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.
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Finance: What is Over The Counter (OTC)?3 Views
finance a la shmoop what is over the counter or OTC alright buy drugs LVM
non-prescription kind yeah those nyquil tylenol preparation-h well then you buy [Doctor filling out prescription]
them over-the-counter prescription drugs yeah those are different much more
highly inspected regulated structured and stocks work the same way when you
trade over-the-counter you're generally trading within a network of other
dealers all trading stocks think of it like everyone on Facebook had a trading [Facebook posts appear]
account nothing really is supervised door regulated or controlled it's just
the transaction happening among two strangers passing in the night [People walking around with smartphones]
exchanging glances get a fair deal on this trade well on the exchanges Amazon
was offered for fifteen hundred two dollars a share but on the OTC deck
network while it was offered at 1507 maybe you'll have overpaid five bucks a [Amazon share prices appear]
share for Amazon if you buy it here rather than on NASDAQ which is a normal
securities exchange well stocks bonds commodities derivatives they all trade
OTC and also on exchanges so why are there both methods of trading in the
first place well demand if everybody was happy with the trades they made from
9:30 to four New York time well then there wouldn't be a whole lot of demand [Stocks transferring from wall street]
for trading outside of those hours and in other places but there is so there is
an OTC trading accommodates after-hours trading as well which can be a really
big deal when a company announces earnings at 4:30 p.m. New York time and [Newspaper of record earnings for company appears]
the street either loves or hates the numbers that the companies printed the
stock can move a lot in a short period so a lot of investors are happy to be
able to either dump or scarf up positions in whatever calm at 4:32 p.m.
after the numbers have been published not wanting to wait the dozen in change [Clock rapidly ticks forward]
hours until the market opens again in the morning the basic idea behind OTC
trading is that the world of OTC is kind of the wild wild west of stock exchanges
unlike trading on the NYSE where companies have to meet very high
standards to be accepted for trading on the exchange qualify for OTC trading
while companies basically just have to spell their name properly fill out a few [Person signing a document]
forms and feel that belonging thing and even then
well you know there's a lot of flexibility
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