A B C D E-F G H I-J K-L M-N O P Q R S T U V-Z

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Day To Day (DTD)
When an IPO is listed as day-to-day on the offering calendar, it means that the lead underwriter does not have sufficient orders in the book. IPOs listed as DTD are likely to be postponed.

Day Trader
Once a term used to describe professional investors who aggressively trade stocks, bonds and other financial instruments to capture short-term swings in prices, it is now applied to individuals who frequent small brokerage firms that offer terminals and quote streams. These individuals use their own capital - sometimes borrowed - to establish an account and then trade on a short-term basis. The term is also applied to individual investors who trade online for short-term gains. Regulators such as the SEC are currently examining the operations of day-trading brokerage firms, who may be reaping huge profits in the form of commissions at the expense of their high-volume customers.

Dead Cat Bounce
This is the short rebound a stock makes after is has dropped significantly in price. It is likely caused by short sellers closing out positions rather than real buying.

Depositary Trust Company (DTC)
The DTC is essentially a clearinghouse between institutional buyers and sellers of securities and brokers. It allows institutional investors to seamlessly buy and sell stock using multiple brokers.

Direct Public Offering (DPO)
To avoid the expense of high-priced lawyers and investment bankers, some companies go it alone by selling their shares directly to the public. This has been used by emerging growth companies who seek to raise smaller amounts of capital, usually under $50 million.

Due Diligence
As part of the process of taking a company public, the investment bankers and lawyers for the underwriters conduct an in-depth examination of the proposed IPO. They speak with management about the company's prospects, strategy, competitors and financial statements. Information that is material to the company's prospects must be disclosed in the prospectus.

Dutch Auction
An alternative to the traditional negotiated pricing process used by underwriters to set IPO prices. This method requires the underwriter to solicit bids from potential investors. Investors indicate the number of shares that they want and the price that they are willing to pay per share. Shares are then priced at the lowest clearing price. Allocations are made with priority given to the highest bidders, first with regard to bid price and then according to bidded share size. Because the only considerations taken into consideration for allocating shares is the bid price and shares, this pricing method does not discriminate between institutions and individuals with regard to allocations. W.R. Hambrecht is the only investment bank to employ this method and does so only through the use of an online bidding platform.

ePO employs a similar method but allows a company to sell its IPO shares directly to the investor eliminating underwriters, syndicates, stockbrokers and privileged clients of the brokerage firms. The ePO technology allocates shares according to the highest bidders along with date and time of bids. It does not consider bidded share size and thus all investors, regardless of the size of their investment, are treated equally.

 

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