Investment Terms: B
Description
This article is from the Investment
Terms.
Investment Terms: B
- Balance of Payment:
A summary of the international
transactions of a country over a period of time including commodity
and service transactions, capital transactions, and gold movements.
- Bar Chart:
A chart that graphs the high, low, and
settlement prices for a specific trading session over a given period
of time.
- Basis:
The difference between the current cash price
and the futures price of the same commodity. Unless otherwise
specified, the price of the nearby futures contract month is generally
used to calculate the basis.
- Bear:
Someone who thinks market prices will decline.
- Bear Market:
A period of declining market prices.
- Bear Spread:
In most commodities and financial
instruments, the term refers to selling the nearby contract month, and
buying the deferred contract, to profit from a change in the price
relationship.
- Bid:
An expression indicating a desire to buy a
commodity at a given price; opposite of offer.
- Board of Trade Clearing Corporation:
An independent
corporation that settles all trades made at the Chicago Board of Trade
acting as a guarantor for all trades cleared by it, reconciles all
clearing member firm accounts each day to ensure that all gains have
been credited and all losses have been collected, and sets and adjusts
clearing member firm margins for changing market conditions. Also
referred to as clearing corporation. See Clearinghouse.
- Book Entry Securities:
Electronically recorded
securities that include each creditor's name, address, Social Security
or tax identification number, and dollar amount loaned, (i.e., no
certificates are issued to bond holders, instead, the transfer agent
electronically credits interest payments to each creditor's bank
account on a designated date).
- Broker:
A company or individual that executes futures
and options orders on behalf of financial and commercial institutions
and/or the general public.
- Brokerage Fee:
See Commission Fee.
- Brokerage House:
See Futures Commission Merchant.
- Bull:
Someone who thinks market prices will rise.
- Bull Market:
A period of rising market prices.
- Bull Spread:
In most commodities and financial
instruments, the term refers to buying the nearby month, and selling
the deferred month, to profit from the change in the price
relationship.
- Butterfly Spread:
The placing of two interdelivery
spreads in opposite directions with the center delivery month common
to both spreads.
- Buying Hedge:
See Purchasing Hedge.
 
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