Financial Dictionary

Used in the context of general equities. Level of priority in the trading crowd.

Amount paid to an underwriter who agrees to purchase any stock that is not subscribed to the public investor in a rights offering.

In a rights issue, agreement that the underwriter will purchase any stock not purchased by investors.

Also called the normal deviate, the distance of one data point from the mean, divided by the standard deviation of the distribution.

A normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.

In statistics, a measure of the possible error in an estimate. Plus or minus 2 standard errors usually provides a 95% confidence interval.

The square root of the variance. A measure of dispersion of a set of data from their mean.

Used in the context of general equities. Standard & Poors Corporation.

Investment principle that states a firm should accept or reject a project by comparing it with securities in the same risk class.

Mainly applies to international equities. Taxes on foreign transactions, usually a percentage of total transaction amount, that can be unilateral or bilateral in nature.