Business / Finance Glossary

Beneath: Used for listed equity securities. 1) Behind; 2) Lower in price.

Beneficial Ownership: Often used in risk arbitrage. Person who enjoys the benefits of ownership even though title is in another name. (Abused through the illegal use of a parking violation.)

Beneficiary: Term used to refer to the person who receives the benefits of a trust or the recipient of the proceeds of a life insurance policy.

Benefits: The total amount of indirect compensation that the business will provide to employees for each forecast year. Benefits are either statutory, such as payroll taxes and worker's compensation; . . . View Full Definition

Best-Efforts Sale: A method of securities distribution/underwriting in which the securities firm agrees to sell as much of the offering as possible and return any unsold shares to the issuer. As opposed to a g . . . View Full Definition

Best-Interests-Of-Creditors Test: The requirement that a claim holder voting against a plan of reorganization must receive at least as much as if the debtor were liquidated.

Bests Rating: A rating A.M. Best Co. assigns to insurance companies based on the company's ability to meet its obligations to its policyholders.

Beta: The measure of a fund's or a stock's risk in relation to the market or to an alternative benchmark. A beta of 1.5 means that a stock's excess return is expected to move 1.5 times the market . . . View Full Definition

Beta Equation (Security): The market beta of a security is determined as follows: Regress excess returns of stock y on excess returns of the market. The slope coefficient is beta. Define n as number of observation nu . . . View Full Definition

Bi-Weekly Mortgage Loan: A mortgage loan on which interest and principal payments are made every half-month (total of 26 payments) as opposed to monthly payments. This results in earlier loan retirement.

Biased Expectations Theories: Related: Pure expectations theory.

Bid: The price a potential buyer is willing to pay for a security. Sometimes also used in the context of takeovers where one corporation is bidding for (trying to buy) another corporation. In tra . . . View Full Definition

Bid Away: Refers to over-the-counter trading. Bid from another dealer exists at the same (listed) or higher (O.T.C.) price.

Bid Price: This is the quoted bid, or the highest price an investor is willing to pay to buy a security. Practically speaking, this is the available price at which an investor can sell shares of stock. . . . View Full Definition

Bid Wanted: Used in the context of general equities. Announcement that a holder of securities wants to sell and will entertain bids.

Bid-Asked Spread: The difference between the bid and the asked prices.

Bid-To-Cover Ratio: The ratio of the number of bids received in a Treasury security auction compared to the number of accepted bids.

Bidder: A firm or person that wants to buy a firm or security.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314