An arrangement made between a buyer and seller giving either party the ability, at some future date, to determine the cash price of the forward sales agreement. once the basis of a futures contract is booked, it is applied to the current futures price and is maintained for the duration of the contract. Also known as "deferred pricing." Booking the basis is used to calculate what the price will be at some time in the future. First the parties agree upon the formula or basis. Then, at a later date, the price is found by applying the previously agreed upon basis to the current futures quotation.
A type of mutual fund with a portfolio constructed to match or track the components of a market index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500). An index mutual fund is said to provide broad market exposure, low operating expenses and low portfolio turnover. "Indexing" is a passive form of fund management that has been successful in outperforming most actively managed mutual funds. While the most popular index funds track the S&P 500, a number of other indexes, including the Russell 2000 (small companies), the DJ Wilshire 5000 (total stock market), the MSCI EAFE (foreign stocks in Europe, Australasia, Far East) and the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index (total bond market) are widely used for index funds.Investing in an index fund is a form of passive investing. The primary advantage to such a strategy is the lower management expense ratio on an index fund. Also, a majority of mutual funds fail to beat broad indexes, such as the S&P 500.
The act of attempting to increase the size and scope of an individual or organization's power and influence. In the corporate world, this is seen when managers or executives are more concerned with expanding their business units, their staffing levels and the dollar value of assets under their control than they are with developing and implementing ways to benefit shareholders. Empire building is typically seen as unhealthy for a corporation, as managers will often become more concerned with acquiring greater resource control than with optimally allocating resources. Corporate controls imposed by a company's board and upper-level management are supposed to prevent empire building within a corporation's ranks. The failure to screen out empire builders can lead to corporate actions that do not necessarily provide the best growth opportunities for a corporation and its shareholders, such as acquisitions made to boost the control of the company's executives.
The risk that one party of a contract will fail to meet the terms of the contract and default before the contract's settlement date, prematurely ending the contract. This type of risk can lead to replacement-cost risk. |||For example, let's say ABC company forms a contract on the foreign-exchange market with XYZ company to swap U.S. dollars for Japanese yen in two years. If prior to settlement XYZ company goes bankrupt, it will be unable to complete the exchange and must default on the contract. ABC company will have to form a new contract with another party which leads to replacement-cost risk.
A trade term requiring the seller to arrange for the carriage of goods by sea to a port of destination, and provide the buyer with the documents necessary to obtain the goods from the carrier. |||Contracts involving international transportation often contain abbreviated trade terms that describe matters such as the time and place of delivery, payment, when the risk of loss shifts from the seller to the buyer and who pays the costs of freight and insurance. The most commonly known trade terms are Incoterms, published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). These are often identical in form to domestic terms (such as the American Uniform Commercial Code), but have different meanings. As a result, parties to a contract must expressly indicate the governing law of their terms. It's important to realize that because this is a legal term, its exact definition is much more complicated and differs by country. Contact an international trade lawyer before using any trade term.
An option strategy combining a bull and bear spread. It uses three strike prices. The lower two strike prices are used in the bull spread, and the higher strike price in the bear spread. Both puts and calls can be used. This strategy has limited risk and limited profit.
Investing in companies or projects that promote fair trade with producers in developing nations. Basic fair trade philosophies call for equal pay for suppliers of raw goods and materials as well as respect for strong environmental practices and a focus on the trading relationships between advanced economies and developing nations. Fair trade investing mainly deals with trade in agricultural products, such as coffee, sugar and textiles. Many of the growers of these products are low-income workers who are often marginalized in trade agreements and receive few subsidies from their home governments. Fair trade practices aim to help these workers gain a higher standard of living and financial independence, while the companies who actively promote fair trade can show transparency in their business dealings and gain valuable image points with shareholders.
A trial process in which a fund company operates a number of funds privately with its own capital or employee capital, and only opens the top performing funds to the public. The higher performing funds that survive the incubation period are used by the fund company to generate business. The funds with unattractive performance, which would be more difficult to market, are liquidated. See also "incubated fund." While there is nothing illegal about this practice, some consider it to be unethical because it can overstate the investing performance of the fund company, creating what is known as incubation bias.For example, suppose that a fund company starts three funds that earn returns of -5%, 2%, and 20%, respectively, over a one-year period. If the fund company only opens the 20% fund to the public and does not disclose the other performances, a bias is created because the average performance of the three funds is actually 5.7%.