Topic
Stock trading
The share count, the offering, the average cost and the screener column: what moves a single stock and what a trader can check before placing the order.
A share price is a fraction, and the bottom half of it changes more often than most traders notice. Companies sell new stock into rallies, warrants turn into shares at a fixed price, and convertible notes arrive as equity months after they were signed. Each one spreads the same business over more shares.
Start with the share count and the filings that change it, then the arithmetic of averaging down and the columns a screener shows. The calculators will redo every sum on your own position.
Viewpoints
All viewpoints →-
The case
An At-the-Market Offering Sells Into Every RallyAn ATM program puts a steady seller of new stock into every bounce, and a falling price makes each dollar raised cost holders more shares.
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By the numbers
Averaging Down Moves Your Break-Even Less Than You ThinkAveraging down lowers the break-even only by enlarging the position, and the price usually moves it less than the size moves your risk.
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The case
Stock Warrants Are Dilution on a DelayWarrants are shares already sold with delivery postponed; count them as dilution now, sized for the day the stock trades above the strike.
Walkthroughs
All walkthroughs →Dictionary
Full dictionary →- Convertible notes
Debt that the holder can exchange for a set number of the company's shares, at a conversion price usually fixed above the stock price on the day the notes are sold.
- Follow-on offering
A sale of stock by a company that is already publicly traded, or by its existing holders, usually priced overnight or over a few days at a discount to the last close.
- Fully diluted shares
The number of shares a company would have if every outstanding option, restricted stock unit, warrant and convertible security were turned into common stock.
- Shelf registration
An SEC registration, usually on Form S-3, that lets an eligible company register securities in advance and sell them in pieces over time through prospectus supplements.
Courses, practice and tools
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Free course · Intermediate
Rules First, Money Later: Test a Trading StrategyTraders with a stock trading idea they want to test on price history, then on paper and at small size, before putting real money behind it.
Lessons with a quiz at the end of each
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Quiz · Beginner
Signal or Static? A Stock Market News QuizWhether you can tell a headline that changes a company's earnings outlook from one that is mostly noise, and say what would make it matter.
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Quiz · Intermediate
Where Did the New Shares Come From? A Stock Dilution QuizWhether you can trace a change in a company's share count to its source, from offerings and warrants to stock pay and buybacks.
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Calculator
Share Dilution CalculatorYour ownership percentage and earnings per share after a company issues new shares, and the dilution in each.
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Calculator
Average Down CalculatorYour new average cost after buying more shares lower, with fees, and the price the stock must reach to break even.