Glossary - A

Trading terms beginning with the letter A

Arbitrageur
_{What Does Arbitrageur Mean?}

A type of investor who attempts to profit from price inefficiencies in the market by making simultaneous trades that offset each other and capturing risk-free profits. An arbitrageur would, for example, seek out price discrepancies between stocks listed on more than one exchange, and buy the undervalued shares on one exchange while short selling the same number of overvalued shares on another exchange, thus capturing risk-free profits as the prices on the two exchanges converge.

Ask
_{What Does Ask Mean?}

The price a seller is willing to accept for a security, also known as the offer price. Along with the price, the ask quote will generally also stipulate the amount of the security willing to be sold at that price.

This is the opposite of bid, which is the price a buyer is willing to pay for a security, and the ask will always be higher than the bid. The terms "bid" and "ask" are used in nearly every financial market in the world covering stocks, bonds, currency and derivatives. An example of an ask in the stock market would be $5.24 x 1,000 which means that someone is offering to sell 1,000 shares for $5.24.

Asset Stripper
_{What Does Asset Stripper Mean?}

An individual or company, which purchases a corporation with the intention of dividing that corporation up into its parts and selling these parts for profit. An asset stripper will determine if the value of a company is worth more as a whole or as separate assets. Usually the asset stripper sells some assets off immediately then sells the functioning portion of the business later.

This is a corporate purchaser who discovers companies, which will create more profit by liquidating the parts rather than through business operations. For example an asset stripper could purchase a battery company for $100 million, strip and sell the R&D division for $30 million, then sell the remaining company for $85 million, for a profit of $15 million. The asset stripper could also just sell a portion of the business to fulfill debt obtained from acquiring the company.

Away from the Market
_{What Does Away From The Market Mean?}

When the bid on an order is lower (or the ask price is higher) than the current market price for the security.

In this case, the bid/ask spread is above or below the current price of the stock