Copy of `New York Times - Business and Finance Glossary`

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New York Times - Business and Finance Glossary Category: Economy and Finance Date & country: 11/09/2007, USA Words: 2680

Abandonment option
The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planned.

Abnormal returns
Part of the return that is not due to systematic influences (market wide influences). In other words, abnormal returns are above those predicted by the market movement alone. Related: excess returns.

Absolute priority
Rule in bankruptcy proceedings whereby senior creditors are required to be paid in full before junior creditors receive any payment.

Accelerated depreciation
Any depreciation method that produces larger deductions for depreciation in the early years of a project's life. Accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS), which is a depreciation schedule allowed for tax purposes, is one such example.

Accounting earnings
Earnings of a firm as reported on its income statement.

Accounting exposure
The change in the value of a firm's foreign currency denominated accounts due to a change in exchange rates.

Accounting insolvency
Total liabilities exceed total assets. A firm with a negative net worth is insolvent on the books.

Accounting liquidity
The ease and quickness with which assets can be converted to cash.

Accounts payable
Money owed to suppliers.

Accounts receivable
Money owed by customers.

Accounts receivable turnover
The ratio of net credit sales to average accounts receivable, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills.

Accretion (of a discount)
In portfolio accounting, a straight-line accumulation of capital gains on discount bond in anticipation of receipt of par at maturity.

Accrual bond
A bond on which interest accrues, but is not paid to the investor during the time of accrual. The amount of accrued interest is added to the remaining principal of the bond and is paid at maturity.

Accrued interest
The accumulated coupon interest earned but not yet paid to the seller of a bond by the buyer (unless the bond is in default).

Acid-test ratio
Also called the quick ratio, the ratio of current assets minus inventories, accruals, and prepaid items to current liabilities.

Acquiree
A firm that is being acquired.

Acquirer
A firm or individual that is acquiring something.

Acquisition of assets
A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the selling firm's assets.

Acquisition of stock
A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the acquiree's stock.

Act of state doctrine
This doctrine says that a nation is sovereign within its own borders and its domestic actions may not be questioned in the courts of another nation.

Active
A market in which there is much trading.

Active portfolio strategy
A strategy that uses available information and forecasting techniques to seek a better performance than a portfolio that is simply diversified broadly. Related: passive portfolio strategy

Actuals
The physical commodity underlying a futures contract. Cash commodity, physical.

Additional hedge
A protection against borrower fallout risk in the mortgage pipeline.

Adjusted present value (APV)
The net present value analysis of an asset if financed solely by equity (present value of un-levered cash flows), plus the present value of any financing decisions (levered cash flows). In other words, the various tax shields provided by the deductibility of interest and the benefits of other investment tax credits are calculated separately. This analysis is often used for highly leveraged transactions such as a leverage buy-out.

Administrative pricing rules
IRS rules used to allocate income on export sales to a foreign sales corporation.

Advance commitment
A promise to sell an asset before the seller has lined up purchase of the asset. This seller can offset risk by purchasing a futures contract to fix the sales price.

Adverse selection
A situation in which market participation is a negative signal.

Affirmative covenant
A bond covenant that specifies certain actions the firm must take.

After-tax profit margin
The ratio of net income to net sales.

After-tax real rate of return
Money after-tax rate of return minus the inflation rate.

Agencies
Federal agency securities.

Agency bank
A form of organization commonly used by foreign banks to enter the U.S. market. An agency bank cannot accept deposits or extend loans in its own name; it acts as agent for the parent bank.

Agency basis
A means of compensating the broker of a program trade solely on the basis of commission established through bids submitted by various brokerage firms. agency incentive arrangement. A means of compensating the broker of a program trade using benchmark prices for issues to be traded in determining commissions or fees.

Agency cost view
The argument that specifies that the various agency costs create a complex environment in which total agency costs are at a minimum with some, but less than 100%, debt financing.

Agency costs
The incremental costs of having an agent make decisions for a principal.

Agency pass-throughs
Mortgage pass-through securities whose principal and interest payments are guaranteed by government agencies, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (' Ginnie Mae '), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (' Freddie Mac') and Federal National Mortgage Association (' Fannie Mae').

Agency problem
Conflicts of interest among stockholders, bondholders, and managers.

Agency theory
The analysis of principal-agent relationships, wherein one person, an agent, acts on behalf of anther person, a principal.

Agent
The decision-maker in a principal-agent relationship.

Aggregation
Process in corporate financial planning whereby the smaller investment proposals of each of the firm's operational units are added up and in effect treated as a big picture.

Aging schedule
A table of accounts receivable broken down into age categories (such as 0-30 days, 30-60 days, and 60-90 days), which is used to see whether customer payments are keeping close to schedule.

AIBD
Association of International Bond Dealers.

All equity rate
The discount rate that reflects only the business risks of a project and abstracts from the effects of financing.

All or none
Requirement that none of an order be executed unless all of it can be executed at the specified price.

All-equity rate
The discount rate that reflects only the business risks of a project and abstracts from the effects of financing.

All-in cost
Total costs, explicit and implicit.

All-or-none underwriting
An arrangement whereby a security issue is canceled if the underwriter is unable to re-sell the entire issue.

Alpha
A measure of selection risk (also known as residual risk) of a mutual fund in relation to the market. A positive alpha is the extra return awarded to the investor for taking a risk, instead of accepting the market return. For example, an alpha of 0.4 means the fund outperformed the market-based return estimate by 0.4%. An alpha of -0.6 means a fund's monthly return was 0.6% less than would have been predicted from the change in the market alone.

Alpha equation
The alpha of a fund is determined as follows: [ (sum of y) -((b)(sum of x)) ] / n where: n =number of observations (36 months) b = beta of the fund x = rate of return for the S&P 500 y = rate of return for the fund

Alternative mortgage instruments
Variations of mortgage instruments such as adjustable-rate and variable-rate mortgages, graduated-payment mortgages, reverse-annuity mortgages, and several seldom-used variations.

American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)
Certificates issued by a U.S. depositary bank, representing foreign shares held by the bank, usually by a branch or correspondent in the country of issue. One ADR may represent a portion of a foreign share, one share or a bundle of shares of a foreign corporation. If the ADR's are 'sponsored,' the corporation provides financial information and other assistance to the bank and may subsidize the administration of the ADRs. 'Unsponsored' ADRs do not receive such assistance. ADRs carry the same curr…

American option
An option that may be exercised at any time up to and including the expiration date. Related: European option

American shares
Securities certificates issued in the U.S. by a transfer agent acting on behalf of the foreign issuer. The certificates represent claims to foreign equities.

American Stock Exchange (AMEX)
The second-largest stock exchange in the United States. It trades mostly in small-to medium-sized companies.

American-style option
An option contract that can be exercised at any time between the date of purchase and the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are American style.

Amortization
The repayment of a loan by installments.

Amortization factor
The pool factor implied by the scheduled amortization assuming no prepayemts.

Amortizing interest rate swap
Swap in which the principal or national amount rises (falls) as interest rates rise (decline).

Analyst
Employee of a brokerage or fund management house who studies companies and makes buy-and-sell recommendations on their stocks. Most specialize in a specific industry.

Angels
Individuals providing venture capital.

Announcement date
Date on which particular news concerning a given company is announced to the public. Used in event studies, which researchers use to evaluate the economic impact of events of interest.

Annual fund operating expenses
For investment companies, the management fee and 'other expenses,' including the expenses for maintaining shareholder records, providing shareholders with financial statements, and providing custodial and accounting services. For 12b-1 funds, selling and marketing costs are included.

Annual percentage rate (APR)
The periodic rate times the number of periods in a year. For example, a 5% quarterly return has an APR of 20%.

Annual percentage yield (APY)
The effective, or true, annual rate of return. The APY is the rate actually earned or paid in one year, taking into account the affect of compounding. The APY is calculated by taking one plus the periodic rate and raising it to the number of periods in a year. For example, a 1% per month rate has an APY of 12.68% (1.01^12).

Annual report
Yearly record of a publicly held company's financial condition. It includes a description of the firm's operations, its balance sheet and income statement. SEC rules require that it be distributed to all shareholders. A more detailed version is called a 10-K.

Annualized gain
If stock X appreciates 1.5% in one month, the annualized gain for that sock over a twelve month period is 12*1.5% = 18%. Compounded over the twelve month period, the gain is (1.015)^12 = 19.6%.

Annualized holding period return
The annual rate of return that when compounded t times, would have given the same t-period holding return as actually occurred from period 1 to period t.

Annuity
A regular periodic payment made by an insurance company to a policyholder for a specified period of time.

Annuity due
An annuity with n payments, wherein the first payment is made at time t = 0 and the last payment is made at time t = n - 1.

Annuity factor
Present value of $1 paid for each of t periods.

Annuity in arrears
An annuity with a first payment on full period hence, rather than immediately.

Anticipation
Arrangements whereby customers who pay before the final date may be entitled to deduct a normal rate of interest.

Antidilutive effect
Result of a transaction that increases earnings per common share (e.g. by decreasing the number of shares outstanding).

Appraisal ratio
The signal-to-noise ratio of an analyst's forecasts. The ratio of alpha to residual standard deviation.

Appraisal rights
A right of shareholders in a merger to demand the payment of a fair price for their shares, as determined independently.

Appropriation request
Formal request for funds for capital investment project.

Arbitrage
The simultaneous buying and selling of a security at two different prices in two different markets, resulting in profits without risk. Perfectly efficient markets present no arbitrage opportunities. Perfectly efficient markets seldom exist.

Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT)
An alternative model to the capital asset pricing model developed by Stephen Ross and based purely on arbitrage arguments.

Arbitrageurs
People who search for and exploit arbitrage opportunities.

Arithmetic mean return
An average of the subperiod returns, calculated by summing the subperiod returns and dividing by he number of subperiods.

Arm's length price
The price at which a willing buyer and a willing unrelated seller would freely agree to transact.

ARMs
Adjustable rate mortgage. A mortgage that features predetermined adjustments of the loan interest rate at regular intervals based on an established index. The interest rate is adjusted at each interval to a rate equivalent to the index value plus a predetermined spread, or margin, over the index, usually subject to per-interval and to life-of-loan interest rate and/or payment rate caps.

Arms index
Also known as a trading index (TRIN)= (number of advancing issues)/ (number of declining issues) (Total up volume )/ (total down volume). An advance/decline market indicator. Less than 1.0 indicates bullish demand, while above 1.0 is bearish. The index often is smoothed with a simple moving average.

Articles of incorporation
Legal document establishing a corporation and its structure and purpose.

Asian currency units (ACUs)
Dollar deposits held in Singapore or other Asian centers.

Asian option
Option based on the average price of the asset during the life of the option.

Ask
This is the quoted ask, or the lowest price an investor will accept to sell a stock. Practically speaking, this is the quoted offer at which an investor can buy shares of stock; also called the offer price.

Ask price
A dealer's price to sell a security; also called the offer price.

Asset
Any possession that has value in an exchange.

Asset activity ratios
Ratios that measure how effectively the firm is managing its assets.

Asset allocation decision
The decision regarding how an institution's funds should be distributed among the major classes of assets in which it may invest.

Asset classes
Categories of assets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate and foreign securities.

Asset for asset swap
Creditors exchange the debt of one defaulting borrower for the debt of another defaulting borrower.

Asset pricing model
A model for determining the required rate of return on an asset.

Asset pricing model
A model, such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), that determines the required rate of return on a particular asset.

Asset substitution
A firm's investing in assets that are riskier than those that the debtholders expected.

Asset substitution problem
Arises when the stockholders substitute riskier assets for the firm's existing assets and expropriate value from the debtholders.

Asset swap
An interest rate swap used to alter the cash flow characteristics of an institution's assets so as to provide a better match with its iabilities.

Asset turnover
The ratio of net sales to total assets.