American Depositary Receipt ADR
A US-traded certificate that represents shares of a foreign company, letting Americans buy non-US stocks in USD on US exchanges.
What it is
An American Depositary Receipt is a negotiable certificate issued by a US bank that stands in for a set number of shares in a foreign company. It trades on US markets (NYSE, Nasdaq, or over-the-counter) in US dollars, just like a domestic stock. Each ADR represents a fixed ratio of underlying foreign shares, which can be one-to-one or many-to-one.
Why it matters
ADRs let US investors own foreign companies without opening a foreign brokerage account or dealing with foreign currency settlement. The main pitfalls are that ADRs can trade at a small premium or discount to the home-market shares, often carry custody or service fees deducted from dividends, and the ADR-to-share ratio means the ADR price is not the same as the local share price.
How it's calculated
An ADR is not a computed metric; its price tracks the underlying foreign share price, scaled by the number of local shares per ADR and converted to US dollars at the current exchange rate, minus any depositary fees.
How Quintarthai uses it
For dual-listed and cross-border names, Quintarthai shows the correct per-listing currency and the TSX/NYSE arbitrage spread on the cross-border page so you can compare a foreign listing against its US counterpart.