Definition of Roth IRA. An IRA account whose earnings are not taxable at all under certain

Roth IRA. An IRA account whose earnings are not taxable at all under certain

circumstances.

Accounting exposure

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

Accounting earnings

earnings of a firm as reported on its income statement.

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.

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-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.

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.

Average accounting return

The average project earnings after taxes and depreciation divided by the average
book value of the investment during its life.

Average age of accounts receivable

The weighted-average age of all of the firm's outstanding invoices.

Balloon maturity

Any large principal payment due at maturity for a bond or loan with or without a a sinking
fund requirement.

Borrower fallout

In the mortgage pipeline, the risk that prospective borrowers of loans committed to be
closed will elect to withdraw from the contract.

Call

An option that gives the right to buy the underlying futures contract.

Call an option

To exercise a call option.

Call date

A date before maturity, specified at issuance, when the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond
for a specified call price.

Call money rate

Also called the broker loan rate , the interest rate that banks charge brokers to finance
margin loans to investors. The broker charges the investor the call money rate plus a service charge.

Call option

An option contract that gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a specified
number of shares of the underlying stock at the given strike price, on or before the expiration date of the
contract.
Call premium
Premium in price above the par value of a bond or share of preferred stock that must be paid to
holders to redeem the bond or share of preferred stock before its scheduled maturity date.

Call price

The price, specified at issuance, at which the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond at a
specified call date.

Call price

The price for which a bond can be repaid before maturity under a call provision.

Call protection

A feature of some callable bonds that establishes an initial period when the bonds may not be
called.

Call provision

An embedded option granting a bond issuer the right to buy back all or part of the issue prior
to maturity.

Call risk

The combination of cash flow uncertainty and reinvestment risk introduced by a call provision.

Call swaption

A swaption in which the buyer has the right to enter into a swap as a fixed-rate payer. The
writer therefore becomes the fixed-rate receiver/floating rate payer.

Callable

A financial security such as a bond with a call option attached to it, i.e., the issuer has the right to
call the security.

Capital account

Net result of public and private international investment and lending activities.

Capital allocation

decision allocation of invested funds between risk-free assets versus the risky portfolio.

Certainty equivalent

An amount that would be accepted in lieu of a chance at a possible higher, but
uncertain, amount.

Chinese wall

Communication barrier between financiers (investment bankers) and traders. This barrier is
erected to prevent the sharing of inside information that bankers are likely to have.

Completion undertaking

An undertaking either (1) to complete a project such that it meets certain specified
performance criteria on or before a certain specified date or (2) to repay project debt if the completion test
cannot be met.

Concentration account

A single centralized account into which funds collected at regional locations
(lockboxes) are transferred.

Corporate taxable equivalent

Rate of return required on a par bond to produce the same after-tax yield to
maturity that the premium or discount bond quoted would.

Covered call

A short call option position in which the writer owns the number of shares of the underlying
stock represented by the option contracts. Covered calls generally limit the risk the writer takes because the
stock does not have to be bought at the market price, if the holder of that option decides to exercise it.

Covered call writing strategy

A strategy that involves writing a call option on securities that the investor
owns in his or her portfolio. See covered or hedge option strategies.

Cumulative Translation Adjustment (CTA) account

An entry in a translated balance sheet in which gains
and/or losses from translation have been accumulated over a period of years. The CTA account is required
under the FASB No. 52 rule.

Current account

Net flow of goods, services, and unilateral transactions (gifts) between countries.

Deferred call

A provision that prohibits the company from calling the bond before a certain date. During this
period the bond is said to be call protected.

Discretionary account

accounts over which an individual or organization, other than the person in whose
name the account is carried, exercises trading authority or control.

Dynamic asset allocation

An asset allocation strategy in which the asset mix is mechanistically shifted in
response to -changing market conditions, as in a portfolio insurance strategy, for example.

Earnings

Net income for the company during the period.

Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)

A financial measure defined as revenues less cost of goods sold
and selling, general, and administrative expenses. In other words, operating and non-operating profit before
the deduction of interest and income taxes.

Earnings per share (EPS)

EPS, as it is called, is a company's profit divided by its number of outstanding
shares. If a company earned $2 million in one year had 2 million shares of stock outstanding, its EPS would
be $1 per share. The company often uses a weighted average of shares outstanding over the reporting term.

Earnings retention ratio

Plowback rate.

Earnings surprises

Positive or negative differences from the consensus forecast of earnings by institutions
such as First Call or IBES. Negative earnings surprises generally have a greater adverse affect on stock prices
than the reciprocal positive earnings surprise on stock prices.

Earnings yield

The ratio of earnings per share after allowing for tax and interest payments on fixed interest
debt, to the current share price. The inverse of the price/earnings ratio. It's the Total Twelve Months earnings
divided by number of outstanding shares, divided by the recent price, multiplied by 100. The end result is
shown in percentage.

Economic earnings

The real flow of cash that a firm could pay out forever in the absence of any change in
the firm's productive capacity.

Effective call price

The strike price in an optional redemption provision plus the accrued interest to the
redemption date.

Equivalent taxable yield

The yield that must be offered on a taxable bond issue to give the same after-tax
yield as a tax-exempt issue.

Expiration

The time when the option contract ceases to exist (expires).

Expiration cycle

An expiration cycle relates to the dates on which options on a particular security expire. A
given option will be placed in 1 of 3 cycles, the January cycle, the February cycle, or the March cycle. At any
point in time, an option will have contracts with 4 expiration dates outstanding, 2 in near-term months and 2
in far-term months.

Expiration date

The last day (in the case of American-style) or the only day (in the case of European-style)
on which an option may be exercised. For stock options, this date is the Saturday immediately following the
3rd Friday of the expiration month; however, brokerage firms may set an earlier deadline for notification of
an option holder's intention to exercise. If Friday is a holiday, the last trading day will be the preceding
Thursday.

Fallout risk

A type of mortgage pipeline risk that is generally created when the terms of the loan to be
originated are set at the same time as the sale terms are set. The risk is that either of the two parties, borrower
or investor, fails to close and the loan "falls out" of the pipeline.

Federally related institutions

Arms of the federal government that are exempt from SEC registration and
whose securities are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (with the exception of the
Tennessee Valley Authority).

Firm commitment underwriting

An undewriting in which an investment banking firm commits to buy the
entire issue and assumes all financial responsibility for any unsold shares.

First-call

With CMOs, the start of the cash flow cycle for the cash flow window.

Fully diluted earnings per shares

earnings per share expressed as if all outstanding convertible securities
and warrants have been exercised.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP)

A technical accounting term that encompasses the
conventions, rules, and procedures necessary to define accepted accounting practice at a particular time.

Glass-Steagall Act

A 1933 act in which Congress forbade commercial banks to own, underwrite, or deal in
corporate stock and corporate bonds.

Implied call

The right of the homeowner to prepay, or call, the mortgage at any time.

Inflation uncertainty

The fact that future inflation rates are not known. It is a possible contributing factor to
the makeup of the term structure of interest rates.

Installment sale

The sale of an asset in exchange for a specified series of payments (the installments).

Internally efficient market

Operationally efficient market.

Investor fallout

In the mortgage pipeline, risk that occurs when the originator commits loan terms to the
borrowers and gets commitments from investors at the time of application, or if both sets of terms are made at closing.

IRA/Keogh accounts

Special accounts where you can save and invest, and the taxes are deferred until money
is withdrawn. These plans are subject to frequent changes in law with respect to the deductibility of
contributions. Withdrawals of tax deferred contributions are taxed as income, including the capital gains from
such accounts.

Irrational call option

The implied call imbedded in the MBS. Identified as irrational because the call is
sometimes not exercised when it is in the money (interest rates are below the threshold to refinance).
Sometimes exercised when not in the money (home sold without regard to the relative level of interest rates).

Joint account

An agreement between two or more firms to share risk and financing responsibility in
purchasing or underwriting securities.

Low price-earnings ratio effect

The tendency of portfolios of stocks with a low price-earnings ratio to
outperform portfolios consisting of stocks with a high price-earnings ratio.

Margin account (Stocks)

A leverageable account in which stocks can be purchased for a combination of
cash and a loan. The loan in the margin account is collateralized by the stock and, if the value of the stock
drops sufficiently, the owner will be asked to either put in more cash, or sell a portion of the stock. Margin
rules are federally regulated, but margin requirements and interest may vary among broker/dealers.

Margin call

A demand for additional funds because of adverse price movement. Maintenance margin
requirement, security deposit maintenance
Margin of safety With respect to working capital management, the difference between 1) the amount of longterm
financing, and 2) the sum of fixed assets and the permanent component of current assets.

Money market demand account

An account that pays interest based on short-term interest rates.

Mutually exclusive investment decisions

Investment decisions in which the acceptance of a project
precludes the acceptance of one or more alternative projects.

Non-parallel shift in the yield curve

A shift in the yield curve in which yields do not change by the same
number of basis points for every maturity. Related: Parallel shift in the yield curve.

Omnibus account

An account carried by one futures commission merchant with another futures commission
merchant in which the transactions of two or more persons are combined and carried in the name of the
originating broker, rather than designated separately. Related: commission house.

Open account

Arrangement whereby sales are made with no formal debt contract. The buyer signs a receipt,
and the seller records the sale in the sales ledger.

Operationally efficient market

Also called an internally efficient market, one in which investors can obtain
transactions services that reflect the true costs associated with furnishing those services.

Parallel loan

A process whereby two companies in different countries borrow each other's currency for a
specific period of time, and repay the other's currency at an agreed maturity for the purpose of reducing
foreign exchange risk. Also referred to as back-to-back loans.

Parallel shift in the yield curve

A shift in the yield curve in which the change in the yield on all maturities is
the same number of basis points. In other words, if the 3 month T-bill increases 100 basis points (one
percent), then the 6 month, 1 year, 5 year, 10 year, 20 year, and 30 year rates increase by 100 basis points as
well.
Related: Non-parallel shift in the yield curve.

Policy asset allocation

A long-term asset allocation method, in which the investor seeks to assess an
appropriate long-term "normal" asset mix that represents an ideal blend of controlled risk and enhanced
return.

Price/earnings ratio (PE ratio)

Shows the "multiple" of earnings at which a stock sells. Determined by dividing current
stock price by current earnings per share (adjusted for stock splits). earnings per share for the P/E ratio is
determined by dividing earnings for past 12 months by the number of common shares outstanding. Higher
"multiple" means investors have higher expectations for future growth, and have bid up the stock's price.

Provisional call feature

A feature in a convertible issue that allows the issuer to call the issue during the noncall
period if the price of the stock reaches a certain level.

Purchase accounting

Method of accounting for a merger in which the acquirer is treated as having purchased
the assets and assumed liabilities of the acquiree, which are all written up or down to their respective fair
market values, the difference between the purchase price and the net assets acquired being attributed to goodwill.

Put-call parity relationship

The relationship between the price of a put and the price of a call on the same
underlying security with the same expiration date, which prevents arbitrage opportunities. Holding the stock
and buying a put will deliver the exact payoff as buying one call and investing the present value (PV) of the
exercise price. The call value equals C=S+P-PV(k).

Rally (recovery)

An upward movement of prices. Opposite of reaction.

Regulatory accounting procedures

accounting principals required by the FHLB that allow S&Ls to elect
annually to defer gains and losses on the sale of assets and amortize these deferrals over the average life of the
asset sold.

Retained earnings

accounting earnings that are retained by the firm for reinvestment in its operations;
earnings that are not paid out as dividends.

Shortfall risk

The risk of falling short of any investment target.

Small-firm effect

The tendency of small firms (in terms of total market capitalization) to outperform the
stock market (consisting of both large and small firms).

Small issues exemption

Securities issues that involve less than $1.5 million are not required to file a
registration statement with the SEC. Instead, they are governed by Regulation A, for which only a brief
offering statement is needed.

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 8

This is a currency translation standard previously in
use by U.S. accounting firms. See: Statement of accounting Standards No. 52.

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 52

This is the currency translation standard currently
used by U.S. firms. It mandates the use of the current rate method. See: Statement of Financial accounting
Standards No. 8.

Sweep account

account in which the bank takes all of the excess available funds at the close of each business
day and invests them for the firm.

Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA)

An asset allocation strategy that allows active departures from the normal
asset mix based upon rigorous objective measures of value. Often called active management. It involves
forecasting asset returns, volatilities and correlations. The forecasted variables may be functions of
fundamental variables, economic variables or even technical variables.

Taxable acquisition

A merger or consolidation that is not a tax-fee acquisition. The selling shareholders are
treated as having sold their shares.

Taxable income

Gross income less a set of deductions.

Taxable transaction

Any transaction that is not tax-free to the parties involved, such as a taxable acquisition.

Time until expiration

The time remaining until a financial contract expires. Also called time to maturity.

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