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Instructions: This handout comprises a compilation of certain basic financial, accounting and economic terms.

This is only a representation and students are requested not to limit their learning to this handout only. Finance Stock- A type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings. There are two main types of stock: common and preferred. Common stocks usually entitle the owner to vote at shareholders' meetings and to receive dividends. Preferred stock generally does not have voting rights, but has a higher claim on assets and earnings than the common shares. For example, owners of preferred stock receive dividends before common shareholders and have priority in the event that a company goes bankrupt and is liquidated. Also known as "shares" or "equity". A holder of stock (a shareholder) has a claim to a part of the corporation's assets and earnings. In other words, a shareholder is an owner of a company. Ownership is determined by the number of shares a person owns relative to the number of outstanding shares. For example, if a company has 1,000 shares of stock outstanding and one person owns 100 shares, that person would own and have claim to 10% of the company's assets. Stocks are the foundation of nearly every portfolio. Historically, they have outperformed most other investments over the long run. Bonds- A Company needs funds to expand into new markets, while governments need money for everything from infrastructure to social programs. The problem large organizations run into is that they typically need far more money than the average bank can provide. The solution is to raise money by issuing bonds (or other debt instruments) to a public market. Thousands of investors then each lend a portion of the capital needed. Really, a bond is nothing more than a loan for which you are the lender. The organization that sells a bond is known as the issuer. You can think of a bond as an IOU given by a borrower (the issuer) to a lender (the investor). Of course, nobody would loan his or her hard-earned money for nothing. The issuer of a bond must pay the investor something extra for the privilege of using his or her money. This "extra" comes in the form of interest payments, which are made at a predetermined rate and schedule. The interest rate is often referred to as the coupon. The date on which the issuer has to repay the amount borrowed (known as face value) is called the maturity date. Bonds are known as fixed-income securities because you know the exact amount of cash you'll get back if you hold the security until maturity. For example, say you buy a bond with a face value of $1,000, a coupon of 8%, and a maturity of 10 years. This means you'll receive a total of $80 ($1,000*8%) of interest per year for the next 10 years. Actually, because most bonds pay interest semi-annually, you'll receive two payments of $40 a year for 10 years. When the bond matures after a decade, you'll get your $1,000 back. Municipal bond- Represents borrowing by state or local governments to pay for special projects such as highways or sewers. The interest that investors receive is exempt from some income axes. Debt Versus Equity - Bonds are debt, whereas stocks are equity. This is the important distinction between the two securities. By purchasing equity (stock) an investor becomes an owner in a corporation. Ownership comes with voting rights and the right to share in any future profits. By purchasing debt (bonds) an investor becomes a creditor to the corporation (or government). The primary advantage of being a creditor is that you have a higher claim on assets than shareholders do: that is, in the case of bankruptcy, a bondholder will get paid before a shareholder. However, the bondholder does not share in the profits if a company does well - he or she is entitled only to the principal plus interest.

To sum up, there is generally less risk in owning bonds than in owning stocks, but this comes at the cost of a lower return. Stock Market- The market in which shares are issued and traded either through exchanges or over-the-counter markets. Also known as the equity market, it is one of the most vital areas of a market economy as it provides companies with access to capital and investors with a slice of ownership in the company and the potential of gains based on the company's future performance. This market can be split into two main sections: the primary and secondary market. The primary market is where new issues are first offered, with any subsequent trading going on in the secondary market. There are two main types of stocks: common stock and preferred stock. Common Stock - Common stock is, well, common. When people talk about stocks they are usually referring to this type. In fact, the majority of stock is issued is in this form. We basically went over features of common stock in the last section. Common shares represent ownership in a company and a claim (dividends) on a portion of profits. Investors get one vote per share to elect the board members, who oversee the major decisions made by management. Over the long term, common stock, by means of capital growth, yields higher returns than almost every other investment. This higher return comes at a cost since common stocks entail the most risk. If a company goes bankrupt and liquidates, the common shareholders will not receive money until the creditors, bondholders and preferred shareholders are paid. Preferred Stock - Preferred stock represents some degree of ownership in a company but usually doesn't come with the same voting rights. (This may vary depending on the company.) With preferred shares, investors are usually guaranteed a fixed dividend forever. This is different than common stock, which has variable dividends that are never guaranteed. Another advantage is that in the event of liquidation, preferred shareholders are paid off before the common shareholder (but still after debt holders). Preferred stock may also be callable, meaning that the company has the option to purchase the shares from shareholders at anytime for any reason (usually for a premium). Some people consider preferred stock to be more like debt than equity. A good way to think of these kinds of shares is to see them as being in between bonds and common shares. Different Classes of Stock - Common and preferred are the two main forms of stock; however, it's also possible for companies to customize different classes of stock in any way they want. The most common reason for this is the company wanting the voting power to remain with a certain group; therefore, different classes of shares are given different voting rights. For example, one class of shares would be held by a select group who are given ten votes per share while a second class would be issued to the majority of investors who are given one vote per share. When there is more than one class of stock, the classes are traditionally designated as Class A and Class B. Cyclical stocks- The earnings on these stocks are tied very closely to the overall business cycle and economic state. Examples include the housing industry and industrial equipment companies. Defensive stocks- These remain stable in any economic conditions, such as food companies, drug manufacturers or utilities. These are stocks in companies that manufacture the necessities that people will need in any economy.

Growth stocks- As the name might suggest, these stocks have strong growth potential. These are typically companies that are newer, busily doing research and developing products and services in hopes of achieving growth. Much of the profits are fed back into the companies themselves. Income stocks - These pay higher-than-average dividends over a sustained period. They are typically long-established companies with stable earnings or utilities such as phone companies. Net worth- Total assets minus total liabilities of an individual or company. For a company, also called owner's equity or shareholders' equity or net assets. Speculative stocks - These are stocks in emerging companies that are speculating on their future earnings and revenue. These are risky investments since the company may or may not reach their intended future goals. Value stocks- These are stocks in companies that, for one of many reasons, are undervalued. They are stocks that are selling at a low price, but when analyzing the company's sales, earnings and looking at other factors, give indications that they should be selling for a higher per share price. The Bulls, The Bears And The Farm- On Wall Street, the bulls and bears are in a constant struggle. If you haven't heard of these terms already, you undoubtedly will as you begin to invest. The Bulls - A financial market of a certain group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. The term "bull market" is most often used in respect to the stock market, but really can be applied to anything that is traded, such as bonds, currencies, commodities, etc. A bull market is when everything in the economy is great, people are finding jobs, gross domestic product (GDP) is growing, and stocks are rising. Things are just plain rosy! Picking stocks during a bull market is easier because everything is going up. Bull markets cannot last forever though, and sometimes they can lead to dangerous situations if stocks become overvalued. If a person is optimistic and believes that stocks will go up, he or she is called a "bull" and is said to have a "bullish outlook". Bull markets are characterized by optimism, investor confidence and expectations that strong results will continue. Of course, no bull market can last forever, and sooner or later a bear market (in which prices fall) will come. It's tough if not impossible to predict consistently when the trends in the market will change. Part of the difficulty is that psychological effects and speculation can sometimes play a large (if not dominant) role in the markets. The extreme on the high end is a stock-market bubble, and on the low end a crash. The use of "bull" and "bear" to describe markets comes from the way in which each animal attacks its opponents. That is, a bull thrusts its horns up into the air, and a bear swipes its paws down. These actions are metaphors for the movement of a market: if the trend is up, it is considered a bull market. And if the trend is down, it is considered a bear market. The Bears - A market condition in which the prices of securities are falling or are expected to fall. Although figures can vary, a downturn of 15-20% or more in multiple indexes (Dow or S&P 500) is considered an entry into a bear market. When you see a bear what do you do? Tuck in your arms and play dead! Fighting back can be extremely dangerous. It is quite difficult for an investor to make stellar gains during a bear market, unless he or she is a short seller. A bear market is when the economy is bad, recession

is looming and stock prices are falling. Bear markets make it tough for investors to pick profitable stocks. One solution to this is to make money when stocks are falling using a technique called short selling. Another strategy is to wait on the sidelines until you feel that the bear market is nearing its end, only starting to buy in anticipation of a bull market. If a person is pessimistic, believing that stocks are going to drop, he or she is called a "bear" and said to have a "bearish outlook". The Other Animals on the Farm - Chickens and Pigs -Chickens are afraid to lose anything. Their fear overrides their need to make profits and so they turn only to money-market securities or get out of the markets entirely. While it's true that you should never invest in something over which you lose sleep, you are also guaranteed never to see any return if you avoid the market completely and never take any risk, Pigs are high-risk investors looking for the one big score in a short period of time. Pigs buy on hot tips and invest in companies without doing their due diligence. They get impatient, greedy, and emotional about their investments, and they are drawn to high-risk securities without putting in the proper time or money to learn about these investment vehicles. Professional traders love the pigs, as it's often from their losses that the bulls and bears reap their profits. "Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs just get slaughtered!" Yield- In stocks and bonds, the amount of money returned to investors on their investments. Also known as rate of return. The annual income from a SECURITY, expressed as a percentage of the current market PRICE of the security. The yield on a SHARE is its DIVIDEND divided by its price. A BOND yield is also known as its INTEREST RATE: the annual coupon divided by the market price. Yield curve- Shorthand for comparisons of the INTEREST RATE on GOVERNMENT BONDS of different maturity. If investors think it is riskier to buy a bond with 15 years until it matures than a bond with five years of life, they will demand a higher interest rate (YIELD) on the longer-dated bond. If so, the yield curve will slope upwards from left (the shorter maturities) to right. It is normal for the yield curve to be positive (upward sloping, left to right) simply because investors normally demand compensation for the added RISK of holding longer-term SECURITIES. Historically, a downward-sloping (or inverted) yield curve has been an indicator of RECESSION on the horizon, or, at least, that investors expect the CENTRAL BANK to cut shortterm interest rates in the near future. A flat yield curve means that investors are indifferent to maturity risk, but this is unusual. When the yield curve as a whole moves higher, it means that investors are more worried that INFLATION will rise for the foreseeable future and therefore that higher interest rates will be needed. When the whole curve moves lower, it means that investors have a rosier inflationary outlook. Even if the direction (up or down) of a yield curve is unchanged, useful information can be gleaned from changes in the SPREADS between yields on bonds of different maturities and on different sorts of bonds with the same maturity (such as government bonds versus corporate bonds, or thinly traded bonds versus highly liquid bonds). Yield gap- A way of comparing the performance of BONDS and SHARES. The gap is defined as the AVERAGE YIELD on equities minus the average yield on bonds. Because shares are usually riskier investments than bonds, you might expect them to have a higher yield. In practice, the yield gap is often negative, with bonds yielding more than equities. This is not because investors regard equities as safer than bonds (see EQUITY RISK PREMIUM). Rather, it is that they expect most of the benefit from buying shares to come from an increase in their PRICE (CAPITAL appreciation) rather than from DIVIDEND payments. Bond investors usually expect more of their gains to come from coupon payments. They also worry that INFLATION will erode

the REAL VALUE of future coupons, making them value current payments more highly than those due in years to come. Moreover, the usefulness of the dividend yield as a guide to the performance of shares has declined since the early 1990s, as increasingly companies have chosen to return cash to shareholders by buying back their own shares rather than paying out bigger dividends. Capital asset pricing model (CAPM)- An economic theory that describes the relationship between risk and expected return, and serves as a model for the pricing of risky securities. The CAPM asserts that the only risk that is priced by rational investors is systematic risk, because that risk cannot be eliminated by diversification. The CAPM says that the expected return of a security or a portfolio is equal to the rate on a risk-free security plus a risk premium multiplied by the assets systematic risk. Theory was invented by William Sharpe (1964) and John Lintner (1965). The rationale of the CAPM can be simplified as follows. Investors can eliminate some sorts of RISK, known as RESIDUAL RISK or alpha, by holding a diversified portfolio of assets (see MODERN PORTFOLIO THEORY). These alpha risks are specific to an individual asset, for example, the risk that a companys managers will turn out to be no good. Some risks, such as that of a global RECESSION, cannot be eliminated through diversification. So even a basket of all of the SHARES in a stockmarket will still be risky. People must be rewarded for investing in such a risky basket by earning returns on AVERAGE above those that they can get on safer assets, such as TREASURY BILLS. Assuming investors diversify away alpha risks, how an investor values any particular asset should depend crucially on how much the assets PRICE is affected by the risk of the market as a whole. The markets risk contribution is captured by a measure of relative volatility, BETA, which indicates how much an assets price is expected to change when the overall market changes. Safe investments have a beta close to zero: economists call these assets risk free. Riskier investments, such as a share, should earn a premium over the risk-free rate. How much is calculated by the average premium for all assets of that type, multiplied by the particular assets beta. But does the CAPM work? It all comes down to beta, which some economists have found of dubious use. They think the CAPM may be an elegant theory that is no good in practice. Yet it is probably the best and certainly the most widely used method for calculating the cost of capital. Capital controls- government-imposed restrictions on the ability of CAPITAL to move in or out of a country. Examples include limits on foreign INVESTMENT in a countrys FINANCIAL MARKETS, on direct investment by foreigners in businesses or property, and on domestic residents investments abroad. Until the 20th century capital controls were uncommon, but many countries then imposed them. Following the end of the Second World War only Switzerland, Canada and the United States adopted open capital regimes. Other rich countries maintained strict controls and many made them tougher during the 1960s and 1970s. This changed in the 1980s and early 1990s, when most developed countries scrapped their capital controls. The pattern was more mixed in developing countries. Latin American countries imposed lots of them during the debt crisis of the 1980s then scrapped most of them from the late 1980s onwards. Asian countries began to loosen their widespread capital controls in the 1980s and did so more rapidly during the 1990s. In developed countries, there were two main reasons why capital controls were lifted: free markets became more fashionable and financiers became adept at finding ways around the controls. Developing countries later discovered that foreign capital could play a part in financing domestic investment, from roads in Thailand to telecoms systems in Mexico, and,

furthermore, that financial capital often brought with it valuable HUMAN CAPITAL. They also found that capital controls did not work and had unwanted side-effects. Latin Americas controls in the 1980s failed to keep much money at home and also deterred foreign investment. The Asian economic crisis and CAPITAL FLIGHT of the late 1990s revived interest in capital controls, as some Asian governments wondered whether lifting the controls had left them vulnerable to the whims of international speculators, whose money could flow out of a country as fast as it once flowed in. There was also discussion of a Tobin tax on short-term capital movements, proposed by James TOBIN, a winner of the NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS. Even so, they mostly considered only limited controls on short-term capital movements, particularly movements out of a country, and did not reverse the broader 20-year-old process of global financial and economic LIBERALISATION. Mutual Fund- A portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities administered by a team of one or more managers from an investment company who make buy and sell decisions on component securities. Capital is contributed by smaller investors who buy shares in the mutual fund rather than the individual stocks and bonds in its portfolio. The return on the fund's holdings is distributed back to its contributors, or shareholders, minus various fees and commissions. This system allows small investors to participate in the reduced risk of a large and diverse portfolio that they could not otherwise build themselves. They also have the benefit of professional managers overseeing their money who have the time and expertise to analyze and pick securities. There are two types of mutual funds, open and closed-ended. Units in closed-end funds, some of which are listed on Stock Exchanges, are readily transferable in the open market and are bought and sold, like other stock. These funds do not accept new contributions from investors, but only reinvest the return on the existing portfolio. Open-end funds sell their own new shares to investors, stand ready to buy back their old shares, and are not normally listed on exchanges. Open-end funds are so called because their capitalization is not fixed; they issue more units as people want them. Many open-ended funds allow contributors extra perks, such as the ability to write cheques against their units. Also there are several open ended mutual funds which are insurance linked. It is basically marketing with added benefits. Mutual Funds: Different Types of Funds- each mutual fund has different risks and rewards. In general, the higher the potential return, the higher the risk of loss. Although some funds are less risky than others, all funds have some level of risk - it's never possible to diversify away all risk. This is a fact for all investments. Each fund has a predetermined investment objective that tailors the fund's assets, regions of investments and investment strategies. At the fundamental level, there are three varieties of mutual funds: 1) Equity funds (stocks) 2) Fixed-income funds (bonds) 3) Money market funds All mutual funds are variations of these three asset classes. For example, while equity funds that invest in fast-growing companies are known as growth funds, equity funds that invest only in companies of the same sector or region are known as specialty funds. Other fundsMoney Market Funds - The money market consists of short-term debt instruments, mostly Treasury bills. This is a safe place to park your money. You won't get great returns, but you won't have to worry about losing your principal. A typical return is twice the amount you would earn in a regular checking/savings account and a little less than the average certificate of

deposit (CD). Bond/Income Funds - Income funds are named appropriately: their purpose is to provide current income on a steady basis. When referring to mutual funds, the terms "fixed-income," "bond," and "income" are synonymous. These terms denote funds that invest primarily in government and corporate debt. While fund holdings may appreciate in value, the primary objective of these funds is to provide a steady cash flow to investors. As such, the audience for these funds consists of conservative investors and retirees. Bond funds are likely to pay higher returns than certificates of deposit and money market investments, but bond funds aren't without risk. Because there are many different types of bonds, bond funds can vary dramatically depending on where they invest. For example, a fund specializing in high-yield junk bonds is much more risky than a fund that invests in government securities. Furthermore, nearly all bond funds are subject to interest rate risk, which means that if rates go up the value of the fund goes down. Balanced Funds - The objective of these funds is to provide a balanced mixture of safety, income and capital appreciation. The strategy of balanced funds is to invest in a combination of fixed income and equities. A typical balanced fund might have a weighting of 60% equity and 40% fixed income. The weighting might also be restricted to a specified maximum or minimum for each asset class. A similar type of fund is known as an asset allocation fund. Objectives are similar to those of a balanced fund, but these kinds of funds typically do not have to hold a specified percentage of any asset class. The portfolio manager is therefore given freedom to switch the ratio of asset classes as the economy moves through the business cycle. Equity Funds - Funds that invest in stocks represent the largest category of mutual funds. Generally, the investment objective of this class of funds is long-term capital growth with some income. There are, however, many different types of equity funds because there are many different types of equities. The idea is to classify funds based on both the size of the companies invested in and the investment style of the manager. The term value refers to a style of investing that looks for high quality companies that are out of favor with the market. These companies are characterized by low P/E and price-to-book ratios and high dividend yields. The opposite of value is growth, which refers to companies that have had (and are expected to continue to have) strong growth in earnings, sales and cash flow. A compromise between value and growth is blend, which simply refers to companies that are neither value nor growth stocks and are classified as being somewhere in the middle. For example, a mutual fund that invests in largecap companies that are in strong financial shape but have recently seen their share prices fall would be placed in the upper left quadrant of the style box (large and value). The opposite of this would be a fund that invests in startup technology companies with excellent growth prospects. Such a mutual fund would reside in the bottom right quadrant (small and growth). Global/International Funds - An international fund (or foreign fund) invests only outside your home country. Global funds invest anywhere around the world, including your home country. It's tough to classify these funds as either riskier or safer than domestic investments. They do tend to be more volatile and have unique country and/or political risks. But, on the flip side, they can, as part of a well-balanced portfolio, actually reduce risk by increasing diversification. Although the world's economies are becoming more inter-related, it is likely that another economy somewhere is outperforming the economy of your home country.

Specialty Funds - This classification of mutual funds is more of an all-encompassing category that consists of funds that have proved to be popular but don't necessarily belong to the categories we've described so far. This type of mutual fund forgoes broad diversification to concentrate on a certain segment of the economy. Sector funds are targeted at specific sectors of the economy such as financial, technology, health, etc. Sector funds are extremely volatile. There is a greater possibility of big gains, but you have to accept that your sector may tank. Regional funds make it easier to focus on a specific area of the world. This may mean focusing on a region (say Latin America) or an individual country (for example, only Brazil). An advantage of these funds is that they make it easier to buy stock in foreign countries, which is otherwise difficult and expensive. Just like for sector funds, you have to accept the high risk of loss, which occurs if the region goes into a bad recession. Socially-responsible funds (or ethical funds) invest only in companies that meet the criteria of certain guidelines or beliefs. Most socially responsible funds don't invest in industries such as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, weapons or nuclear power. The idea is to get a competitive performance while still maintaining a healthy conscience. Index Funds - The last but certainly not the least important are index funds. This type of mutual fund replicates the performance of a broad market index such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). An investor in an index fund figures that most managers can't beat the market. An index fund merely replicates the market return and benefits investors in the form of low fees. Load Fund- Mutual Fund that is sold for a sales charge by a brokerage firm or other sales representative. Such funds may be stock, bond or commodity funds, with conservative or aggressive objectives. Technical Analysis: The methods used to analyze securities and make investment decisions fall into two very broad categories: fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves analyzing the characteristics of a company in order to estimate its value. Technical analysis takes a completely different approach; it doesn't care one bit about the "value" of a company or a commodity. Technicians (sometimes called chartists) are only interested in the price movements in the market. Despite all the fancy and exotic tools it employs, technical analysis really just studies supply and demand in a market in an attempt to determine what direction, or trend, will continue in the future. In other words, technical analysis attempts to understand the emotions in the market by studying the market itself, as opposed to its components. Fundamental Analysis: Fundamental analysis is the cornerstone of investing. In fact, some would say that you aren't really investing if you aren't performing fundamental analysis. Because the subject is so broad, however, it's tough to know where to start. There are an endless number of investment strategies that are very different from each other, yet almost all use the fundamentals. The biggest part of fundamental analysis involves delving into the financial statements. Also known as quantitative analysis, this involves looking at revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities and all the other financial aspects of a company. Fundamental analysts look at this information to gain insight on a company's future performance. But there is more than just number crunching when it comes to analyzing a company. This is where qualitative analysis comes in - the breakdown of all the intangible, difficult-to-measure aspects of a company. Ratio Analysis: Fundamental Analysis has a very broad scope. One aspect looks at the general (qualitative) factors of a company. The other side considers tangible and measurable factors (quantitative). This means crunching and analyzing numbers from the financial statements. If used in conjunction with other methods, quantitative analysis can produce excellent results.

Ratio analysis isn't just comparing different numbers from the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. It's comparing the number against previous years, other companies, the industry, or even the economy in general. Ratios look at the relationships between individual values and relate them to how a company has performed in the past, and might perform in the future. For example current assets alone don't tell us a whole lot, but when we divide them by current liabilities we are able to determine whether the company has enough money to cover short term debts. Futures Fundamentals: What we know as the futures market of today came from some humble beginnings. Trading in futures originated in Japan during the eighteenth century and was primarily used for the trading of rice and silk. It wasn't until the 1850s that the U.S. started using futures markets to buy and sell commodities such as cotton, corn and wheat. Futures Contract (Futures) - A futures contract is a legally binding agreement to buy or sell commodities or financial securities at a fixed time in the future at a price agreed upon today. The delivery period, quantity and quality of a futures contract is standardized and specified while the price is set at the time a contract is opened and is negotiated between buyers and sellers. Futures are traded either electronically or via open outcry on a trading floor on the Exchange offering the particular contract. It is a type of derivative instrument, or financial contract, in which two parties agree to transact a set of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery at a particular price. If you buy a futures contract, you are basically agreeing to buy something that a seller has not yet produced for a set price. But participating in the futures market does not necessarily mean that you will be responsible for receiving or delivering large inventories of physical commodities - remember, buyers and sellers in the futures market primarily enter into futures contracts to hedge risk or speculate rather than to exchange physical goods (which is the primary activity of the cash/spot market). That is why futures are used as financial instruments by not only producers and consumers but also speculators. The bottom line is that there is no one way to pick stocks. Better to think of every stock strategy as nothing more than an application of a theory - a "best guess" of how to invest. And sometimes two seemingly opposed theories can be successful at the same time. Perhaps just as important as considering theory, is determining how well an investment strategy fits your personal outlook, time frame, risk tolerance and the amount of time you want to devote to investing and picking stocks. At this point, you may be asking yourself why stock-picking is so important. Why worry so much about it? Why spend hours doing it? The answer is simple: wealth. If you become a good stockpicker, you can increase your personal wealth exponentially. Take Microsoft, for example. Had you invested in Bill Gates' brainchild at its IPO back in 1986 and simply held that investment, your return would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000% by spring of 2004. In other words, over an 18-year period, a $10,000 investment would have turned itself into a cool $3.5 million! (In fact, had you had this foresight in the bull market of the late '90s, your return could have been even greater.) With returns like this, it's no wonder that investors continue to hunt for "the next Microsoft". Derivatives- Financial ASSETS that derive their value from other assets. For example, an option to buy a SHARE is derived from the share. Some politicians and others responsible for financial REGULATION blame the growing use of derivatives for increasing VOLATILITY in asset PRICES, and for being a source of danger to their users. Economists mostly regard derivatives as a good thing, allowing more precise pricing of financial RISK and better RISK MANAGEMENT. However, they concede that when derivatives are misused the LEVERAGE that is often an integral part of them can have devastating consequences. So they come with an economists

health warning: if you dont understand it, dont use it. The world of derivatives is riddled with jargon. Here are translations of the most important bits. A forward contract commits the user to buying or selling an asset at a specific price on a specific date in the future. A future is a forward contract that is traded on an exchange. A swap is a contract by which two parties exchange the cashflow linked to a liability or an asset. For example, two companies, one with a loan on a fixed INTEREST RATE over ten years and the other with a similar loan on a floating interest rate over the same period, may agree to take over each others obligations, so that the first pays the floating rate and the second the fixed rate. An option is a contract that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell or buy a particular asset at a particular price, on or before a specified date. An over-the-counter is a derivative that is not traded on an exchange but is purchased from, say, an investment BANK. Exotics are derivatives that are complex or are available in emerging economies. Plain-vanilla derivatives, in contrast to exotics, are typically exchange-traded, relate to developed economies and are comparatively uncomplicated. These underlying assets may be foreign exchange, bonds, equities or commodities. Derivatives traded at exchanges are standardized contracts that have standard delivery dates and trading units. OTC derivatives are customized contracts that enable the parties to select the trading units and delivery dates to suit their requirements.

Market Open/Close Price - It is the last price a particular stock sold for the previous day. Market Price - It is the price a particular stock is currently selling for during the operating hours of the stock market. Moving Average- A rolling set of averages calculated over a time series of values. A Moving Average represents data in a manner that smoothens fluctuations and highlights possible trends Intrinsic Value can be explained as-

1. The value of a company or an asset based on an underlying perception of the value. 2. For call options, this is the difference between the underlying stock's price and the
strike price. For put options, it is the difference between the strike price and the underlying stock's price. In the case of both puts and calls, if the difference between the underlying stock's price and the strike price is negative, the value is given as zero. Intrinsic value includes hidden things like the value of a brand name, which is difficult to calculate. Intrinsic value in options is the in-the-money portion of the option's premium

3. 4.

Doing basic fundamental valuation is quite straightforward; all it takes is a little time and energy. The goal of analyzing a company's fundamentals is to find a stock's intrinsic value, a fancy term for what you believe a stock is really worth - as opposed to the value at which it is being traded in the marketplace. If the intrinsic value is more than the current share price, your analysis is showing that the stock is worth more than its price and that it makes sense to buy the stock. Although there are many different methods of finding the intrinsic value, the premise behind all the strategies is the same: a company is worth the sum of its discounted cash flows. In plain English, this means that a company is worth all of its future profits added together. And these future profits must be discounted to account for the time value of money, that is, the force by which the $1 you receive in a year's time is worth less than $1 you receive today. The idea behind intrinsic value equaling future profits makes sense if you think about how a business provides value for its owner(s). If you have a small business, its worth is the money you can take from the company year after year (not the growth of the stock). And you can take something out of the company only if you have something left over after you pay for supplies and salaries, reinvest in new equipment, and so on. A business is all about profits, plain old revenue minus expenses - the basis of intrinsic value.

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