Investment Terms: P
Description
This article is from the Investment
Terms.
Investment Terms: P
- P&S (Purchase and Sale) Statement:
A statement sent by
a commission house to a customer when his futures or options on
futures position has changed, showing the number of contracts bought
or sold, the prices at which the contracts were bought or sold, the
gross profit or loss, the commission charges, and the net profit or
loss on the transactions.
- Par:
The face value of a security. For example, a bond
selling at par is worth the same dollar amount it was issued for or at
which it will be redeemed at maturity.
- Payment-In-Kind (PIK) Program:
A government program in
which farmers who comply with a voluntary acreage-control program and
set aside an additional percentage of acreage specified by the
government receive certificates that can be redeemed for
government-owned stocks of grain.
- Performance Bond Margin:
The amount of money deposited
by both a buyer and seller of a futures contract or an options seller
to ensure performance of the term of the contract. Margin in
commodities is not a payment of equity or down payment on the
commodity itself, but rather it is a security deposit. See Customer
Margin and Clearing Margin.
- Pit:
The area on the trading floor where futures and
options on futures contracts are bought and sold. Pits are usually
raised octagonal platforms with steps descending on the inside that
permit buyers and sellers of contracts to see each other.
- Point-and-Figure Charts:
Charts that show price
changes of a minimum amount regardless of the time period involved.
- Position:
A market commitment. A buyer of a futures
contract is said to have a long position and, conversely, a seller of
futures contracts is said to have a short position.
- Position Day:
According to the Chicago Board of Trade
rules, the first day in the process of making or taking delivery of
the actual commodity on a futures contract. The clearing firm
representing the seller notifies the Board of Trade Clearing
Corporation that its short customers want to deliver on a futures
contract.
- Position Limit:
The maximum number of speculative
futures contracts one can hold as determined by the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission and/or the exchange upon which the contract is
traded. Also referred to as trading limit.
- Position Trader:
An approach to trading in which the
trader either buys or sells contracts and holds them for an extended
period of time.
- Positive Yield Curve:
See Yield Curve.
- Premium:
(1) The additional payment allowed by
exchange regulation for delivery of higher-than-required standards or
grades of a commodity against a futures contract. (2) In speaking of
price relationships between different delivery months of a given
commodity, one is said to be ""trading at a premium" over another when
its price is greater than that of the other. (3) In financial
instruments, the dollar amount by which a security trades above its
principal value. See Option
Premium.
- Price Discovery:
The generation of information about
""future'' cash market prices through the futures markets.
- Price Limit:
The maximum advance or decline from the
previous day's settlement price permitted for a contract in one
trading session by the rules of the exchange. See also Variable Limit.
- Price Limit Order:
A customer order that specifies the
price at which a trade can be executed.
- Primary Dealer:
A designation given by the Federal
Reserve System to commercial banks or broker/dealers who meet specific
criteria. Among the criteria are capital requirements and meaningful
participation in the Treasury auctions.
- Primary Market:
Market of new issues of securities.
- Prime Rate:
Interest rate charged by major banks to
their most creditworthy customers.
- Producer Price Index (PPI):
An index that shows the
cost of resources needed to produce manufactured goods during the
previous month.
- Pulpit:
A raised structure adjacent to, or in the
center of, the pit or ring at a futures exchange where market
reporters, employed by the exchange, record price changes as they
occur in the trading pit.
- Purchasing Hedge (or Long Hedge):
Buying futures
contracts to protect against a possible price increase of cash
commodities that will be purchased in the future. At the time the cash
commodities are bought, the open futures position is closed by selling
an equal number and type of futures contracts as those that were
initially purchased. Also referred to as a buying hedge. See Hedging.
- Put Option:
An option that gives the option buyer the
right but not the obligation to sell (go "short'') the underlying
futures contract at the strike price on or before the expiration date.
 
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