Set of contracts perspective

Similar financial terms

Assets
Anything that the firm owns. In the balance sheet, assets are divided into intangible assets and tangible assets.

Settlement price
The average of the prices that a futures contract trades for immediately before the bell signaling the close trading for a day. It is used in mark-to-market calculations.

Current Assets
The value of assets held at the Balance Sheet date that are represented by cash, or can be expected to be converted into cash within the next 12 months.

Deferred assets
Payments that will be assigned as expenses in a later period, but that are paid in advance and temporarily set up as assets on the balance sheet.

Fixed assets
Alternative name for noncurrent assets.

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

Wasting asset
An asset which has a limited life and thus, decreases in value (depreciates) over time. Also applied to consumed assets, such as gas, and termed "depletion."

Total asset turnover
The ratio of net sales to total assets.

Thus, the total asset turnover ratio compares the turnover with the assets that the business has used to generate that turnover.

In other words, we are just saying that for every 1 of assets, the turnover is x.

Tangible asset
An asset whose value depends on particular physical properties. These i nclude reproducible assets such as buildings or machinery and non-reproducible assets such as land, a mine, or a work of art. Also referred to as real assets.

Tactical Asset Allocation
Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) is 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.

Structured settlement
An agreement in settlement of a lawsuit involving specific payments made over a period of time. Property and casualty insurance companies often buy life insurance products to pay the costs of such settlements.

Skip-day settlement
The trade is settled one business day beyond what is normal.

Settlement rate
The rate suggested in Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) 87 for discounting the obligations of a pension plan. The rate at which the pension benefits could be effectively settled off the pension plan wished to terminate its pension obligation.

Settlement date
The date on which payment is made to settle a trade. For stocks traded on US exchanges, settlement is currently 3 business days after the trade. For mutual funds, settlement usually occurs in the U.S.the day following the trade. In some regional markets, foreign shares may require months to settle.

Settlement
When payment is made for a trade.

Risk-free asset
An asset whose future return is known today with certainty.

Risky asset
An asset whose future return is uncertain.

Return on total assets
The ratio of earnings available to common stockholders to total assets.

Return on assets (ROA)
Indicator of profitability. Determined by dividing net income for the past 12 months by total average assets. Result is shown as a percentage. ROA can be decomposed into return on sales (net income/sales) multiplied by asset utilization (sales/assets).

Residual assets
Assets that remain after sufficient assets are dedicated to meet all senior debtholder's claims in full.

Reset frequency
The frequency with which the floating rate changes.

Reproducible assets
A tangible asset with physical properties that can be reproduced, such as a building or machinery.

Regular way settlement
In the money and bond markets, the regular basis on which some security trades are settled is that the delivery of the securities purchased is made against payment in Fed funds on the day following the transaction.

Real assets
Identifiable assets, such as buildings, equipment, patents, and trademarks, as distinguished from a financial obligation.

Quick assets
Current assets minus inventories.

Publicly traded assets
Assets that can be traded in a public market, such as the stock market.

Portfolio opportunity set
The expected return/standard deviation pairs of all portfolios that can be constructed from a given set of assets.

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.

Other current assets
Value of non-cash assets, including prepaid expenses and accounts receivable, due within 1 year.

Opportunity set
The possible expected return and standard deviation pairs of all portfolios that can be constructed from a given set of assets.

Non-reproducible assets
A tangible asset with unique physical properties, like a parcel of land, a mine, or a work of art.

Net assets
The difference between total assets on the one hand and current liabilities and noncapitalized longterm liabilities on the other hand.

Net asset value (NAV)
The value of a fund's investments. For a mutual fund, the net asset value per share usually represents the fund's market price, subject to a possible sales or redemption charge. For a closed end fund, the market price may vary significantly from the net asset value.

Mutual offset
A system, such as the arrangement between the CME and SIMEX, which allows trading positions established on one exchange to be offset or transferred on another exchange.

Markowitz efficient set of portfolios
The collection of all efficient portfolios, graphically referred to as the Markowitz efficient frontier.

Long-term assets
Value of property, equipment and other capital assets minus the depreciation. This is an entry in the bookkeeping records of a company, usually on a "cost" basis and thus does not necessarily reflect the market value of the assets.

Liquid asset
Asset that is easily and cheaply turned into cash - notably cash itself and short-term securities.

Limitation on asset dispositions
A bond covenant that restricts in some way a firm's ability to sell major assets.

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.

Cash settlement contracts
Futures contracts, such as stock index futures, that settle for cash, not involving the delivery of the underlying.

Asset Protection Trust (APT)
A special form of irrevocable trust, usually created (settled) offshore for the principal purposes of preserving and protecting part of one's wealth offshore against creditors. Title to the asset is transferred to a person named the trustee. Generally used for asset protection and usually tax neutral. Its ultimate function is to provide for the beneficiaries of the APT.

Offset
Liquidating a purchase of futures contracts through the sale of an equal number of contracts of the same delivery month, or liquidating a short sale of futures through the purchase of an equal number of contracts of the same delivery month.

Admitted Assets
Assets admitted by state law to be included in an insurance company's annual statement. These assets are an important item when regulators measure insurance company solvency. They may include mortgages, stocks, bonds and real estate.

Open contracts
Contracts which have been bought or sold without the transaction having been completed by subsequent sale or purchase, or by making or taking actual delivery of the financial instrument or physical commodity.

Nexus (of contracts)
A set or collection of something.

Conditional sales contracts
Similar to equipment trust certificates except that the lender is either the equipment manufacturer or a bank or finance company to whom the manufacturer has sold the conditional sales contract.