What is the ‘Watchlist’
1. A list of securities being monitored closely by a brokerage or exchange in order to spot irregularities. Firms on the watchlist might be suspected of regulatory violations, about to issue new securities, attracting usually heavy volume, etc.
2. A list of securities being monitored for potential trading or investing opportunities. An investor or trader may have a watchlist of several, dozens or even hundreds of trading instruments. The investor waits for certain criteria to be met–such as trading over a certain volume, breaking out of a 52-week range or moving above its 200-day moving average–before placing trade orders.
Explaining ‘Watchlist’
1. A watchlist is a used to specify companies where irregularities are present, or where the potential for insider trading or other corruption exists. The watchlist can be considered a surveillance tool used to identify risks from customers, consultants, suppliers and other business partners.
Further Reading
- The economic function of credit rating agencies–What does the watchlist tell us? – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- The economic function of credit rating agencies-What does the watchlist tell us? – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
- Trade-based money laundering and terrorist financing – www.degruyter.com [PDF]
- The economics of rating watchlists: Evidence from rating changes – www.econstor.eu [PDF]
- Credit watch and capital structure – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- The effect of commercial paper rating changes and credit‐watch placement on common stock prices – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
- Terrorism watch lists, suspect ranking and decision-making biases – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- The clean air act watch list: An enforcement and compliance natural experiment – www.journals.uchicago.edu [PDF]
- Climate watch list: Key issues for Cancun Negotiations – www.osti.gov [PDF]
