In the United States and Canada a block trade is usually at least 10,000 shares of a stock or $100,000 of bonds but in practice significantly larger. For instance, a hedge fund holds a large position in Company X and would like to sell it completely. If this were put into the market as a large sell order, the price would sharply drop. Definition of stock-in-trade. 1 : the equipment, merchandise, or materials necessary to or used in a trade or business. 2 : something that resembles the standard equipment of a tradesman or business humor was her stock-in-trade as a writer. E-Trade Financial Corporation (stylized as E*TRADE) offers an electronic trading platform to trade financial assets including common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, options, mutual funds, and fixed income investments. It also provides services for employee stock ownership plans, student loan benefit administration, advisor services, margin lending, online