Business / Finance Glossary

Indicator: A dealer's or investor's interest in purchasing (not commitment to buy) securities that are still in the underwriting stage and are being registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Indifference Curve: Used in the context of general equities. Technical or fundamental measurement that securities analysts use to forecast the market's direction, such as investment advisory sentiment, volume o . . . View Full Definition

Indirect Quote: The expression in a graph of a utility function, where the horizontal axis measures risk and the vertical axis measures expected return. The curve connects all portfolios with the same utility.

Individual Retirement Account (IRA): For foreign exchange, the number of units of a foreign currency needed to buy one U.S. dollar.

Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Rollover: A retirement account that may be established by an employed person. IRA contributions are tax deductible according to certain guidelines, and the gains in the account are tax-deferred.

Individual Tax Return: A provision of the law governing IRA's that enables a retiree or anyone receiving a lump-sum payment from a pension, profit-sharing, or salary reduction plan to transfer the amount into an IRA.

Inductive Reasoning: A tax return filed by an individual to account for their personal income and taxes payable.

Industrial Production: The attempt to use information about a specific situation to draw a conclusion.

Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB): A statistic determined by the Federal Reserve Board focusing on the total output of all U.S. factories and mines on a monthly basis. Used as an economic indicator.

Industrials: A bond issued by local government agencies on behalf of corporations.

Industry: General term used in the financial markets to refer to companies manufacturing, producing, or distributing goods and services.

Infant Industry Argument: The category describing a company's primary business activity. This category is usually determined by the largest portion of revenue.

Inflation: Argument that industries in the developing and emerging sectors of the economy need protection against international competition in order to establish themselves.

Inflation Accounting: The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising.

Inflation Hedge: Accounting practices allowing for the effects of inflation.

Inflation Risk: Investments designed to hedge against inflation and the loss of purchasing power associated with it.

Inflation Uncertainty: Also called purchasing power risk, the risk that changes in the real return the investor will realize after adjusting for inflation will be negative.

Inflation-Escalator Clause: The fact that future inflation rates are not known. It is a possible contributing factor to the makeup of the term structure of interest rates.

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