London International Financial Futures Exchange

Similar financial terms

London Option
A generic term sometimes used to describe options on physical commodities or on futures contracts traded abroad (typified by options on London commodity markets). These options, which often had nothing whatsoever to do with legitimate foreign markets, gained notoriety--prior to their ban in the United States in 1978--because of the sales practices and fraud allegations associated with the American dealers who sold them.

London Gold Market
Refers to the five dealers who set (fix) the gold price in London: Mocatta & Goldsmid, N. Rothschild & Sons, Johnson Matthey, Sharps Pixley, and Samuel Montagu & Co.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
An international bank headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, which serves as a forum for monetary cooperation among several European central banks, the Bank of Japan, and the U.S. Federal Reserve System. Founded in 1930 to handle the German payment of World War I reparations, it now monitors and collects data on international banking activity and promulgates rules concerning international bank regulation.

International Fiscal Police (INTERFIPOL)
The tax crime counterpart to INTERPOL.

International Business Company (IBC)
An IBC is a corporation formed (incorporated) under a Company Act of a tax haven, but not authorized to do business within that country of incorporation; intended to be used for global operations. Owned by member(s)/shareholder(s). Has the usual corporate attributes.

International Financial and Banking Centre (IFC)
A country identified as being a tax haven.

International Criminal Police Organization
Commonly known as INTERPOL. The network of multinational law enforcement authorities established to exchange information regarding money laundering and other criminal activities. Currently more than 130 member nations.

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.

Short-term financial plan
A financial plan that covers the coming fiscal year.

Pro forma financial statements
Financial statements as adjusted to reflect a projected or planned transaction.

Perfectly competitive financial markets
Markets in which no trader has the power to change the price of goods or services. Perfect capital markets are characterized by the following conditions: a) trading is costless, and access to the financial markets is free, b) information about borrowing and lending opportunities is freely available, c) there are many traders, and no single trader can have a significant impact on market prices.

Notes to the financial statements
A detailed set of notes immediately following the financial statements in an annual report that explain and expand on the information in the financial statements.

Non-financial services
Include such things as freight, insurance, passenger services, and travel.

Long-term financial plan
Financial plan covering two or more years of future operations.

Changes in Financial Position
Sources of funds internally provided from operations that alter a company's cash flow position: depreciation, deferred taxes, other sources, and capital expenditures.

Corporate financial management
The application of financial principals within a corporation to create and maintain value through decision making and proper resource management.

Corporate financial planning
Financial planning conducted by a firm that encompasses preparation of both long- and short-term financial plans.

Country financial risk
The ability of the national economy to generate enough foreign exchange to meet payments of interest and principal on its foreign debt.

Financial Institutions Reform (FIRREA)
In August of 1989 the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) was created. FIRREA abolishes the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and FSLIC, switches Savings & Loan regulation to newly created Office of Thrift Supervision. Deposit insurance function shifted to the FDIC. A new entity, the Resolution Trust Corporation is created to resolve the insolvent S&Ls.

Other major provisions of FIRREA include: $50 billion of new borrowing authority, with most financed from ...

Financial Services Authority (FSA)
The Financial Services Authority was created by the incoming UK Labor Government in 1997 as the regulatory body for the whole financial services industry. A number of separate regulatory bodies were brought together into the FSA. The FSA also took over the responsibilities that the Bank of England had for supervising banks and other financial institutions. The Chairman of the FSA is Howard Davies, an ex deputy governor of the Bank, and now a member of the Court of Directors. The Bank and the FSA ...

Financial economies of scale
The ability of large firms to borrow money on more favourable terms than small firms.

Financial intermediaries
Institutions which channel funds from people and institutions wishing to lend to those wishing to borrow.

Theoretical futures price
Also called the fair price, the equilibrium futures price.

Spot futures parity theorem
Describes the theoretically correct relationship between spot and futures prices. Violation of the parity relationship gives rise to arbitrage opportunities.

Next futures contract
The contract settling immediately after the nearby futures contract.

Nearby futures contract
When several futures contracts are considered, the contract with the closest settlement date is called the nearby futures contract. The next futures contract is the one that settles just after the nearby futures contract. The contract farthest away in time from settlement is called the most distant futures contract.

National Futures Association (NFA)
The futures industry self regulatory organization established in 1982.

Most distant futures contract
When several futures contracts are considered, the contract settling last.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the federal agency created by Congress to regulate futures trading. The Commodity Exchange Act of 1974 became effective April 21, 1975. Previously, futures trading had been regulated by the Commodity Exchange Authority of the USDA.

Synthetic Futures
A position created by combining call and put options. A synthetic long futures position is created by combining a long call option and a short put option for the same expiration date and the same strike price. A synthetic short futures is created by combining a long put and a short call with the same expiration date and the same strike price.

Exchangeable bond
An issue giving the bondholder the right to exchange the issue for a specified number of common stock shares of a corporation different from the issuer of the bond.

Exchange-rate risk on bonds
A non-domestic-currency nominated bond has unknown domestic currency cash flows. The domestic currency cash flows are dependent on the exchange rate at the time the payments are received. For example, suppose that a German investor purchases a bond whose payments are in British pounds (GBP). If pounds depreciate relative to euros (EUR), fewer euros will be received and vice versa. This risk is also referred to currency risk.

Indirect exchange rate
The required amount of foreign currency required to purchase on unit of domestic currency.

Oslo Stock Exchange
In the early 1800s, Norway was a country of farmers and fishermen. Christiania, as the capital city was then called, had just 10,000 citizens. The Norwegian economy was weak, and money was scarce. This had a crushing effect on business and industry, and it was decided that the country needed a commercial exchange to encourage greater commercial activity.

The merchant Nicolay Andresen is generally recognised as the "father" of the Oslo stock exchange. He made the first proposal for a com ...

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

Stock exchanges
In the US, a stock exchange is a formal organization, approved and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC are made up of members that use the facilities to exchange certain common stocks. The two major US stock exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (ASE or AMEX). Five regional stock exchanges include the Midwest, Pacific, Philadelphia, Boston, and Cincinnati. The Arizona stock exchange is an after hours electronic marketpla ...

Spot exchange rates
Exchange rate on currency for immediate delivery.

Real exchange rates
Exchange rates that have been adjusted for the inflation differential between two countries.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX)
A securities exchange where American and European foreign currency options on spot exchange rates are traded.

Organized exchange
A securities marketplace wherein purchasers and sellers regularly gather to trade securities according to the formal rules adopted by the exchange.

Nominal exchange rate
The actual foreign exchange quotation in contrast to the real exchange rate that has been adjusted for changes in purchasing power.

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Also known as the Big Board or The Exhange. More than 2,000 common and preferred stocks are traded. The exchange is the older in the United States, founded in 1792, and the largest. It is lcoated on Wall Street in New York City

Membership or a seat on the exchange
A limited number of exchange positions that enable the holder to trade for the holder's own accounts and charge clients for the execution of trades for their accounts.

Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE)
The Vancouver Stock exchange (VSE) was one of Canada's junior company stock exchanges. On March 15, 1999, the VSE and the ASE (Alberta Stock Exchange) agreed to merge and form the CDNX - the Canadian Venture Exchange - which will also take on some junior Toronto and Montreal Exchange companies. The VSE got a bad reputation in the 80's due to many unscrupulous scam artists manipulating VSE listed companies. New regulatory controls and surveillance systems which had been implemented on the VSE wer ...

Junior Stock Exchange
A stock exchange which lists mainly small, emerging companies with low market capitalizations (e.g. under $100million or even under $10 million).

Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX)
The Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) was formed in late 1999 through the merging of the junior exchanges in Canada, i.e. the Vancouver Stock Exchange, the Alberta Stock Exchange, and various "parts" of the other, more senior exchanges (the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Montreal Stock Exchange) as well as the CDN, Canadian Dealing Network (which really isn't a stock exchange but is more like the OTC-BB in the USA, i.e. a market for "unlisted" stocks). The vision for the CDNX was to be the exchan ...

Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE)
Incorporated in 1965 as Kuala Lumpur's stock exchange (although share-trading activity dated from the 1930s).

Bill of exchange
General term for a document demanding payment.

Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
A securities exchange created in the early 1970s for the public trading of standardized option contracts.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
A not-for-profit corporation owned by its members. Its primary functions are to provide a location for trading futures and options, collect and disseminate market information, maintain a clearing mechanism and enforce trading rules.

Commodities Exchange Center (CEC)
The location of five New York futures exchanges: Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX), the New York Mercantile exchange (NYMEX), the New York Cotton Exchange, the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa exchange (CSC), and the New York futures exchange (NYFE).

Convertible exchangeable preferred stock
Convertible preferred stock that may be exchanged, at the issuer's option, into convertible bonds that have the same conversion features as the convertible preferred stock.

Exchange rate overshooting
A phenomenon whereby the exchange rate changes by more in the short run than it does in the long run when the money supply changes.

Unsterilized foreign exchange intervention
A unsterilized foreign exchange intervention is an intervention in which a central bank allows the purchase or sale of domestic currency to affect the monetary base.

Madrid Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Madrid)
The largest of Spain's four stock exchange.

Fisher equation of exchange
Fisher's equation of exchange states MV = PT. M is the money supply; V is the velocity of circulation; P is average prices and T is the number of transactions. This equation is in fact an identity as it will always be true. At its simplest level you could imagine an economy that has a money supply of £5. If this £5 is on average used 20 times in a year, it will have generated £100 of spending. In the Fisher equation above M would be equal to £5, V equal to 20 and PT would be £100. This £100 coul ...

Forward exchange rate
The forward exchange rate is a rate for buying foreign exchange at a fixed point in the future. Taking out a forward contract for foreign exchange means that you are agreeing to buy foreign exchange at an agreed rate in the future. The existence of the forward market leads to a considerable amount of speculation.

Fixed exchange rates
A fixed exchange rate system is one where the value of the currency against other currencies remains exactly the same. A fixed exchange rate doesn't stay fixed on its own. Governments have to hold large stocks of foreign exchange, so that they can actively intervene to hold the value of the currency stable. Monetary and fiscal policies will also have to be directed to keeping the rate constant.

Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE)
One of the four major stock exchanges in Canada.

Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE)
Established in 1886, the Johannesburg Securities Exchange is the only stock exchange in South Africa. Gold and mining stocks form the majority of shares listed. The discovery of the Witwatersrand goldfields in 1886 and the subsequent formation of mining and financial companies, meant investors needed a facility through which to buy and sell shares. Benjamin Woollan provided that facility when he founded the JSE in November 1887. The JSE was admitted as a member of the Federation Internatio ...