A vanishing premium policy is a form of permanent life insurance in which a consumer can use the dividends from such a policy to pay the premium. Over time, the cash value of the policy increases to the point where dividends earned by the policyholder equal the premium payment. At this point, the premium is said to disappear, or vanish.
A shooting star is a bearish candlestick with a long upper shadow, little or no lower shadow, and a small real body near the low of the day. It appears after an uptrend. Said differently, a shooting star is a type of candlestick that forms when a security opens, advances significantly, but then closes the day near the open again.
The interest coverage ratio is a debt ratio and profitability ratio used to determine how easily a company can pay interest on its outstanding debt. The interest coverage ratio may be calculated by dividing a company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) during a given period by the company’s interest payments due within the same period.
The Kelly criterion is a mathematical formula relating to the long-term growth of capital developed by John L. Kelly, Jr. The formula was developed by Kelly while working at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories. The formula is currently used by gamblers and investors for risk and money management purposes, to determine what percentage of their bankroll/capital should be used in each bet/trade to maximize long-term growth.
Wholesale insurance refers to coverage for employer groups that are too small to qualify for true group coverage. A wholesale insurance policy is also known as franchise insurance. It covers an entire group, though individual policies are written for each person that is to be insured. These kind of policies are offered by nonadmitted carriers, or insurance companies that aren’t approved by the state’s insurance department.
Nominal is a common financial term with several different meanings. In the first, it means very small or far below the real value or cost. In finance, this adjective modifies words such as a fee or charge. A nominal fee is below the price of the service provided or presumably easy for a consumer to afford, or a fee that is small enough that it does not have any meaningful impact on one’s finances. Nominal may also refer to a rate that’s been unadjusted.
An upstairs market describes the trading of securities, such as stocks, that occurs within a broker-dealer firm instead of at an exchange, such as a stock exchange, or between two broker-dealers in the over-the-counter (OTC) market. In an upstairs market transaction, the broker-dealer typically represents both parties (buyer and seller).
Household income is the combined gross income of all members of a household who are 15 years or older. Individuals do not have to be related in any way to be considered members of the same household. Household income is an important risk measure used by lenders for underwriting loans, as well as a useful economic indicator of an area’s standard of living.
An unfunded pension plan is an employer-managed retirement plan that uses the employer’s current income to fund pension payments as they become necessary.1 This is in contrast to an advance funded pension plan where an employer sets aside funds systematically and in advance to cover any pension plan expenses such as payments to retirees and their beneficiaries.2
Naked shorting is the illegal practice of short selling shares that have not been affirmatively determined to exist. Ordinarily, traders must borrow a stock, or determine that it can be borrowed, before they sell it short. So naked shorting refers to short pressure on a stock that may be larger than the tradable shares in the market. Despite being made illegal after the 2008-09 financial crisis, naked shorting continues to happen because of loopholes in rules and discrepancies between paper and electronic trading systems.