Accumulation distribution is kind of the applause meter referring to whether investors are buying or selling shares of a given stock, as metered and measured by how the stock price does, relative to the volumes in trading of that stock. So for example, if a stock is flat on massive volumes, like three times the normal rate on a given day, then someone is probably dumping the stock, because in theory, there simply wouldn't be a buyer of huge size on a flat day (and this presumes a flat market).
Normally, when a big seller is selling, you'd expect the stock to go down. In this case, think: "Accumulation" = buyers have positive sentiment and are buying up the excess liquidity in the market; "Distribution" = owners are selling shares, because sentiment is bearish on that given stock, relative to everything else.
That's the ratio, anyway, and it's a Thing that is actually tracked.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Perpetuity?44 Views
finance a la shmoop. what is a perpetuity? forever. that's what you should think
when you hear the word perpetuity. well a perpetuity is a cousin to an annuity.
in an annuity you invest a given amount of money and then you get a portion of [100 dollar bill]
that dough paid out to you over a set number of years, or in the vein of a life
insurance policy it gets paid out until you are you know doing backstroke Six
Feet Under. and annuity sunsets well basically when you. do but a perpetuity [skeleton in the ground]
outlives you. it pays forever even when you're dead. so why would anyone want one
of these things? well they work for university scholarship endowments. you
know like think about a great Italian literature philanthropist named well
let's say Bella pepperoni. no offense to our Italian shmoopers out there. she made [woman wears name tag]
her fortune analyzing the works of Dante and Machiavelli and wants to endow a
scholarship for other PhDs in Italian Lit forever. well she'd put in say a
million bucks and it might get invested in half and bonds half in stocks with
yield and the throw from that million bucks might be something like a four or
five percent a year or forty or fifty grand and that would be more than enough [equations on screen]
to cover the basics for a PhD in Italian lit well more or less forever as
dividends get raised in stocks bro and all that stuff. the million bucks just
remains invested 50/50 stocks and bonds and the world continues to spin so yeah
even when she's no longer around to enjoy the fruits of her labor as well [headstone shown]
that fruit doesn't spoil develop mold and start to smell bad even if we can't
say the same for her. sorry. just keeping it real. [woman's picture next to casket.]
that's perpetuity. goes forever. perpetual.
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