Wi

Similar financial terms

Withholding tax
The tax payable on payments such as dividends, interest, and debt repayments which are sent to foreign entities. Hence, a tax levied by the country of source on income paid.

Wild Card Play
The right, but not the obligation, to deliver on a futures contract at the closing price for a period of time after the trading close.

Wiener Process
The wiener process is a stochastic process used in option value calculations where the change in a variable during each short period of time of length has a normal distribution with a mean equal to zero and a variance equal to length.

Triple Witching Hour
A term given to the time when stock index futures, stock index options, and options on stock index futures all expire together.

Swing Option
A swing option are found in the energy market. Its value depends on the consumption of energy, which must be between a minimum and maximum level. There is usually a limit on the number of times the option holder can change the rate at which the energy is consumed.

Early withdrawal penalty
A penalty on money withdrawn prematurely from a fixed-term investment, such as a tax-deferred pension plan before the age of 59 1/2 in the US.

Goodwill
The value of a business to a purchaser over and above its net asset value. It reflects the value of intangible assets like:

• reputation
• brand name
• good customer relations
• high employee morale
• other factors which improve the company's business.

Goodwill is normally given a value in a company's balance sheet, but is depreciated over a period of time.

Without recourse
Without the lender having any right to seek payment or seize assets in the event of default from anyone other than the party (such as a special-purpose entity) specified in the debt contract.

Without
If 50 were bid in the market and there was no offer, the quote would be "50 bid without." The expression "without" indicates a one-way market.

Withdrawal plan
The ability to establish automatic periodic mutual fund redemptions and have proceeds mailed directly to the investor.

With rights
Purchase of shares in which the buyer is entitled to the rights to buy shares in the company's rights issue.

Wire house
A firm operating a private wire to its own branch offices or to other firms, commission houses or brokerage houses.

Winners's curse
Problem faced by uninformed bidders. For example, in an initial public offering uninformed participants are likely to receive larger allotments of issues that informed participants know are overpriced.

Window contract
A guaranteed investment contract purchased with deposits over some future designated time period (the "window"), usually between 3 and 12 months. All deposits made are guaranteed the same credit rating.

Wild card option
The right of the seller of a Treasury Bond futures contract to give notice of intent to deliver at or before 8:00 p.m. Chicago time after the closing of the exchange (3:15 p.m. Chicago time) when the futures settlement price has been fixed.

Wi Wi
Treasury bills trade on a wi basis between the day they are auctioned and the day settlement is made. Bills traded before they are auctioned are said to be traded wi wi.

Switching
Liquidating an existing position and simultaneously reinstating a position in another futures contract of the same type. Symmetric cash matching An extension of cash flow matching that allows for the short-term borrowing of funds to satisfy a liability prior to the liability due date, resulting in a reduction in the cost of funding liabilities.

Swissy
Jargon for the Swiss Franc (CHF).

Swingline facility
Bank borrowing facility to provide finance while the firm replaces U.S. commercial paper with eurocommercial paper.

Special drawing rights (SDR)
A form of international reserve assets, created by the IMF in 1967, whose value is based on a portfolio of widely used currencies.

SWIFT
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) is a dedicated computer network to support funds transfer messages internationally between over 900 member banks worldwide.

Phone switching
In mutual funds, the ability to transfer shares between funds in the same family by telephone request. There may be a charge associated with these transfers. Phone switching is also possible among different fund families if the funds are held in street name by a participating broker/dealer.

Negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW)
Demand deposits that pay interest.

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

Markowitz efficient portfolio
Also called a mean-variance efficient portfolio, a portfolio that has the highest expected return at a given level of risk.

Markowitz efficient frontier
The graphical depiction of the Markowitz efficient set of portfolios representing the boundary of the set of feasible portfolios that have the maximum return for a given level of risk. Any portfolios above the frontier cannot be achieved. Any below the frontier are dominated by Markowitz efficient portfolios.

Markowitz diversification
A strategy that seeks to combine assets a portfolio with returns that are less than perfectly positively correlated, in an effort to lower portfolio risk (variance) without sacrificing return.

Limitation on subsidiary borrowing
A bond covenant that restricts in some way a firm's ability to borrow at the subsidiary level.

TMWX (Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index)
The TMWX measures the performance of all U.S. headquartered equity securities with readily available price data.

Bandwidth
(n.) Jargon. Plan your work well least you run out of "bandwidth," or physical, mental or emotional capacity.

"....I just don't have the bandwidth to handle this at the minute," meaning "I don't have the manpower or ability to handle this at the minute."

Goodwill impairment
An asset reported mainly as goodwill on the balance sheet may be worth much less than the value reported. In this case the good will is impaired and the company will likely have to take a write-down on this asset. This often happens when intellectual property such as software is acquired and a premium price is paid for it. Subsequently, if the software is not commercialized, the goodwill associated with it must be reduced - often to zero.

Bank wire
A computer message system linking major banks. It is used not for effecting payments, but as a mechanism to advise the receiving bank of some action that has occurred, e.g. the payment by a customer of funds into that bank's account.

Collective wisdom
The combination of all of the individual opinions about a stock's or security's value.

Bait and switch
An unethical sales technique where low priced goods are advertised but not available when customers come to the store.

"Sellers sometimes practice a form of false advertising known as bait and switch . A low-priced good is advertised but replaced by a different good at the showroom."
Journal of Political Economy , Aug. 1995, p.813.

Keep up with the Jones
Strive, especially beyond one's income to socialize and spend like others in the same neighborhood.

Automatic withdrawal
A mutual fund that gives shareholders the right, but not the obligation, to receive a fixed payment from dividends on a quarterly or monthly basis.

Growing-equity mortgage (GEM)
A fixed-rate mortgage that provides scheduled payment increases over an established period of time, with the increased amount of the monthly payment applied directly toward reducing the remaining balance of the mortgage.

British West Indies (BWI)
In the Caribbean, including the UK-dependent territories of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Letter of Wishes
Guidance and a request to the trustee having no binding powers over the trustee. There may be multiple letters. They must be carefully drafted to avoid creating problems with the settlor or true settlor in the case of a grantor trust becoming a co-trustee. The trustee cannot be a pawn of the settlor or there is basis for the argument that there never was a complete renouncement of the assets. Sometimes referred to as a side letter.

Unwind
The activity which reverses a position. If an investor was long an option spread then he would sell the position to close it. If the investor had a butterfly position in bonds, then she would have to offset each leg or wing to remove the trade.

Mutual Fund Switching Privileges
Allow an investor to switch out of and into a different fund(s) within the same family of funds at very low or no compensation.

Switch
Offsetting a position in one delivery month of a commodity and simultaneous initiation of a similar position in another delivery month of the same commodity, a tactic referred to as "rolling forward".

Winter Wheat
Wheat that is planted in the fall, lies dormant during the winter, and is harvested beginning about May of the next year.