American Standard Code for Information Interchange

Similar financial terms

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 ...

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

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.

American National Standards (ANSI)
ANSI is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment.

American Production and Inventory Control Society
American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) is a not-for-profit international educational organization respected throughout the world for its education and professional certification programs.

Standard Deviation
A common measure of spread in the sampling distribution of a random variable. In a financial context, the standard deviation is commonly used to measure risk.

Standard & Poor's 500
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) is based on a portfolio of 500 different stocks: 400 industrials, 40 utilities, 20 transportation companies, and 40 financial institutions. The weights of the stocks in the portfolio at any given time are proportional to their market capitalizations. The S&P 500 accounts for 80% of the market capitalization of all the stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Standard & Poor's MidCap 400
The Standard & Poor's Midcap 400 Index is somewhat similar to the S&P 500, but is based on a portfolio of 400 stocks that have a lower market capitalization.

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.

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 8
This is a currency translation standard previously in use by U.S. accounting firms.

Standardized value
Also called the normal deviate, the distance of one data point from the mean, divided by the standard deviation of the distribution.

Standardized normal distribution
A normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.

Standard error
In statistics, a measure of the possible error in an estimate.

SIC Code
The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code is a numbering system established by the Office of Management and Budget that identifies companies by industry. It is used to promote the comparability of economic statistics from various facets of the U.S. economy.

Code of ethics
A written guide to acceptable and ethical behavior (as defined by an organization) that outlines uniform policies, standards, and punishments for violations.