Inactive Securities

Source: Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance (9h Edition) by Charles J Woelfel
(We recommend this as work of authority and you can order it here)

Stocks OR bonds not frequently traded, whether listed on stock exchanges or unlisted.  There are degrees of activity and inactivity.  Many securities are not traded daily, some not being quoted more than once a month.  One of the objectives of stock exchange listing requirements is to require prerequisites of sufficient distribution of stock ownership in order to tend to create turnover and trading activity.  In the course of time, changes causing inactivity in originally qualified listed issues would relegate the issues to the INACTIVE POST on the New York Stock Exchange.

From the standpoint of collateral (loan) value, any security that is traded every day may be regarded as active, although varied trading volume reflects degrees of activity.  From a broker's standpoint, however, a security may not be considered relatively active unless, say, 50,000 shares per day are traded; an inactive security might be one in which, say, 500 shares or less are traded.

See ACTIVE SECURITIES

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