Accounting & Investement Dictionary
Enter a word below: Search also in: IT Dico. | Accounting Dico. | Medical Dico. | Plants Dico. | Business Dico. | Engineering Dico. | Water Purification & Filtration Dico. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An alphabetical listing of General terms and items. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quotron display page that shows new listed inquiries/orders received after the block call.
Stock, common or preferred, with a $50 par value.
Heavy selling of stocks by speculators who think that the stock is overvalued and is about to drop.
An investor who has a large stake in a company, but does not wish to play an active role in the management of the corporation.
An investor who has a large stake in a corporation and takes an active role in its management. Antithesis of hands-off investor.
The major index in Hong Kong.
A capital budget that under no circumstances can be violated.
A freely convertible currency that is not expected to depreciate in value in the foreseeable future.
Actual separate payments made by a customer for services, including research, provided by a brokerage firm. Antithesis of soft dollars.
Warrant that allows the user to purchase a bond only by surrendering an other bond with similar terms.
Often used in risk arbitrage. Antitrust act administered by U.S. Department of Justice and the FTC that requires an investor to file a form with the government before he acquires an economic interest in the lesser amount of $15 million or 15% of the capitaliation of a specific security. The government has thirty days to respond to the filer.
Author of this glossary. Finance professor at Duke University. Author of research on international finance, asset allocation, and emerging markets.
In technical analysis, a pattern that results where a stock price reaches a peak and declines; rises above its former peak and again declines; and rises a third time but not to the second peak, and then again declines. The first and third peaks are shoulders, while the second peak is the formation's head. Technical analysts generally consider a head and shoulders formation to be a very bearish indication.
A clause in a research report or any published document, that attempts to absolve the writer of responsibility for the accuracy of information provided.
A fund that may employ a variety of techniques to enhance returns, such as both buying and shorting stocks according to a valuation model.
For options, ratio between the change in an option's theoretical value and the change in price of the underlying stock at a given point in time. For convertibles, percentage of a convertible bond representing the number of underlying common shares sold against the shares into which bonds are convertible. If a preferred is convertible into 2000 common shares, a 75% hedge ratio would be short (long) 1500 common for every 1000 preferred long (short). See: Delta.
An options strategy in which an investor with a long position in an underlying stock buys an out-of-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money call. The hedge wrapper defines a range where the stock will be sold at expiration of the option, which way the stock moves.
A portfolio consisting of a long position in the stock and a long position in the put option on the stock, so as to be riskless and produce a return that equals the risk-free interest rate.
An investor sells a portion of a stock holding short a tender offer in the event all shares tendered are not accepted. For example, investor Q has 5000 shares of XYZ. An acquiring company makes a tender offer of $100 a share when the shares are currently worth $80. Investor Q short-sells 2500 shares after the announcement and the price of the stock has approached $100. Company XYZ purchases only 2500 of the original shares at $100. Investor Q has sold all shares at $100 even as the price of the stock drops on a post-news dip.
Slang for a hedge fund.
Back to top
Demands for securities to hedge particular sources of consumption risk, beyond the usual mean-variance diversification motivation.
Used for listed equity securities. Not open for trading because specialists or regulators are not allowing trading to occur until imbalances dissipate or news is disseminated.
Order that must be executed without hesitation (Hit the bid or take the offer in line) or if the stock can be bought or sold at that price (held limit order) in sufficient quantity.
Debt securities purchased by an investor with the intent of holding the securities until they mature.
A contract that obligates a purchaser of a project's output to make cash payments to the project in all events, even if no product is offered for sale.
The Helsinki Exchanges (HEX Ltd., Helsinki Securities and Derivatives Exchange and Clearing House) was formed at the beginning of 1998 following the merger of the Helsinki Stock Exchange Ltd. and SOM Ltd., the Securities and Derivatives Exchange, and the Clearing House.
A theory that stock prices move in the same direction as the hemlines of women's dresses. For example, short skirts (1920s and 1960s) are symbolic of bullish markets and long skirts (1930s and 1940s) are symbolic of bearish markets.
The risk of loss in foreign exchange trading that one party will deliver foreign exchange but the counterparty financial institution will fail to complete its end of the contract. This is also referred to as settlement risk.
Hong Kong Interbank Offer Rate, the annualized offer rate banks pay to attain Hong Kong three-month deposits in denominated dollars.
A sales charge that is not explicitly disclosed or is buried in the fine print of a mutual fund prospectus or life insurance policy and therefore is not immediately apparent.
Valuable assets owned by a company, that are not accurately reflected in its stock price at a particular time.
The maximum amount of outstanding loans for a particular customer on a bank's record.
A mutual fund whose primary goal is to produce a high level of income by making higher-risk investments in instruments such as junk bonds.
High-priced and highly speculative stock that moves up and down sharply over a short period. Generally glamorous in nature due to the capital gains potential associated with them; also used to describe any high-priced stock. Antithesis of sleeper.
The highest (intraday) price of a stock over the past 52 weeks, adjusted for any stock splits.
Replace a high-coupon bond with a new, lower-coupon bond.
A bond with Triple-A or Double-A rating in Standard & Poor's, or Moody's rating system.
A bond with a long-term, high-premium, common stock conversion feature. It also offers a competitive interest rate. This type of investment vehicle is aimed at bond investors who want to be able to convert into stock to hedge against inflation.
Stocks of companies operating in high-technology fields.
See: Junk bond
Back to top
An investment banking firm's letter indicating that the firm is highly confident it will be able to arrange financing for a securities deal.
Bank loan to a highly leveraged firm.
Stocks that have hit an all-time high for the current 52-week time period.
The dollar amount originally exchanged in an arm's-length transaction; an amount assumed to reflect the fair market value of an item at the transaction date.
The exchange rate that existed on the date of a transaction.
The range of price over which a security or a commodity has traded since listing on a exchange.
A measure of a mutual fund's yield over a specific period of time, e.g., 1 year, 2 year, 5 year, or year to date.
A dealer who agrees to sell at the bid price quoted by another dealer is said to "hit" that bid. Antithesis of take the offer.
Used in the context of general equities. See: Print.
See: Hong Kong Futures Exchange
See: Highly leveraged transaction
The date on which holders of record in a firm's stock ledger are designated as the recipients of either dividends or stock rights. Also called date of record.
A corporation that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operations by influencing or electing its board of directors.
Length of time a security is held.
The illegal practice of maintaining and/or placing a sufficient number of buy orders to create price support for a security or commodity in an amount to of stabilize a downward trend.
Rate of return on an investment over a given period.
Large capital gain in a stock in a short period of time.
Sale of some shares of stock to get cash in an amount similar to that of a cash dividend.
Idea that as long as individuals borrow (or lend) on the same terms as the firm, they can duplicate the effects of corporate leverage on their own. Thus, if levered firms are priced too high, rational investors will simply borrow on personal accounts to buy shares in unlevered firms.
A credit line offered by mortgage lenders allowing a homeowner a second mortgage that uses the equity present in the customer's account as collateral.
Back to top
An insurance policy protecting a homeowner against damage or loss to property.
An assumption of Markowitz portfolio construction that investors have the same expectations with respect to the inputs that are used to derive efficient portfolios: asset returns, variances, and covariances.
Established in 1976, the Hong Kong Futures Exchange (H.K.F.E.) operates futures and options markets in index, stock, interest rate, and foreign exchange products.
An analysis of returns using total return to assess performance over some investment horizon.
Total return over a given horizon.
Merger between two companies producing similar goods or services.
The process of dividing each expense item of a given year by the same expense item in the base year. It allows assement of changes in the relative importance of expense items over time and the behavior of expense items as sales change.
A technique for analyzing the percentage change in individual income statement or balance sheet items from one year to the next.
A merger involving two or more firms in the same industry that are both at the same stage in the production cycle; that is, two or more competitors.
Stock price movement within a narrow price range over an extended period of time which creates the appearance of a relatively straight line on a graph of the stock's price.
The simultaneous purchase and sale of two options that differ only in their exercise dates.
A bond issued to finance construction of a hospital by a municipal or state agency.
The security to which a warrant is attached.
A takeover of a company against the wishes of the current management and the board of directors by an acquiring company or raider.
Money that moves across country borders in response to interest rate differences and that moves away when the interest rate differential disappears.
A type of account at a brokerage firm that is given a high level of priority and is handled by the main office or an executive, rather than a traditional salesperson.
Notification by a brokerage house that a customer's margin account is below the minimum maintenance level. The client must provide more cash or equity, or the account will be liquidated.
The internal rules of a brokerage house that govern the minimum amount of equity that must be present in a customer's margin account.
An investment banking firm whose business it is to underwrite stock or bond issues and offer the securities to the public.
People who are short on cash because most of their money is tied up in their homes are "house poor."
Back to top
Internal rules of broker-dealer firm that govern the handling of its customers' accounts.
Bonds issued by a local housing authority to finance housing projects.
"What is your market in a particular stock?" See: Quotation.
A rating by Hulbert Financial Digest, a service of CBS MarketWatch, of how well the recommendations of various investment advisory newsletters have performed.
The unique capabilities and expertise of individuals.
Used to describe the position of an investor whose stocks or bonds have dropped in value below their original purchase price.
A term used to describe a trader selling off a big position in a stock.
The required return in capital budgeting. For example, if a project has an expected rate of return higher than the hurdle rate, the project may be accepted.
A type of insurance company investment that combines the benefits of both a fixed annuity and a variable annuity.
A convertible security whose optioned common stock is trading in a middle range, causing the convertible security to trade with the characteristics of both a fixed income security and a common stock instrument.
See: Inflation
In banking, refers to the commitment of property to secure a loan. In securities, refers to the commitment of securities to serve as collateral for margin loans at the broker-dealer firm. Back to top |
