A lick and a promise: Incomplete or limited preparation
A rising tide that lifts all boats: Something that benefits all (Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy)
Abandonment option: The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planne ...
ABC: Activity-based costing
Abnormal return: In event studies, the part of the return that is not predicted; the ch ...
Abnormal returns: Part of the return that is not due to systematic influences (market wi ...
Absolute priority: Rule in bankruptcy proceedings whereby senior creditors are required t ...
ACAS: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
ACCA: ACCA is the abbreviation used for either: Association ...
ACCC: Abbreviation for Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS): Schedule of depreciation rates allowed for tax purposes.
Accelerated depreciation: Any depreciation method that produces larger deductions for depreciati ...
Acceptable Quality Level (AQL): Maximum number of defects per 100 pieces that are allowable.
Acceptor: The party to whom a bill of exchange is addressed, and who accepts pri ...
Accounting: The process of recording a firm's financial transactions in appropriat ...
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 accou ...
Accounting insolvency: Total liabilities exceed total assets. A firm with a negative net wort ...
Accounting liquidity: The ease and quickness with which assets can be converted into cash
Accounting reference date: The date to which accounts are made up for a company. When a company i ...
Accounts payable: Money a company owes to its suppliers
Accounts receivable: Money owed to a company by its customers
Accounts receivable turnover: The ratio of net credit sales to average accounts receivable, a measur ...
Accretion (of a discount): In portfolio accounting, a straight-line accumulation of capital gains ...
Accrual bond: A bond on which interest accrues, but is not paid to the investor duri ...
Accrued interest: Interest earned but not yet due and payable. In the context of bond, i ...
Accumulated Benefit Obligation (ABO): An approximate measure of the liability of a plan in the event of a t ...
ACENVO: Association of Chief Executives of National Voluntary Organisations
Acid-test ratio: Also called the quick ratio, the ratio of current assets minus invento ...
ACORN: Acronym for A classification of Residential Neighbourhood
Acquiree: A firm that is being acquired.
Acquirer: A firm or individual that is acquiring something.
Acquisition: The purchase of a controlling interest in a firm, generally via a tend ...
Acquisition of assets: A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the selling f ...
Acquisition of stock: :A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the acquiree ...
ACRS: Accelerated cost recovery system
ACT: Advance Corporation Tax
Act of state doctrine: This doctrine says that a nation is sovereign within its own borders a ...
Actionable: Capable of being acted on or completed in the near future. "Which item ...
Active: A market in which there is much trading.
Active portfolio strategy: A strategy that uses available information and forecasting techniques ...
Actuals: The physical commodity underlying a futures contract. Cash commodity, ...
Additional hedge: A protection against borrower fallout risk in the mortgage pipeline.
Adjustable rate preferred stock (ARPS): Publicly traded issues that may be collateralized by mortgages and MB ...
Adjusted basis: The cost of property after adjustment for certain deductions or additi ...
Adjusted present value (APV): The net present value analysis of an asset if financed solely by equit ...
Adjusted R-Squared: A goodness-of-fit measure in multiple regression analysis that penaliz ...
ADL: Activities of Dailiy Living
Administrative pricing rules: IRS rules used to allocate income on export sales to a foreign sales c ...
Administrivia: All the trivial activities and reports required my administrators.
Admitted Assets: Assets admitted by state law to be included in an insurance company's ...
ADP: Andorran Peseta (no longer in use) from Andorra.
ADR: American Depository Receipt. A security issued in the United States to ...
Advance commitment: A promise to sell an asset before the seller has lined up purchase of ...
Advance funded pension plan: Pension plan in which funds are set aside in advance of the date of re ...
Advancement: Money or property given to a person by the deceased before death and i ...
Adverse selection: A situation in which market participation is a negative signal.
Adverse trustee: One who has a substantial, beneficial interest in the trust assets as ...
AED: United Arab Emirates Dirham from the United Arab Emirates.
AEI: Average Earnings Index
AFA: Afghani from Afghanistan.
Affirmative covenant: A bond covenant that specifies certain actions the firm must take.
Affordability programs: Usually refers to special schemes set up and/or managed by utility com ...
AFMA: Acronym of Australian Financial Markets Association. Online: ...
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 ...
Agency basis: A means of compensating the broker of a program trade solely on the ba ...
Agency cost view: The argument that specifies that the various agency costs create a com ...
Agency costs: The cost of resolving the agency problem. These might include stock op ...
Agency incentive arrangement: A means of compensating the broker of a program trade using benchmark ...
Agency pass-throughs: Mortgage pass-through securities whose principal and interest payments ...
Agency problem: The conflict of interest between principal (e.g. shareholders) and age ...
Agency sector: Securities issued by federally related institutions and government spo ...
Agency theory: The analysis of principal-agent relationships, wherein one person, an ...
Agent: The decision-maker in a principal-agent relationship.
Aggregation: Process in corporate financial planning whereby the smaller investment ...
Aging schedule: A table of accounts receivable broken down into age categories (such a ...
AGM: Annual General Meeting
AIBD: Association of International Bond Dealers.
AIM: Alternative Investment Market
AIMR: The association previously known as Association for Investment Managem ...
ALL: Lek from Albania.
All equity rate: The discount rate that reflects only the business risks of a project a ...
All or none: Requirement that none of an order be executed unless all of it can be ...
All-in cost: Total costs, explicit and implicit.
All-or-none underwriting: An arrangement whereby a security issue is canceled if the underwriter ...
Alpha: A measure of selection risk (also known as residual risk) of a mutual ...
Alpha equation: The alpha of a fund is determined as follows: [ (sum of y) -((b)( ...
Alternative Hypothesis: The hypothesis against which the null hypothesis is tested.
Alternative mortgage instruments: Variations of mortgage instruments such as adjustable-rate and variabl ...
AMD: Dram from Armenia.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs): Certificates issued by a U.S. depositary bank, representing foreign s ...
American National Standards (ANSI): ANSI is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordi ...
American option: An option that may be exercised at any time up to and including the ex ...
American Production and Inventory Control Society: American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) is a not-for ...
American shares: Securities certificates issued in the U.S. by a transfer agent acting ...
American Standard Code for Information Interchange: American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is the most ...
American Stock Exchange (AMEX): The second-largest stock exchange in the United States. It trades mos ...
American-style option: An option contract that can be exercised at any time between the date ...
AMEX: The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is the second-oldest U.S. stock exc ...
AMEX Composite: The American Stock Exchange introduced a new AMEX Composite Index with ...
Amortization: The repayment of a loan by installments.
Amortization factor:
Amortization schedule: The principal repayment of a bonds issue can call for either (a) the t ...
Amortizing interest rate swap: Swap in which the principal or national amount rises (falls) as intere ...
Amortizing securities: Securities that have an amortization schedule.
Amortizing swap: An interest rate swap with a decreasing notional principal amount.
Analyst: A person with expertise in assessing and evaluating financial securiti ...
Anergy: Negative synergy. Instead of a “2+2=5” effect, anergy implies “2+2=3”. ...
ANG: Netherlands Antilles Guilder from the Netherlands Antilles.
Angels: Individuals providing venture capital
Announcement Date: The date on which a company makes it public that they will do a split.
Annual fund operating expenses: For investment companies, the management fee and "other expenses," in ...
Annual percentage rate (APR): The periodic rate times the number of periods in a year. For example, ...
Annual percentage yield (APY): The effective, or true, annual rate of return. The APY is the rate act ...
Annual report: Yearly record of a publicly held company's financial condition. It inc ...
Annualized gain: If stock X appreciates 1.5% in one month, the annualized gain for that ...
Annualized holding period return: The annual rate of return that when compounded t times, would have gi ...
Annuitant: The beneficiary or beneficiaries (in a last-to-die arrangement) of an ...
Annuity: A regular periodic payment made by an insurance company to a policyhol ...
AOK: Kwanza from Angola.
AON: New Kwanza from Angola
APACS: Association for Payment Clearing Services
Appreciation: The increase in the value of an asset.
APT: Arbitrage Pricing Theory
ARA: Austral from Argentina.
Arbitrage: Buying an asset in one market at a lower price and simultaneously sell ...
ARCH: Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) is a model of dyn ...
ARP: Argentinian Peso from Argentina.
Arrangement Fee: Whilst some lenders charge an administration fee others may charge an ...
ARS: Argentinian Nuevo Peso from Argentina.
Articles Of Association: A legal document that sets out the internal rules of operation of a co ...
Ask price: The price at which a market maker is prepared to sell a security. Also ...
Asset Protection Trust (APT): A special form of irrevocable trust, usually created (settled) offshor ...
Assets: Anything that the firm owns. In the balance sheet, assets are divided ...
At loggerheads: Slang for disagreement
At the bell: In context of general equities, at the opening or close of the market.
At the opening order: In context of general equities, market order or limited price order th ...
At-the-money: An option that has zero value if exercised immediately. For example, a ...
ATS: Schilling (no longer in use) from Austria.
AUD: Australian Dollar from Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Is ...
Audit: The official examination of a company's accounts and report(s) by a qu ...
Audit trail: Resolves the validity of an accounting entry by a step-by-step record ...
Aunt Millie: An unsophisticated investor.
Austraclear: An Australian computerised settlement and safe custody system for bill ...
Authorised capital: The maximum amount of share capital that a public limited company or a ...
AUTIF: Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds
Autocorrelation: The correlation of a variable with itself over successive time interva ...
Autocracy: A system of government in which supreme political power to direct all ...
Automatic Data Processing (ADP): A private company that acts as an intermediary to perform proxy servic ...
Automatic withdrawal: A mutual fund that gives shareholders the right, but not the obligatio ...
Autoquote: Autoquote indicative prices are generated for many of the financial op ...
Aval: Term meaning inseparable from the financial instrument. This gives a g ...
AVC: Additional Voluntary Contribution
Average: The sum of n numbers divided by n. ...
Avoided cost: In context of project financing, the capital and expense that would ha ...
Away from the market: In context of general equities, out of line with the inside market at ...
Away from us: Used in context of general equities, to characterize role of a competi ...
AWG: Aruban Guilder from Aruba.
Axe to grind: Used in context of general equities. Involvement in a security, whethe ...
AZM: Azerbaijani Manat from Azerbaijan.
A rising tide that lifts all boats: Something that benefits all (Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy)
Abandonment option: The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planne ...
ABC: Activity-based costing
Abnormal return: In event studies, the part of the return that is not predicted; the ch ...
Abnormal returns: Part of the return that is not due to systematic influences (market wi ...
Absolute priority: Rule in bankruptcy proceedings whereby senior creditors are required t ...
ACAS: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
ACCA: ACCA is the abbreviation used for either: Association ...
ACCC: Abbreviation for Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS): Schedule of depreciation rates allowed for tax purposes.
Accelerated depreciation: Any depreciation method that produces larger deductions for depreciati ...
Acceptable Quality Level (AQL): Maximum number of defects per 100 pieces that are allowable.
Acceptor: The party to whom a bill of exchange is addressed, and who accepts pri ...
Accounting: The process of recording a firm's financial transactions in appropriat ...
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 accou ...
Accounting insolvency: Total liabilities exceed total assets. A firm with a negative net wort ...
Accounting liquidity: The ease and quickness with which assets can be converted into cash
Accounting reference date: The date to which accounts are made up for a company. When a company i ...
Accounts payable: Money a company owes to its suppliers
Accounts receivable: Money owed to a company by its customers
Accounts receivable turnover: The ratio of net credit sales to average accounts receivable, a measur ...
Accretion (of a discount): In portfolio accounting, a straight-line accumulation of capital gains ...
Accrual bond: A bond on which interest accrues, but is not paid to the investor duri ...
Accrued interest: Interest earned but not yet due and payable. In the context of bond, i ...
Accumulated Benefit Obligation (ABO): An approximate measure of the liability of a plan in the event of a t ...
ACENVO: Association of Chief Executives of National Voluntary Organisations
Acid-test ratio: Also called the quick ratio, the ratio of current assets minus invento ...
ACORN: Acronym for A classification of Residential Neighbourhood
Acquiree: A firm that is being acquired.
Acquirer: A firm or individual that is acquiring something.
Acquisition: The purchase of a controlling interest in a firm, generally via a tend ...
Acquisition of assets: A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the selling f ...
Acquisition of stock: :A merger or consolidation in which an acquirer purchases the acquiree ...
ACRS: Accelerated cost recovery system
ACT: Advance Corporation Tax
Act of state doctrine: This doctrine says that a nation is sovereign within its own borders a ...
Actionable: Capable of being acted on or completed in the near future. "Which item ...
Active: A market in which there is much trading.
Active portfolio strategy: A strategy that uses available information and forecasting techniques ...
Actuals: The physical commodity underlying a futures contract. Cash commodity, ...
Additional hedge: A protection against borrower fallout risk in the mortgage pipeline.
Adjustable rate preferred stock (ARPS): Publicly traded issues that may be collateralized by mortgages and MB ...
Adjusted basis: The cost of property after adjustment for certain deductions or additi ...
Adjusted present value (APV): The net present value analysis of an asset if financed solely by equit ...
Adjusted R-Squared: A goodness-of-fit measure in multiple regression analysis that penaliz ...
ADL: Activities of Dailiy Living
Administrative pricing rules: IRS rules used to allocate income on export sales to a foreign sales c ...
Administrivia: All the trivial activities and reports required my administrators.
Admitted Assets: Assets admitted by state law to be included in an insurance company's ...
ADP: Andorran Peseta (no longer in use) from Andorra.
ADR: American Depository Receipt. A security issued in the United States to ...
Advance commitment: A promise to sell an asset before the seller has lined up purchase of ...
Advance funded pension plan: Pension plan in which funds are set aside in advance of the date of re ...
Advancement: Money or property given to a person by the deceased before death and i ...
Adverse selection: A situation in which market participation is a negative signal.
Adverse trustee: One who has a substantial, beneficial interest in the trust assets as ...
AED: United Arab Emirates Dirham from the United Arab Emirates.
AEI: Average Earnings Index
AFA: Afghani from Afghanistan.
Affirmative covenant: A bond covenant that specifies certain actions the firm must take.
Affordability programs: Usually refers to special schemes set up and/or managed by utility com ...
AFMA: Acronym of Australian Financial Markets Association. Online: ...
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 ...
Agency basis: A means of compensating the broker of a program trade solely on the ba ...
Agency cost view: The argument that specifies that the various agency costs create a com ...
Agency costs: The cost of resolving the agency problem. These might include stock op ...
Agency incentive arrangement: A means of compensating the broker of a program trade using benchmark ...
Agency pass-throughs: Mortgage pass-through securities whose principal and interest payments ...
Agency problem: The conflict of interest between principal (e.g. shareholders) and age ...
Agency sector: Securities issued by federally related institutions and government spo ...
Agency theory: The analysis of principal-agent relationships, wherein one person, an ...
Agent: The decision-maker in a principal-agent relationship.
Aggregation: Process in corporate financial planning whereby the smaller investment ...
Aging schedule: A table of accounts receivable broken down into age categories (such a ...
AGM: Annual General Meeting
AIBD: Association of International Bond Dealers.
AIM: Alternative Investment Market
AIMR: The association previously known as Association for Investment Managem ...
ALL: Lek from Albania.
All equity rate: The discount rate that reflects only the business risks of a project a ...
All or none: Requirement that none of an order be executed unless all of it can be ...
All-in cost: Total costs, explicit and implicit.
All-or-none underwriting: An arrangement whereby a security issue is canceled if the underwriter ...
Alpha: A measure of selection risk (also known as residual risk) of a mutual ...
Alpha equation: The alpha of a fund is determined as follows: [ (sum of y) -((b)( ...
Alternative Hypothesis: The hypothesis against which the null hypothesis is tested.
Alternative mortgage instruments: Variations of mortgage instruments such as adjustable-rate and variabl ...
AMD: Dram from Armenia.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs): Certificates issued by a U.S. depositary bank, representing foreign s ...
American National Standards (ANSI): ANSI is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordi ...
American option: An option that may be exercised at any time up to and including the ex ...
American Production and Inventory Control Society: American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) is a not-for ...
American shares: Securities certificates issued in the U.S. by a transfer agent acting ...
American Standard Code for Information Interchange: American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is the most ...
American Stock Exchange (AMEX): The second-largest stock exchange in the United States. It trades mos ...
American-style option: An option contract that can be exercised at any time between the date ...
AMEX: The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is the second-oldest U.S. stock exc ...
AMEX Composite: The American Stock Exchange introduced a new AMEX Composite Index with ...
Amortization: The repayment of a loan by installments.
Amortization factor:
Amortization schedule: The principal repayment of a bonds issue can call for either (a) the t ...
Amortizing interest rate swap: Swap in which the principal or national amount rises (falls) as intere ...
Amortizing securities: Securities that have an amortization schedule.
Amortizing swap: An interest rate swap with a decreasing notional principal amount.
Analyst: A person with expertise in assessing and evaluating financial securiti ...
Anergy: Negative synergy. Instead of a “2+2=5” effect, anergy implies “2+2=3”. ...
ANG: Netherlands Antilles Guilder from the Netherlands Antilles.
Angels: Individuals providing venture capital
Announcement Date: The date on which a company makes it public that they will do a split.
Annual fund operating expenses: For investment companies, the management fee and "other expenses," in ...
Annual percentage rate (APR): The periodic rate times the number of periods in a year. For example, ...
Annual percentage yield (APY): The effective, or true, annual rate of return. The APY is the rate act ...
Annual report: Yearly record of a publicly held company's financial condition. It inc ...
Annualized gain: If stock X appreciates 1.5% in one month, the annualized gain for that ...
Annualized holding period return: The annual rate of return that when compounded t times, would have gi ...
Annuitant: The beneficiary or beneficiaries (in a last-to-die arrangement) of an ...
Annuity: A regular periodic payment made by an insurance company to a policyhol ...
AOK: Kwanza from Angola.
AON: New Kwanza from Angola
APACS: Association for Payment Clearing Services
Appreciation: The increase in the value of an asset.
APT: Arbitrage Pricing Theory
ARA: Austral from Argentina.
Arbitrage: Buying an asset in one market at a lower price and simultaneously sell ...
ARCH: Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) is a model of dyn ...
ARP: Argentinian Peso from Argentina.
Arrangement Fee: Whilst some lenders charge an administration fee others may charge an ...
ARS: Argentinian Nuevo Peso from Argentina.
Articles Of Association: A legal document that sets out the internal rules of operation of a co ...
Ask price: The price at which a market maker is prepared to sell a security. Also ...
Asset Protection Trust (APT): A special form of irrevocable trust, usually created (settled) offshor ...
Assets: Anything that the firm owns. In the balance sheet, assets are divided ...
At loggerheads: Slang for disagreement
At the bell: In context of general equities, at the opening or close of the market.
At the opening order: In context of general equities, market order or limited price order th ...
At-the-money: An option that has zero value if exercised immediately. For example, a ...
ATS: Schilling (no longer in use) from Austria.
AUD: Australian Dollar from Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Is ...
Audit: The official examination of a company's accounts and report(s) by a qu ...
Audit trail: Resolves the validity of an accounting entry by a step-by-step record ...
Aunt Millie: An unsophisticated investor.
Austraclear: An Australian computerised settlement and safe custody system for bill ...
Authorised capital: The maximum amount of share capital that a public limited company or a ...
AUTIF: Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds
Autocorrelation: The correlation of a variable with itself over successive time interva ...
Autocracy: A system of government in which supreme political power to direct all ...
Automatic Data Processing (ADP): A private company that acts as an intermediary to perform proxy servic ...
Automatic withdrawal: A mutual fund that gives shareholders the right, but not the obligatio ...
Autoquote: Autoquote indicative prices are generated for many of the financial op ...
Aval: Term meaning inseparable from the financial instrument. This gives a g ...
AVC: Additional Voluntary Contribution
Average: The sum of n numbers divided by n. ...
Avoided cost: In context of project financing, the capital and expense that would ha ...
Away from the market: In context of general equities, out of line with the inside market at ...
Away from us: Used in context of general equities, to characterize role of a competi ...
AWG: Aruban Guilder from Aruba.
Axe to grind: Used in context of general equities. Involvement in a security, whethe ...
AZM: Azerbaijani Manat from Azerbaijan.
