TBA (to be announced)

Similar financial terms

Bear Hug
A takeover strategy in which the acquirer, without previous warning, mail the directors of the target a letter announcing the acquisition proposal and demanding a quick decision.

Benchmark
Benchmarks generally refer to standards or averages by which similar items can be compared. In the financial world, a company, a group of companies, or a portfolio are used as a standard of performance (i.e. benchmarking).

Beta
The beta (β) is a statistical measure of market risk on a portfolio. The beta has traditionally been used to estimate the elasticity of a stock portfolio's return relative to the market index. A beta of 0.7 means the total return of the security is likely to move up or down 70% of the market change; 1.3 means total return is likely to move up or down 30% more than the market. Beta is referred to as an index of the systematic risk due to general market conditions that cannot be diversified ...

BEC
Convertible Belgian Franc (no longer in use) from Belgium.

BEF
Belgian Franc (also known as Frank - no longer in use) from Belgium.

BEL
Financial Belgian Franc (no longer in use) from Belgium.

Zero-beta portfolio
A zero-beta portfolio is constructed to have zero systematic risk, similar to the risk-free asset, that is, having a beta of zero. (i.e. in most cases, we assume the beta of debt to be zero).

BES
Business Expansion Scheme

Bear Market
An extended period of general price decline in an individual security, an asset, or a market.

Jobber
A trader who trades for small, short-term profits during the course of a trading session and rarely carry a position overnight.

Debenture
A corporate bond without any collateral; its value is based on the reputation and financial strength of the issuer.

Accumulated Benefit Obligation (ABO)
An approximate measure of the liability of a plan in the event of a termination at the date the calculation is performed. Related: projected benefit obligation.

Unleveraged beta
The beta of an unleveraged required return (i.e. no debt) on an investment when the investment is financed entirely by equity.

Unit benefit formula
Method used to determine a participant's benefits in a defined benefit plan by multiplying years of service by the percentage of salary.

Subordinated debenture bond
An unsecured bond that ranks after secured debt, after debenture bonds, and often after some general creditors in its claim on assets and earnings. Related: Debenture bond, mortgage bond, collateral trust bonds.

Sharpe benchmark
A statistically created benchmark that adjusts for a managers' index-like tendencies.

Projected benefit obligation (PBO)
A measure of a pension plan's liability at the calculation date assuming that the plan is ongoing and will not terminate in the foreseeable future.

Pre-trade benchmarks
Prices occurring before or at the decision to trade.

Posttrade benchmarks
Prices after the decision to trade.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
A federal agency that insures the vested benefits of pension plan participants (established in 1974 by the ERISA legislation).

Oversubscribed issue
Investors are not able to buy all of the shares or bonds they want, so underwriters must allocate the shares or bonds among investors. This occurs when a new issue is underpriced or in great demand because of growth prospects.

Net benefit to leverage factor
A linear approximation of a factor, T*, that enables one to operationalize the total impact of leverage on firm value in the capital market imperfections view of capital structure.

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.

Leveraged beta
The beta of a leveraged required return; that is, the beta as adjusted for the degree of leverage in the firm's capital structure.

Law of large numbers
The mean of a random sample approaches the mean (expected value) of the population as the sample grows.

Killer bee
An investment banker helping companies go about soliciting a hostile takeover.

Barbell strategy
A strategy in which the maturities of the securities included in the portfolio are concentrated at two extremes.

Bear
An investor who believes a stock or the overall market will decline. A bear market is a prolonged period of falling stock prices, usually by 20% or more.

Bearer bond
Bonds that are not registered on the books of the issuer. Such bonds are held in physical form by the owner, who receives interest payments by physically detaching coupons from the bond certificate and delivering them agent.to the paying

Bear raid
A situation in which large traders sell positions with the intention of driving prices down.

Before-tax profit margin
The ratio of net income before taxes to net sales.

Beggar-thy-neighbor
An international trade policy of competitive devaluations and increased protective barriers where one country seeks to gain at the expense of its trading partners.

Beggar-thy-neighbor devaluation
A devaluation that is designed to cheapen a nation's currency and thereby increase its exports at other countries' expense and reduce imports. Such devaluations often lead to trade wars.

Benchmark error
Use of an inappropriate proxy for the true market portfolio.

Benchmark interest rate
Also called the base interest rate, it is the minimum interest rate investors will demand for investing in a non-Treasury security. It is also tied to the yield to maturity offered on a comparable-maturity Treasury security that was most recently issued ("on-the-run").

Benchmark issues
Also called on-the-run or current coupon issues or bellwether issues. In the secondary market, it's the most recently auctioned Treasury issues for each maturity.

Best-efforts sale
Best efforts is a method of securities distribution or underwriting in which the securities firm agrees to sell as much of the offering as possible and return any unsold shares to the issuer. As opposed to a guaranteed or fixed price sale, where the underwriter agrees to sell a specific number of shares (with the securities firm holding any unsold shares in its own account if necessary).

Best-interests-of-creditors test
The requirement that a claim holder voting against a plan of reorganization must receive at least as much as he would have if the debtor were liquidated.

Beta equation
The beta of a security is determined as follows:

[(n) (sum of (xy)) ]-[ (sum of x) (sum of y)]
[(n) (sum of (xx)) ]-[ (sum of x) (sum of x)]

where: n = # of observations (36 months)
x = rate of return for a benchmark index
y = rate of return for the security

Bull-bear bond
Bond whose principal repayment is linked to the price of another security. The bonds are issued in two tranches: in the first tranche repayment increases with the price of the other security, and in the second tranche repayment decreases with the price of the other security.

Bull CD, Bear CD
A bull CD pays its holder a specified percentage of the increase in return on a specified market index while guaranteeing a minimum rate of return. A bear CD pays the holder a fraction of any fall in a given market index.

Bullish, bearish
Words used to describe investor attitudes. Bullish refers to an optimistic outlook while bearish means a pessimistic outlook.

Clearing member
A member firm of a clearing house. Each clearing member must also be a member of the exchange. Not all members of the exchange, however, are members of the clearing organization. All trades of a non-clearing member must be registered with, and eventually settled through, a clearing member.

Conflict between bondholders and stockholders
These two groups may have interests in a corporation that conflict. Sources of conflict include dividends, distortion of investment, and underinvestment. Protective covenants work to resolve these conflicts.

Cost-benefit ratio
The net present value of an investment divided by the investment's initial cost. Also called the profitability index.

Country beta
Covariance of a national economy's rate of return and the rate of return the world economy divided by the variance of the world economy.

Customized benchmarks
A benchmark that is designed to meet a client's requirements and long-term objectives.

Dilbert Principle
A modern update of the Peter Principle in which ineffective workers are promoted to management.

Iceberg principle
The idea that in any situation only a small part of the problem initially will be visible.

W-cubed
Whatever, wherever and whenever you want it; a mantra managers use to emphasize the importance of customer service.

Embedded value
A methodology that reflects future shareholder profits in the life insurance business. Embedded value equals the free surplus plus the value of inforce business. Embedded value is hard to compare with different companies since each company determines its own input parameters, for example the level of target surplus.

At the bell
In context of general equities, at the opening or close of the market.

Undersubscribed
Having received fewer offers to buy than there are securities available for sale.

Beneficiary
The person(s), company, trust or estate named by the grantor, trustor, settlor or creator to receive the benefits of a trust in due course upon conditions which the grantor established by way of a trust deed. An exception would be the fully discretionary trust. The beneficiary could be a charity, foundation and/or person(s) which or who are characterized by classes in terms of their order of entitlement or their hierarchy.

CARICOM (Caribbean Common Market)
Caribbean Common Market. Consists of 14 sister-member countries of the Caribbean community. Members include: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago. They have set as a goal that in 1997 there will be a single market allowing for the free movement of labor. Conspicuous by their absence are the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, two major players in interna ...