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Brokerage: Glossary

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Day Order: An order to buy or sell which, if not executed, expires at the end of the trading day it was entered.

Day Trading: In the current volatile market, there are investors who have created an industry around buying and selling stocks on a very short-term basis. Usually the transactions are completed within one day. There are small brokerage firms that specialize in offering terminals and real-time quotes to individuals who choose to day trade.

Dealer: A securities firm plays the role of a dealer when it acts as a principal in a particular trade. A firm is acting as a dealer when it buys or sells a security for its own account and at its own risk and then charges the customer a markup or markdown.

Debit Balance: The total amount owed to the brokerage firm including any loans, interest charges, commissions, etc.

Debt Security: Tradable evidence of borrowing that must be repaid, stating the amount, a specific rate of interest (or discount from the maturity price).

Depository Trust Company (DTC): The DTC is a central repository where stocks and bonds are held and transferred. The DTC is owned by brokerage houses on Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange.

Derivative: A financial contract whose value depends upon the value of an underlying instrument or asset (typically a commodity, bond, equity or currency, or a combination of these). Three classes of financial products fall under the heading of derivatives: derivative securities; exchange-traded derivatives; and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.

Dividend: A distribution of the earnings of a corporation Dividends may be in the form of cash, stock or property (other securities owned by the corporation). A dividend can only be paid by declaration of the board of directors of the corporation.

  • Ex-Dividend Date: Four business days before the record date. On the ex-dividend date the purchase of stock no longer carries with it the right to receive the dividend previously declared.
  • Record Date: Stockholders owning the stock on the record date are entitled to receive a dividend. In order to be listed as an owner on the corporate books on the record date, the investor must have bought the stock before the ex-dividend date.
  • Payment Date: The day on which a stockholder of record will receive his or her dividend.

Do Not Reduce (DNR): Stipulation to order that instructs the broker not to decrease the limit price on buy-limit and sell-stop orders on the record date of a cash dividend.


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