Ankle Biter

Sometimes people refer to kids as "ankle biters." There's also a quasi foot fetish thing going on here. And other times, they give the name to small dogs. The phrase could also theoretically provide the title to really tame spin-off of Fifty Shades of Grey. But none of that is the focus here.

In a financial context, ankle biter serves as a nickname for a stock that has a small market cap. More formally, these shares are known as micro-cap stocks.

A market cap, or market capitalization, measures the value of a company's outstanding stock. Multiply a company's current stock price with the number of shares it has outstanding and the result gives you its market cap.

What designates a micro-cap/ankle biter stock is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. In general, it means the market cap is very small, but there's no formal rule as to where the cut off exists. It's like figuring how short a short person is. To LeBron James, almost everyone is short. To a racing jockey, almost no one is.

Typically, if a stock has a market cap below $500 million, it is getting to ankle biter territory. However, most people don't really start to apply the term until it gets below $300 million or lower.