Junk Bonds: Nickname for high-yield bonds with a Standard & Poor’s rating of ‘BB’ or lower, or a Moody’s rating of ‘Ba’ or lower. Junk bonds have a higher default risk when compared to investment-grade bonds.
Source: Investopedia
Labor Participation Rate
Labor Participation Rate: This is a measure of the active segment of the economy’s labor force. This number takes in account the amount of people working or those actively looking for employment. The labor participation rate decreases when discouraged unemployed people stop looking for work, which often happens during a recession.
Source: Investopedia, Ferguson Wellman, Wikipedia
Large Cap
Large Cap: Large Cap is an abbreviation for the term "large market capitalization" and refers to the companies with a market capitalization value of more than $10 billion. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the number of a company's shares outstanding by its stock price per share. Large cap companies tend to be more established with less risk than small or mid-cap stocks.
Sources: Investopedia, Ferguson Wellman
Main Street
Margin:
Marginal Lending Facility
Marginal Lending Facility: Within the Eurosytem, a national central bank credit facility that is available to any party transacting with the central bank to receive overnight credit at a pre-specified interest rate using eligible collateral. With the new rates announced by the ECB, banks will pay a lower rate when they borrow money from the ECB.
Source: European Central Bank Online Glossary
Mature Market:
Mcf:
Mcf: An abbreviation denoting a thousand cubic feet of natural gas. It’s a unit of measurement for natural gas wells; for example, one that produces 600 Mcf of gas per day operates with a daily production rate of 600,000. A single Mcf is equal to approximately 1,000,000 British thermal units (Btu) of energy. The "M" in Mcf refers to one thousand, as in the ancient Roman letter M. One million cubic feet is instead denoted as MMcf.
Source: Investopedia
Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS)
Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS): A security backed by a mortgage or group of mortgages that represents a claim to the cash flow from the mortgage or group of mortgages, essentially a loan to a home buyer or business from a shareholder. Typically, the mortgage payments are passed through the shareholders on the way to repayment, meaning shareholders will get regular payments of interest and principal.
Source: Investopedia, SEC.gov, PIMCO.com
Net Interest Margin
New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange: The world’s largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at around $14.2 trillion, with average trading volume at more than $150 billion. Founded in 1792 by 24 stockbrokers under a buttonwood tree, it is now operated by NYSE EuroNext, a fully electronic stock exchange.
Source: Wikipedia
ObamaCare
ObamaCare: An informal term for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010—legislation promoted by President Barack Obama that changed how health insurance functions in the U.S. ObamaCare expanded eligibility of Medicaid and required most Americans to purchase health insurance. It also set up exchanges in several states so insurers could compete to provide the most cost-effective options for consumers. Proponents believe ObamaCare makes health insurance more affordable. Critics feel it is too expensive and requires too much government involvement in the U.S. economy.
Source: The Free Dictionary
OPEC
OPEC: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a cartel of 12 oil producing nations (about to be 13 with the pending inclusion of Indonesia) created to help manage the world supply of oil and its price. The twelve member countries include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Sources: Investopedia, Wikipedia
Operation Twist
Operation Twist: the name given to a Federal Reserve tactic to flatten the yield curve of the government debt by using the Open Market Operation to buy long term debt and sell short term debt. This monetary policy operation has been used twice inU.S. history. The first time was in 1961 and the second was in 2011. In September 2011, the Fed performed Operation Twist in an effort to lower long-term interest rates. In this case, the Fed sold short-term Treasury bonds and bought long-term Treasury bonds, which pressured the long-term bond yields downward.
Sources: Investopedia, wikinvest
Overweight
Pound Sterling
Pound Sterling: The pound sterling is the official term for the currency of the United Kingdom. It is commonly known as the pound. It is thought to be the world’s oldest currency still in circulation. It originated sometime during the 760s when King Offa of present-day Staffordshire introduced the silver penny into the coin currency of the time. The surrounding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms also adopted it after time and it eventually became the standard monetary unit of the region.
Sources: Wikipedia, Pounds to Pocket, BBC
Property and Casualty Insurers
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI): comprises five economic indicators. They include new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and employment. It’s a good indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector. A PMI of more than 50 represents expansion of the manufacturing sector, compared to the previous month, and under 50 represents a contraction, while a reading at 50 indicates no change.
Source: Investopedia
Quantitative Easing (QE)
QE3
QE3: An acronym for the third round ofquantitative easing developed by the Federal Reserve. It is an unconventional monetary policy designed to increase the supply of excess lendable reserves and support bank lending. In this case, the Fed will buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by government-supported housing agencies.
Source: MarketWatch