Pare losses

pare

1 : to trim off an outside, excess, or irregular part of <pare apples> <paring his nails> 2 : to diminish or reduce by or as if by paring <pare expenses> <the novel was pared down to 200 pages> (m-w.com)

It's not uncommon in talk about the stock market.

There are many stocks on the stock exchange.

Hi, CJ.

I looked up two dictionaries about 'pare' and got confused by the definitions given.

dictionary #1: to reduce something, especially by a large amount

dictionary #2: to reduce or diminish (costs, etc.) gradually

Does 'paring losses' mean huge losses or small losses?

Thanks for the prompt response.

Hi,
Does 'paring losses' mean huge losses or small losses?

Tom pared his losses. In general terms, this just means he reduced his losses. It does not tell us the size of his losses before or after he pared them.
However, itf they were initially small, he probably wouldn't have bothered to pare them.

Best wishes, Clive

meantolearn Does 'paring losses' mean huge losses or small losses?

It doesn't mean either one or the other. If you are paring losses, you are reducing losses. It has nothing to do with how big the losses are.

CJ

This is right. The phrase is used when the stock market drops a lot, but then recovers some. That is, an index went from 85 down to 65 but then back to 80, then analysts would say that the index "pared losses."