A

[ A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ ]

Accounts Payable
Money owed by a company for goods or services purchased, payable within one year. A current liability on the balance sheet.

Accounts Receivable
Money owed to a company for goods or services it has sold, for which payment is expected within one year. A current asset on the balance sheet.

Accredited Investor
An individual or institutional investor who meets certain minimum requirement relating to income, net worth, or investment knowledge. Also referred to as a sophisticated investor.

Accrued Interest
Interest accumulated on a bond or debenture since the last interest payment date.

Adjusted Cost Base
The deemed cost of an asset representing the sum of the amount originally paid plus any additional costs, such as brokerage fees and commissions.

Advance-Decline Line
A tool used in technical analysis to measure the breadth of the market. The analyst takes difference between the number of stocks that increased in value each day less the number that have decreased.

Affiliated Company
A company with less than 50% of its shares owned by another corporation, or one whose stock, with that of another corporation, is owned by the same controlling interests.

After Acquired Clause
A protective clause found in a bond's indenture or contract that binds the bond issuer to pledging all subsequently purchased assets as part of the collateral for a bond issue.

After Market
See Secondary Market.

Agency Traders
Manage trades for institutional clients. They do not trade the dealer member's capital, and they trade only when acting on behalf of clients. Agency traders do not merely take orders; they must manage institutional orders with minimal market impact and act as the client's eyes and ears for relevant market intelligence.

Agent
An investment dealer operates as an agent when it acts on behalf of a buyer or a seller of a security and does not itself own title to the securities at any time during the transactions. See also Principal.

All or None Order (AON)
An order that must be executed in its entirety – partial fills will not be accepted.

Allocation
The administrative procedure by which income generated by the segregated fund's investment portfolio is fl owed through to the individual contract holders of the fund.

Alpha
A statistical measure of the value a fund manager adds to the performance of the fund managed. If alpha is positive, the manager has added value to the portfolio. If the alpha is negative, the manager has underperformed the market.

Alternative Trading Systems (ATS)
Privately-owned computerized networks that match orders for securities outside of recognized exchange facilities. Also referred to as Proprietary Electronic Trading Systems (PETS).

American Option
An option that can be exercised at any time during the option's lifetime. See also European Option.

Amortization
Gradually writing off the value of an intangible asset over a period of time. Commonly applied to items such as goodwill, improvements to leased premises, or expenses of a new stock or bond issue. See also Depreciation.

Annual Information Form (AIF)
A document in which an issuer is required to disclose information about presently known trends, commitments, events or uncertainties that are reasonably expected to have a material impact on the issuer's business, financial condition or results of operations. Although investors are typically not provided with the AIF, the prospectus must state that it is available on request.

Annual Report
The formal financial statements and report on operations issued by a company to its shareholders after its fiscal year-end.

Annuitant
Person on whose life the maturity and death benefit guarantees are based. It can be the contract holder or someone else designated by the contract holder. In registered plans, the annuitant and contract holder must be the same person.

Annuity
A contract usually sold by life insurance companies that guarantees an income to the beneficiary or annuitant at some time in the future. The income stream can be very flexible. The original purchase price may be either a lump sum or a stream of payments. See Deferred Annuity and Immediate Annuity.

Any Part Order
A type of order in which the client will accept all stock in odd, broken or standard trading units up to the full amount of the order.

Approved Participants
See Participating Organization.

Arbitrage
The simultaneous purchase of a security on one stock exchange and the sale of the same security on another exchange at prices which yield a profit to the arbitrageur.

Arbitration
A method of dispute resolution in which an independent arbitrator is chosen to assist aggrieved parties recover damages.

Arrears
Interest or dividends that were not paid when due but are still owed. For example, dividends owed but not paid to cumulative preferred shareholders accumulate in a separate account (arrears). When payments resume, dividends in arrears must be paid to the preferred shareholders before the common shareholders.

Ask
The lowest price a seller will accept for the financial instrument being quoted. See also Bid.

Asset
Everything a company or a person owns or has owed to it. A balance sheet category.

Asset Allocation
Apportioning investment funds among different categories of assets, such as cash, fixed income securities and equities. The allocation of assets is built around an investor's risk tolerance.

Asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP)
A type of security that has a maturity date of less than one year, typically in the range of 90 to 180 days, with a legal and design structure of an asset-backed security.

Asset Mix
The percentage distribution of assets in a portfolio among the three major asset classes: cash and equivalents, fixed income and equities.

Assignment
The random process by which the clearing corporation allocates the exercise of an option to a member firm. A client of that member firm is then chosen to fulfill the obligation taken on when the option was written, by: in the case of a put, purchasing the underlying security from the put holder; or, in the case of a call, delivering the underlying security to the call holder. See also Exercise.

Assuris
A not for profit company whose member firms are issuers of life-insurance contracts and whose mandate is to provide protection to contract holders against the insolvency of a member company,

At-the-Money
An option with a strike price equal to (or almost equal to) the market price of the underlying security. See also Out-of-the money and In-the-money.

Attribution Rules
A Canada Revenue Agency rule stating that an investor cannot avoid paying taxes at their marginal rate by transferring assets to other family members who have lower personal tax rates.

Auction Market
Market in which securities are bought and sold by brokers acting as agents for their clients, in contrast to a dealer market where trades are conducted over-the-counter. For example, the Toronto Stock Exchange is an auction market.

Auction Preferred Shares
A type of preferred share that offers a dividend rate determined by an auction between the holder and the issuer.

Audit
A professional review and examination of a company's financial statements required under corporate law for the purpose of ensuring that the statements are fair, consistent and conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Authorized Shares
The maximum number of common (or preferred) shares that a corporation may issue under the terms of its charter.

Automatic Stabilizers
Elements in the economy which mitigate the extremes of the business cycle by running counter to it. Example: government payouts for unemployment insurance in recessionary periods.

Autorité des marchés financiers(Financial Services Authority) (AMF)
The body that administers the regulatory framework surrounding Québec's financial sector: securities sector, the distribution of financial products and services sector, the financial institutions sector and the compensation sector.

Averages
A statistical tool used to measure the direction of the market. The most common average is the Dow Jones Industrial Average.