Financial Terms Main Page

This site contains comprehensive definitions for a wide range of terms that cover topics such as financial, finance, business, accounting, payroll, inventory, investment, money, inventory control, stock trading, financial advisor, tax advisor, credit...

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Monthly Financial Term Picks:

Fixed-income equivalent

Also called a busted convertible, a convertible security that is trading like a straight
security because the optioned common stock is trading low.

Nearby

The nearest active trading month of a financial or commodity futures market. Related: deferred futures

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.

Pension sponsors

Organizations that have established a pension plan.

Private unrequited transfers

Refers to resident immigrant workers' remittances to their country of origin as
well as gifts, dowries, inheritances, prizes, charitable contributions, etc.

Regression analysis

A statistical technique that can be used to estimate relationships between variables.

Secondary issue

1) Procedure for selling blocks of seasoned issues of stocks.
2) More generally, sale of already issued stock.

Variable cost

A cost that increases or decreases in proportion with increases or decreases in the volume of production of goods or services.

cost pool

a collection of monetary amounts incurred either
for the same purpose, at the same organizational level, or
as a result of the occurrence of the same cost driver

weighted-average cost of capital (WACC)

Expected rate of return on a portfolio of all the firm’s securities, adjusted for tax savings due to interest payments.

Coupon

The annual interest payment associated with a bond.

Scrap

Faulty material that cannot be reworked.

Subassembly

A group of assembled components used in the assembly of a higherlevel
assembly.

Living Benefit

Some insurance companies include this benefit option at no cost to their policy holders. The insurer considers on a case to case basis, the need for insurance funds before death. If the insured can demonstrate a shortened life of less than two years and with some insurers one year, the insurer will consider releasing up to 50% or a maximum of $100,000 of the life insurance coverage held by the insured. Not all insurers offer this benefit for free. The need has resulted in specific stand alone living benefit/critical illness policies coming into existence. Look under "Different types of Life Insurance" for further information. You might have heard of "Viatical Settlements", the practice of seriously ill people selling the rights to their life insurance policies to third parties. This practice is common in the United States but has not caught on in Canada.

stop payment

A service which enables you to request a 'stop' on any cheque or other pre-authorized payment, as long as the funds have not yet been disbursed. For example, you might request a stop payment on a post-dated cheque if you no longer need the product or service for which that cheque was initially written.