Early exercise of an options contract is the process of buying or selling shares of stock under the terms of that option contract before its expiration date. For call options, the options holder can demand that the options seller sell shares of the underlying stock at the strike price. For put options, it is the converse, where the options holder may demand that the options seller buy shares of the underlying stock at the strike price.
A no-load fund is a mutual fund in which shares are sold without a commission or sales charge. This absence of fees occurs because the shares are distributed directly by the investment company, instead of going through a secondary party. This absence of a sales charges is the opposite of a load fund—either front-load or back-load—which charges a commission at the time of the fund’s purchase or sale. Also, some mutual funds are level-load funds where fees continue for as long as the investor holds the fund.
Binomial distribution is a probability distribution that summarizes the likelihood that a value will take one of two independent values under a given set of parameters or assumptions. The underlying assumptions of the binomial distribution are that there is only one outcome for each trial, that each trial has the same probability of success, and that each trial is mutually exclusive, or independent of each other.
Ultrafast trading is a method of trading stocks by using computers and algorithms to execute trades within milliseconds of market changes.
A load fund is a mutual fund that comes with a sales charge or commission. The fund investor pays the load, which goes to compensate a sales intermediary, such as a broker, financial planner or investment advisor, for his time and expertise in selecting an appropriate fund for the investor. The load is either paid up front at the time of purchase (front-end load), when the shares are sold (back-end load), or as long as the fund is held by the investor (level-load).
Asymmetric information, also known as information failure, occurs when one party to an economic transaction possesses greater material knowledge than the other party. This typically manifests when the seller of a good or service possesses greater knowledge than the buyer; however, the reverse dynamic is also possible. Almost all economic transactions involve information asymmetries.
Yield on Cost (YOC) is a measure of dividend yield calculated by dividing a stock’s current dividend by the price initially paid for that stock. For example, if an investor purchased a stock five years ago for $20, and its current dividend is $1.50 per share, then the YOC for that stock would be 7.5%.
Tenancy by the entirety is a type of concurrent estate in real property that occurs when the owners of the property are married. Each spouse has an equal and undivided interest in the property. In essence, each spouse mutually owns the entire estate. In the event that one spouse dies, the full title of the property automatically passes to the surviving spouse. A tenancy by the entirety permits spouses to jointly own property as a single legal entity.
A portfolio manager is a person or group of people responsible for investing a mutual, exchange-traded or closed-end fund’s assets, implementing its investment strategy and managing day-to-day portfolio trading. A portfolio manager is one of the most important factors to consider when looking at fund investing. Portfolio management can be active or passive, and historical performance records indicate that only a minority of active fund managers consistently beat the market.
Jesse L. Livermore rose from a humble farming background to become a stock trader in Boston. Over the course of his career, he won and lost several fortunes in many arenas. A self-made man with no formal education or trading background, Livermore focused on making money from the overall market directions and not concentrating on individual stocks. His strategies were based on a combination of price patterns and volume analysis.