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Labour Force
The sum of the population aged 15 years and over who are either employed or unemployed.

Labour Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations (LSVCC)
LSVCCs are investment funds, sponsored by labour organizations, that have a specific mandate to invest in small to medium-sized businesses. To encourage this mandate, governments offer generous tax credits to investors in LSVCCs.

Lagging Indicators
A selection of statistical data, that on average, indicate highs and lows in the business cycle behind the economy as a whole. These relate to business expenditures for new plant and equipment, consumers' instalment credit, short-term business loans, the overall value of manufacturing and trade inventories.

Large Value Transfer System (LVTS)
A Canadian Payments Association electronic system for the transfer of large value payments between participating financial institutions.

Leading Indicators
A selection of statistical data that, on average, indicate highs and lows in the business cycle ahead of the economy as a whole. These relate to employment, capital investment, business starts and failures, profits, stock prices, inventory adjustment, housing starts and certain commodity prices.

LEAPS
Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities are long-term (2-3 year) option contracts.

Leverage
The effect of fixed charges (i.e., debt interest or preferred dividends, or both) on per-share earnings of common stock. Increases or decreases in income before fixed charges result in magnified percentage increases or decreases in earnings per common share. Leverage also refers to seeking magnified percentage returns on an investment by using borrowed funds, margin accounts or securities which require payment of only a fraction of the underlying security's value (such as rights, warrants or options).

Liabilities
Debts or obligations of a company, usually divided into current liabilities—those due and payable within one year—and long-term liabilities—those payable after one year. A balance sheet category.

Liability Traders
Have the responsibility to manage a dealer's trading capital to encourage market flows and facilitate the client orders that go into the market, while aiming to lose as little of that capital as possible. Liability traders can be considered those who set the direction for agency traders. Whereas agency traders have formal client responsibilities, liability traders have lighter responsibilities or none at all.

Life Cycle
A model used in financial planning that tries to link age with investing. The underlying theory is that an individual's asset mix will change, as they grow older. However the life cycle is not a substitute for the "know your client rule".

Limit Order
A client's order to buy or sell securities at a specific price or better. The order will only be executed if the market reaches or betters that price.

Limited Liability
The word limited at the end of a Canadian company's name implies that liability of the company's shareholders is limited to the money they paid to buy the shares. By contrast, ownership by a sole proprietor or partnership carries unlimited personal legal responsibility for debts incurred by the business.

Limited Partnership
A type of partnership whereby a limited partner cannot participate in the daily business activity and liability is limited to the partner's investment.

Liquidity
1. The ability of the market in a particular security to absorb a reasonable amount of buying or selling at reasonable price changes. 2. A corporation's current assets relative to its current liabilities; its cash position.

Liquidity Preference Theory
A theory that tries to explain the shape of the yield curve. It postulates that investors want to invest for the short-term because they are risk averse. Borrowers, however, want long-term money. In order to entice investors to invest long-term, borrowers must offer higher rates for longer-term money. This being the case, the yield curve should slope upwards reflecting the higher rates for longer borrowing periods.

Liquidity Ratios
Financial ratios that are used to judge the company's ability to meet its short-term commitments. See Current Ratio.

Liquidity Risk
The risk that an investor will not be able to buy or sell a security quickly enough because buying or selling opportunities are limited.

Listed Stock
The stock of a company which is traded on a stock exchange.

Listing Agreement
A stock exchange document published when a company's shares are accepted for listing. It provides basic information on the company, its business, management, assets, capitalization and financial status.

Load
The portion of the offering price of shares of most open-end investment companies (mutual funds) which covers sales commissions and all other costs of distribution.

London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR)
The rate of interest charged by large international banks dealing in Eurodollars to other large international banks.

Long Position
Signifies ownership of securities. "I am long 100 BCE common" means that the speaker owns 100 common shares of BCE Inc.

Long-Term Bond
A bond with greater than 10 years remaining to maturity.