a contraction.A surge in equity prices, often more than warranted by the fundamentals and usually in a particular sector, followed by a drastic drop in prices as a massive selloff occurs.A theory that security prices rise above their true value and will continue to do so until prices go into freefall and the bubble bursts.Bubbles form in economies, securities, stock markets and business sectors because of a change in the way players conduct business. This can be a real change, as occurred in the bubble economy of Japan in the 1980s when banks were partially deregulated, or a paradigm shift, as happened during the dotcom boom in the late '90s and early 2000s. During the boom people bought tech stocks at high prices, believing they could sell them at a higher price until confidence was lost and a large market correction, or crash, occurs.    Bubbles in equities markets and economies cause resources to be transferred to areas of rapid growth. At the end of a bubble, resources are moved again, causing prices to deflate. Thus, there is little long-term return on those assets.

Bucketing
A situation where, in an attempt to make a short-term profit, a broker confirms an order to a client without actually executing it. A brokerage which engages in unscrupulous activities, such as bucketing, is often referred to as a bucket shop.If the eventual price that the order is executed at is higher than the price available when the order was submitted, the customer simply pays the higher price. On the other hand, if the execution price is lower than the price available when the order was submitted, the customer pays the higher price and the brokerage firm pockets the difference.