Accelerated placement
The sale of a large block of shares to institutional buyers within hours, usually once the main session has closed.
How to read the number
Speed is the whole point: the block moves in one piece at a discount to the quote, before the market has had time to react to it.
When the metric lies
The seller is more often a shareholder than the company itself, so the money goes to him rather than into the business and never appears in the issuer's accounts.
Also known as: accelerated placement