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Glite Dictionary
letter stock

letter stock

8.9
Shares not registered with the government that cannot be sold to the public
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : acciones de letra
  • Investors need to be cautious when dealing with letter stock because it cannot be freely traded.

Examples

  • The company issued letter stock to its executives as part of their compensation package.

  • After receiving letter stock, the recipient must keep it for a minimum holding period before selling.

  • Investors are cautious about letter stock investments.

  • Many companies issue letter stocks to raise capital.

  • Investors need to be cautious when dealing with letter stock because it cannot be freely traded.

  • After receiving letter stock, the recipient must keep it for a minimum holding period before selling.

  • The company issued letter stock to its executives as part of their compensation package.

Synonyms

letter security
vsletter stock
  • Specialized
9.4

A stock or bond not registered with the government that cannot be sold in public markets

refers only to unregistered shares specifically, not to bonds

Surface Forms

letter stock singular
letter stocks plural

Morphology

letter + stock

Although a learner who knows 'stock' (shares) and 'letter' (piece of mail/character) can parse the literal words, the specific legal/financial meaning 'unregistered shares not sold to the public' is specialized jargon and not inferable from the constituents. The modifier 'letter' does not transparently indicate SEC registration status, so the overall sense is domain-specific and unpredictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Letter stock may come from an old habit where companies attached a small paper letter to a share certificate to show the stock had limits on sale. That 'letter' warned the owner the shares were 'not registered' and 'could not be sold to the public', so today letter stock means shares with those sale restrictions.