Business / Finance Glossary

Difference From S and P: Short version of Euro rate differential, which is a Chicago Mercantile Exchange Futures contract that is founded on the interest rate spread between the U.S. dollar and the British pound, th . . . View Full Definition

Differential: A mutual fund's return minus the change in the Standard & Poor's 500 index for the same time period. A notation of -5.00 means the fund return is 5 percentage points less than the gain in th . . . View Full Definition

Differential Disclosure: A small charge, typically 1/8 point, added to the purchase price and subtracted from the selling price by the dealer for odd-lot quantities.

Differential Swap: The practice of reporting conflicting or markedly different information in official corporate statements including annual and quarterly reports and 10-Ks and 10-Qs.

Diffusion Process: Swap between two LIBOR rates of interest, e.g., yen LIBOR for dollar LIBOR Payments are in one currency.

Digits Deleted: A conception of the way a stock's price changes that assumes that the price takes on all intermediate values.

Dilution: Designation on securities exchange tape meaning that because the tape has been delayed, some digits have been dropped (e.g., 26 1/2 becomes 6 1/2).

Dilution Protection: Diminution in the proportion of income to which each share is entitled.

Dilutive Effect: Standard provision that changes the conversion ratio in the case of a stock dividend or extraordinary distribution to avoid dilution of a convertible bondholder's potential equity position. . . . View Full Definition

Dip: Result of a transaction that decreases earnings per common share (EPS).

Direct Costs: Slight drop in securities prices after a sustained uptrend. Analystsoften advise investors to buy on dips, meaning to buy when a price is momentarily weak. See: Correction, break, crash.

Direct Estimate Method: Expenses, such as labor, overhead, and materials, that vary in direct proportion to units produced or services rendered.

Direct Investment: A method of cash budgeting based on detailed estimates of cash receipts and cash disbursements category by category.

Direct Labor: The purchase of a controlling interest in a company or at least enough interest to have enough influence to direct the course of the company.

Direct Lease: Wages paid for activities directly related to production of units sold or services delivered, considered part of cost of sales. This does not include management and administrative salaries, . . . View Full Definition

Direct Overhead: Contract in which a lessor purchases new equipment from the manufacturer and leases it to the lessee.

Direct Paper: A fraction of overhead costs devoted to the manufacturing sector of a firm to cover expenses such as rent and utilities.

Direct Participation Program: Commercial paper sold directly by the issuer to investors.

Direct Placement: An investment program enabling investors to directly participate in the cash_flow and tax benefits of the partnership invested in by the investor, typically a form of passive investment.

Direct Quote: Selling a new issue not by offering it for sale publicly, but by placing it with one of several institutional investors.

Direct Search Market: For foreign exchange, the number of U.S. dollars needed to buy one unit of a foreign currency.

Direct Stock-Purchase Programs: Buyers and sellers seek each other directly and transact directly.

Directorship: Investors purchase securities directly from the issuer.

Dirty Float: Used in the context of general equities. Stock status whereby a trader may not maintain positions in the security, due to an investment bank employee serving as a director on the corporation . . . View Full Definition

Dirty Price: A system of floating exchange rates in which a government may intervene to change the direction of the value of the country's currency.

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