A forex trading strategy in which a long position is held on a low-interest currency and a short position is held on a high-interest currency. A negative carry pair is the inverse of a positive carry. Because there is a cost with maintaining the long position until the expiration of the position, it is considered "negative". A negative carry implies that the futures price is higher than the current spot price of the underlying asset. |||For countries with high short-term rates, the cost of the negative carry on a low-yielding reserve can be serious. For example, a long USD/EGP position when annual interest rates in Egypt are 8.5% and interest rates in the U.S. are 1% will cost 7.5% a year in carry. The investor can either abandon the option and forgo potential future returns created by interest rate volatility, or sell EGP and incur the cost of borrowing the currency at 8.5% and lending U.S. dollars at 1%.
An international mutual fund with a portfolio that consists entirely of securities, generally stocks, of companies located exclusively in a given country. Investors should be aware that country funds often show up in performance tables with some spectacular results and, because of this phenomenon, will attract a lot of investor attention. However, along with this type of performance also comes a high level of risk and price volatility, especially in developing countries, which are usually categorized as emerging markets. In this instance, a fund's portfolio may be concentrated in a small number of issues with very low market liquidity.Even in developed markets like Europe, putting investment funds in a single-country fund means that you are subjecting your risk-return expectations to a relatively narrow market environment.
A former rule established by the SEC that requires that every short sale transaction be entered at a price that is higher than the price of the previous trade. This rule was introduced in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as Rule 10a-1 and was implemented in 1938. The uptick rule prevents short sellers from adding to the downward momentum when the price of an asset is already experiencing sharp declines. The uptick rule is also known as the "plus tick rule". The SEC eliminated the rule on July 6, 2007, but in March of 2009, following a conversation with SEC Chair Mary Schapiro, Rep. Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee said that the rule could be restored. Frank's conversations were spurred by a call for the return of the rule by several members of Congress and legislation reintroduced on January 9, 2009, for its reinstatement. On April 9, 2009, the SEC approved the release of five proposals for reinstating the uptick rule, which will each be put out for a 60-day public comment period.By entering a short sale order with a price above the current bid, a short seller ensures that his or her order is filled on an uptick. The uptick rule is disregarded when trading some types of financial instruments such as futures, single stock futures, currencies or market ETFs such as the QQQQ or SPDRs. These instruments can be shorted on a downtick because they are highly liquid and have enough buyers willing to enter into a long position, ensuring that the price will rarely be driven to unjustifiably low levels.
A slang phrase referring to a tactic a hedge fund would use to try to mislead other funds that attempt to mimic its trades. By making small trades but enthusiastically purporting these trades, a hedge fund will attempt to mislead other funds into thinking that these are its big trades and investments. The hedge fund doing the reverse desk is trying to minimize the amount that it is being copied by its competitors. If other hedge funds attempt to mimic a portfolio this increase in buying will result in increased prices, so by "doing the reverse desk" hedge funds are attempting also to get the most favorable prices for their trades. The results of this tactic stem from the fact that news about trading spreads very quickly, so by adding some noise into the communication process hedge funds can attempt to mislead other funds.
The security on which a derivative derives its value. For example, a call option on Google stock gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to purchase Google stock at the price specified in the option contract. In this case, Google stock is the underlying security. In derivative terminology, the underlying security is often referred to simply as "the underlying." An underlying security can be any asset, index, financial instrument or even another derivative. Generally, an underlying security's value should be independently observable by both parties, so that there is no potential for confusion regarding the value of the derivative. Investors dealing in derivatives must closely research the underlying security in order to ensure that they fully understand the factors affecting the value of the derivative.
In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the China Yuan Renminbi. |||The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion.
The currency or legal tender issued by a nation's central bank or monetary authority. The national currency of a nation is usually the predominant currency used for most financial transactions in that country. |||A handful of national currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the euro have achieved global status as reserve currencies and are extensively used in international trade transactions. The euro has supplanted the national currencies of a number of nations that comprise the European Union. The national currencies of some countries such as the United Arab Emirates are pegged or fixed to the U.S. dollar.
A group of indexes made up of 25 tranches of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), each with different credit ratings. The CMBX indexes are the first attempt at letting participants trade risks that closely resemble the current credit health of the commercial mortgage market by investing in credit default swaps, which put specific interest rate spreads on each risk class. The pricing is based on the spreads themselves rather than on a pricing mechanism. Daily trading involves cash settlements between the two parties to any transaction, and the CMBX indexes are rolled over every six months to bring in new securities and continuously reflect the current health of the commercial mortgage markets. This "pay as you go" settlement process considers three events in the underlying securities as "credit events": principal writedowns, principal shortfalls (failures to pay on an underlying mortgage) and interest shortfalls (when current cash flows pay less than the CMBX coupon). |||The introduction of indexes like the CMBX has led to massive growth in the structured finance market, which includes credit default swaps, commercial mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and other collateralized securities. Trading in the CMBX tranches is done over the counter, and liquidity is provided by a syndicate of large investment banks. While the average investor cannot participate in the CMBX indexes directly, they can view current spreads for a given risk class to assess how the market is digesting current market conditions, making it a potentially valuable research tool.