Glossary

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• Slump   This refers to the bottom of a trade cycle when prices and employment are at their lowest level reflected in the downward movement of share prices. Overall mood of the market is depressed during the slump.
• Soft underwriting Soft underwriting is when an underwriter agrees to buy the shares at later stages as soon as the pricing process is complete. He then, immediately places those shares with institutional players. The risk faced by the underwriter as such is reduced to a small window of time. Also, the soft underwriter has the option to invoke a force Majeure (acts of God) clause in case there are certain factors beyond the control that can affect the underwriter’s ability to place the shares with the buyers.
• Specified Shares For the purpose of trading, stock exchange authorities categorised the securities as either 'specified' shares or 'non-specified' shares.  
• Speculator A trader who takes an outright long or short position in the market.
• Sponsor Sponsor of the Asset Management Company (AMC) is the parent organization that contributes the initial capital of the AMC. For example State Bank of India is the sponsor for SBI Mutual Fund.  
• Spot market A market in which commodities are bought and sold for cash and immediate delivery.
• Spread The difference between current bid and offer ( ask ) prices for a commodity. 
• Spread A market position involving a degree of risk offset in two or more positions. For options such strategies as ratio, horizontal and vertical spreads are used across strikes prices and expiry months.
• Stag A stag is an investor or speculator who subscribes to an IPO with the intention of selling them soon after allotment to earn a quick profit.
• Stock split This refers to the splitting shares of the company by way of reducing face value of the share. The equity capital remains the same after the split. The total numbers of outstanding shares get increased and the face value per share gets decreased. The process is expected to improve liquidity in the stock.