| N | Fifth letter in a Nasdaq stock symbol specifying that the issue is the company's third class of preferred shares. |
| NA | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NAMIBIA. |
| NAD | The ISO 4217 currency code for the Namibian Dollar. |
| Nagoya Stock Exchange | Established after World War II, one of the three major securities markets in Japan. |
| Naive diversification | A strategy whereby an investor simply invests in a number of different assets in the hope that the variance of the expected return on the portfolio is lowered. In contrast, mathematical programming can be used to select the best possible investment weights. Related: Markowitz diversification. |
| Naked option strategies | An unhedgedstrategy making exclusive use of one of the following: Shortcallstrategy (selling or writing call options), and short put strategy (selling or writing put options). By themselves, these positions are called naked strategies because they do not involve an offsetting or risk-reducing position in another option or the underlying security. Related: Covered option strategies. Antithesis of covered option. |
| Naked strategies | Writing an option without owning the underlying asset. Holder is naked because holder may have agreed to sell something not owned. |
| Naked writer | See Uncovered call writing and Uncovered put writing. |
| Named perils insurance | An insurance policy that names specific risks covered by the policy. |
| Narrow market | An inactive market, which displays large fluctuations in prices due to a low volume of trading. |
| Narrow-Based | Generally referring to an index, it indicates that the index is composed of only a few stocks, generally in a specific industry group. See also broad-based. |
| Narrowing the spread | Reducing the difference between the bid and ask prices of a security. |
| NASD | See: National Association of Securities Dealers |
| NASD form FR-1 | A form required by the NASD of foreign dealers to ensure that firms participating in a new distribution of securities make a bona fide public offering. |
| Nasdaq | See: National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System |
| Nasdaq small-capitalization companies | A group of 2000 companies with relatively small capitalization, which are listed separately and have at least two market makers. |
| Nasdaq stock market | The first electronic stock marketlisting over 5000 companies. The Nasdaq stock market comprises two separate markets, namely the Nasdaq National Market, which trades large, activesecurities and the Nasdaq Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies. |
| National Association of Investors Corporation | A Michigan-based association that helps groups establish investment clubs. |
| National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) | Nonprofit organization formed under the joint sponsorship of the investment bankers' conference and the SEC to comply with the Maloney Act, which provides for the regulation of the OTC market. |
| National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (Nasdaq) | An electronic quotation system that provides price quotations to market participants about the more activelytradedcommon stockissues in the OTC market. About 4000 common stockissues are included in the Nasdaq system. |
| National bank | A commercial bank approved by the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, which is required to be a member of and purchasestocks in the Federal Reserve System. |
| National Credit Union Administration | Federal agency that oversees and insures the federal credit union system, and is funded by its members. |
| National debt | Treasury bills, notes, bonds, and other debtobligations that constitute the debt owed by the federal government. |
| National Foundation for Consumer Credit | A nonprofit organization that seeks to help consumers who have taken on too much debt by helping them work out payment plans and supplying credit counseling. |
| National Futures Association (NFA) | The futuresindustryself-regulatory organization established in 1982. |
| National market | Related: Internal market |
| National Market Advisory Board | Group that advises the SEC on establishing a national exchange market system, which is a highly automated, continuous national exchange, but that preserves the regional exchanges. |
| National Market System (NMS) | Refers to over-the-counter trading. System of trading OTC stocks under the sponsorship of the NASD. Must meet certain criteria for size, profitability and trading activity. More comprehensive information is available for NMS stocks than for non-NMS stocks traded OTC (high, low, and last-saleprices, cumulative volume figures, and bid and askquotations throughout the day). This is due to the fact that market makers must report the actual price and number of shares in each transaction within 90 seconds verses nonreal-time reporting for non-NMS stocks (thus, last sales prices and minute-to-minute volume updates are not possible). |
| National Quotation Bureau | A service that publishes bid and offerquotes from market makers in OTCtransactions. |
| National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) | A clearing corporation that facilitates the settlement of accounts among brokerage firms, exchanges, and other clearing corporations. |
| National Stock Exchange (NSE) | Second-largest stock exchange based in India. |
| National tax policy | The way a country chooses to allocate tax burdens. |
| Nationalization | A government takeover of a private company. |
| Natural | Used in the context of general equities. Customer buyer or seller, versus a principal or profile interest. Legitimate, real. |
| Natural logarithm | Logarithm to the base e (approximately 2.7183). |
| NAV | Net asset value. |
| NAV | See: Net asset value |
| NAV Arbitrage | See: Net asset value arbitrage |
| NC | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NEW CALEDONIA. |
| NE | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NIGER. |
| Near money | Assets that are easily convertible into cash, such as money market accounts and bank deposits. |
| Nearby | The nearest activetrading month of a financial or commodityfutures market. Related: Deferred futures. |
| Nearby futures contract | When several futures contracts are considered, the contract with the closest settlement date is called the nearby futures contract. The next (or the "next out") futures contract is the one that settles just after the nearby futures contract. The contract farthest away in time from settlement is called the most distant futures contract. |
| Nearest month | The expiration date of an option or future that is closest to the present. |
| Negative amortization | A loan repayment schedule in which the outstandingprincipal balance of the loan increases, rather than amortizing, because the scheduled monthly payments do not cover the full amount required to amortize the loan. The unpaid interest is added to the outstandingprincipal, to be repaid later. |
| Negative carry | Related: Net financing cost |
| Negative cash flow | Occurs when spending in a business is greater than earnings. |
| Negative convexity | A bond characteristic such that the price appreciation will be less than the price depreciation for a large change in yield of a given number of basis points. For example, a fixed-rate mortgage may lose value as rates go down because of prepayments. |
| Negative covenant | A bond covenant that limits or prohibits certain actions unless the bondholders agree. |
| Negative duration | Occurs when the price of an MBS moves in the same direction as interest rates. |
| Negative income tax | A proposal to assist taxpayer with below-subsistence-level incomes. After filing a tax return, such persons would receive a subsidy to bring them up above the poverty level. |
| Negative NPV tie-in project | A negative-NPV infrastructure development project that a local government requires of a company engaged in a positive NPV investment project elsewhere in the country. |
| Negative obligation | A New York Stock Exchange rule that governs the behavior of specialists. Negative obligation is the mandate of the specialists not trade for the specialist's firm's own account when enough public investor orders exist to match up naturally -- without intervention. An example of violating negative obligation is Trading Ahead. Also see positive obligation. |
| Negative pledge | An agreement by a borrower not to mortgage, charge or otherwise grant security over its assets. Often subject to exceptions. |
| Negative Pledge | An agreement in which the borrower agrees not to pledge any of its assets as security and/or not to incur further indebtedness. |
| Negative pledge clause | A bond covenant that requires the borrower to grant lenders a lien equivalent to any liens that may be granted in the future to any other currently unsecured lenders. |
| Negative working capital | Occurs when current liabilities exceed current assets, which can lead to bankruptcy. |
| Negative yield curve | When the yield on a short-termsecurity is higher than the yield on a long-term security, partially because high interest rates are creating a greater demand for short-term borrowing. |
| Neglected firm effect | The tendency of firms that are neglected by security analysts to outperform firms that are the subject of considerable attention. |
| Negotiable | A security whose title is transferable by delivery . See also: Negotiable instrument. |
| Negotiable bill of lading | Contract that grants title of merchandise to the holder, which allows banks to use the merchandise as collateral. |
| Negotiable certificates of deposit | Large-denomination bank certificates of deposit that can be traded. |
| Negotiable instrument | An unconditional order or promise to pay some amount of money, easily transferable from one party to another. |
| Negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) | Demand deposits that pay interest. |
| Negotiable Order of Withdrawal Account (NOW) | An interest-earning account on which chechs may be drawn. Withdrawals from NOW accounts may be offered by commerical banks, mutual savings banks, and savings and loan associations and may be owned only by individuals and certain nonprofit organizations and govermental units. |
| Negotiated certificate of deposit | A large-denominationCD, generally $1MM or more, that can be sold but cannot be cashed in before maturity. |
| Negotiated commission | An unfixed broker'scommission that is determined through negotiation, depending on the specifics of the trades performed. |
| Negotiated markets | Markets in which each transaction is separately negotiated between buyer and seller (i.e., an investor and a dealer). |
| Negotiated offering | An offering of securities for which the terms, including underwriters'compensation, have been negotiated between the issuer and the underwriters. |
| Negotiated sale | Determining the terms of an offering by negotiation between the issuer and the underwriter rather than through competitive bidding by underwriting groups. |
| Negotiated underwriting | A securitiesoffering process in which the purchase price paid to the issuer and the public offering price are determined by negotiation rather than through competitive bidding. |
| NEO | Abbreviation for nonequity options, which are options contracts on foreign currencies, debt issues, commodities, and stock indexes. |
| Net | The gain or loss on a securitysale as measured by the selling price of a security less the adjusted cost of acquisition. |
| Net adjusted present value | The adjusted present valueminus the initial cost of an investment. |
| Net advantage of refunding | The net present value of the savings from a refunding. |
| Net advantage to leasing | The net present value of entering into a lease financing arrangement rather than borrowing the necessary funds and buying the asset. |
| Net advantage to merging | The difference in total post- and pre-mergermarket valueminus the cost of the merger. |
| Net after-tax gain | Capital gain after income taxes have been paid. |
| Net asset value (NAV) | The value of a fund's investments. For a mutual fund, the net asset value per share usually represents the fund's market price, subject to a possible sales or redemption charge. For a closed-end fund, the market price may vary significantly from the net asset value. |
| Net asset value arbitrage | For a number of assets, the most recent transaction price at 4PM ET does not fully reflect all available market information. One example is international equities that trade on exchanges that are located in different time zones and close 2-15 hours before U.S. markets. In addition, domestic small-capitization equities and high-yield and convertible bonds often trade infrequently and have wide bid-ask spreads. This can cause the most recent transaction price to be much different from the price that one would see in a liquid market at 4 PM, even for assets that trade on exchanges that are open at that time. Investors can take advantage of mutual funds that calculate their NAVs using stale closing prices by trading based on recent market movements. For example, if the U.S. market has risen since the close of overseas equity markets, investors can expect that overseas markets will open higher the following morning. Investors can buy a fund with a stale-price NAV for less than its current value, and they can likewise sell a fund for more than its current value on a day that the U.S. market has fallen. Similar opportunities exist when the values of infrequently or illiquidly-traded domestic assets have recently changed. Also known as Stale Price Arbitrage. |
| Net assets | The difference between total assets on the one hand and current liabilities and noncapitalizedlong-termliabilities on the other hand. |
| Net benefit to leverage factor | A linear approximation of a number, that enables one to operationalize the total impact of leverage on firm value in the capital market imperfections view of capital structure. |
| Net book value | The current book value of an asset or liability; that is, its original book value net of any accounting adjustments such as depreciation. |
| Net capital requirement | SEC requirement that member firms and nonmember securitiesbroker-dealers maintain a maximum ratio of indebtedness to liquidcapital of 15 to 1. |
| Net cash balance | Beginning cash balance plus cashreceiptsminus cash disbursements. |
| Net change | This is the difference between a day's last trade and the previous day's last trade. |
| Net currency exposure | Exposure to foreign exchangerisk after netting all intracompanycash flows. |
| Net current assets | The difference between current assets and current liabilities, also known as working capital. |
| Net errors and omissions | In balance of payments accounting, net errors and omissions record the statistical discrepancies that arise in gathering balance of payments data. |
| Net exposed assets | Exposed assets less exposed liabilities. This term is used with market values or, in translation accounting, with book values. |
| Net financing cost | Also called the cost of carry or, simply carry, the difference between the cost of financing the purchase of an asset and the asset's cashyield. Positive carry means that the yield earned is greater than the financing cost; negative carry means that the financing cost exceeds the yield earned. |
| Net float | Sum of disbursement float and collection float. |
| Net income | The company's total earnings, reflecting revenues adjusted for costs of doing business, depreciation, interest, taxes and other expenses. |
| Net income per share of common stock | See: Earnings per share |
| Net interest cost (NIC) | The total amount of interest that will be paid on a debtobligation by a corporate or municipal bondissuer. |
| Net internal area | The area within a building (taking each floor into account) which can effectively be used and for which rent is normally paid. Measured from the inside face of the perimeter wall. Areas such as lifts, WCs, service ducts, lobbies and plant rooms are excluded. The net internal area of an office would typically be between 75-80% of the gross external area. |
| Net investment | Gross, or total investmentminusdepreciation. |
| Net investment income per share | Income received by an investment company from dividends and interest on investments less administrative expenses, divided by the number of outstandingshares. |
| Net lease | A lease arrangement under which the lessee is responsible for all property taxes, maintenance expenses, insurance, and other costs associated with keeping the asset in good working condition. |
| Net monetary assets | See: Monetary assets less monetary liabilities. |
| Net operating loss carrybacks | The application of losses to offsetearnings in previous years. |
| Net operating loss carryforwards | Application of losses to offsetearnings in future years. |
| Net operating losses | Losses that a firm can take advantage of to reduce taxes. |
| Net operating margin | The ratio of net operating income to net sales. |
| Net parity | Antithesis of gross parity. Convertibles: Price of a convertible security including accrued interest. |
| Net period | The period of time between the end of the discount period and the date payment is due. |
| Net position | The value of the position subtracting the initial cost of setting up the position. For example, if 100 options where purchased for $1 each and the option is currently trading for $9, the value of the net position is $900 - $100 = $800. |
| Net present value (NPV) | The present value of the expected future cash flows minus the cost. |
| Net present value of future investments | The present value of the total sum of NPVs expected to result from all of the firm's future investments. |
| Net present value of growth opportunities | A model valuing a firm in which net present value of new investment opportunities is explicitly examined. |
| Net present value rule | An investment is worth making if it has a positive NPV. Projects with negative NPVs should be rejected. |
| Net proceeds | Amount received from the sale of an asset after deducting all transactioncosts. |
| Net profit margin | Net income divided by sales; the amount of each sales dollar left over after all expenses have been paid. |
| Net quick assets | Cash, marketable securities, and accounts receivable less current liabilities. |
| Net realized capital gains per share | Capital gains realized by an investment companyminus any capital losses divided by the total number of the company's outstandingshares. |
| Net rental income | Gross rental income less rents which are payable to a superior landlord and any outgoings that are not recoverable from tenants. |
| Net sales | Gross sales less returns and allowances, freight out, and cash discounts allowed. |
| Net sales transaction | Refers to over-the-counter trading. Securities deal in which the quoted prices include commissions (i.e., OTC); looked at another way, the buyer and seller do not pay fees or commissions in addition to the print or quotation prices. |
| Net salvage value | The after-tax net cash flow for terminating the project. |
| Net tangible assets per share | All of a company'sassets except patents, trademarks, and other intangible assetsminus all liabilities and the par value of preferred stock, divided by the number of sharesoutstanding. |
| Net transaction | A securitiestransaction in which no commissions or extra fees are paid, such as in an initial public offering. |
| Net transaction exposure | Offsetting inflows against outflows in a given currency to determine extent of exposure to risk. |
| Net Weight | The weight of goods being shipped that does not include the weight of wrapping material, container, or other packaging. |
| Net working capital | Current assetsminuscurrent liabilities. Often simply referred to as working capital. |
| Net worth | Commonstockholders' equity which consists of common stock, surplus, and retained earnings. |
| Net yield | The return achieved from an investment after deducting the costs of making the investment. |
| Net yield | The rate of return on a securityminuspurchasecosts, commissions, or markups. |
| Netting | Reducing transfers of funds between subsidiaries or separate companies to a net amount. |
| Netting out | To get or bring in as a net; to clear as profit. |
| Network A/Network B | See: Consolidated tape |
| Neural Nets | Models which mimic the massive parallel processing that occurs in the brain. |
| neutral | Describing an opinion that is neither bearish not bullish. Neutral option strategies are generally designed to perform best if there is little or no net change in the price of the underlying stock or index. See also Bearish and Bullish. |
| Neutral hedge | Hedge that is expected to yield a dollar-neutral result of the combined position, regardless of price change in any part of the hedgesecurities. For any convertible trading at a premium, this ratio is less than 100%. The higher the convertible premium, the lower a ratio must be to be neutral. See: Delta. |
| Neutral period | In the Euromarket, a period over which Eurodollars are sold is said to be neutral if it does not start or end on either a Friday or the day before a holiday. |
| Neutral stock | A stock with a beta of 1.0. |
| New account report | A broker's document including information about a new client. See: Know your customer. |
| New European Exchange (NEWEX) | A trading market for Central and East Eurpoean securities established by the Deutsche Börse (German Stock Market) and the Wiener Börse (Austrian Stock Market) in 2000. |
| New high/new low | A stock valued at its highest or lowest price in the last year. |
| New issue | Securities that are publiclyoffered for the first time, whether in an IPO or as an additional issue of stocks or bonds by a company that is already public. |
| New listing | A security that has just been entered on a stock or bondexchange for trading. |
| New money | In a Treasury auction, the amount by which the par value of the securitiesoffered exceeds that of those maturing. |
| New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) | Commodities exchange in New York tradingfutures and options on cotton, frozen concentrated orange juice, and potatoes, as well as interest rate, currency, and index futures and options. |
| New York Futures Exchange (NYFE) | A wholly owned subsidiary of the NYSE that tradesfutures and options on the NYSE composite index. |
| New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) | The world's largest physical commodityfuturesexchange. |
| New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) | Also known as the Big Board or the Exchange. |
| New Zealand Stock Exchange | Automated, screen-based national trading system based in Wellington. |
| New-issues market | The market in which a new issue of securities is first sold to investors. This is not a separate market but refers to a niche of the overall market. |
| Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) | NIC's are countries with high-growth industrial economies, such as Hong Kong and Malaysia. |
| Next day settlement | Transaction in which the contract is settled the day after the trade is executed. See: Settlement date. |
| Next futures contract | The contract settling immediately after the nearby futures contract. |
| Nexus (of contracts) | A set or collection of something. |
| NF | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NORFOLK ISLAND. |
| NFA | See: National Futures Association |
| NG | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NIGERIA. |
| NGN | The ISO 4217 currency code for the Nigerian Naira. |
| NHBC | National House Building Council. Responsible for the Buildmark Scheme which provides insurance in respect of defects in the construction or refurbishment of residential property. |
| NI | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NICARAGUA. |
| NIC | See: Newly Industrialized Countries |
| NIF | See: Note issuance facility |
| Nifty Fifty | Institutional investor's 50 most popular stocks. |
| Nikkei | The common term for the Nihon Keizai newspaper, Japan's leading financial newspaper. The Nikkei usually refers to the price-weighted average of 225 stocks of the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. |
| Nikkei stock average | Applies mainly to international equities. Price-weighted average of 225 stocks of the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange started on May 16, 1949. Japanese equivalent of the US Dow. |
| Nine-bond rule | An NYSE rule requiring that orders for nine bonds or fewer stay on the floor for one hour to seek a market. |
| NIO | The ISO 4217 currency code for the Nicaraguan Cordoba Oro. |
| NL | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NETHERLANDS. |
| NLG | The ISO 4217 currency code for the Dutch Guilder. |
| NM | Abbreviation for "not meaningful". |
| NMS | See: National Market System |
| NO | The two-character ISO 3166 country code for NORWAY. |
| No Adjournment | Within the text on the proxy, card are the words: "Shares will be voted at this annual meeting or at any adjournment thereof." If a securityholder strikes out this phrase, the proxy cannot be counted at any adjournment (reconvening) of the meeting. |
| No book | Used for listed equity securities. Not much, if any, stock is being bid for or offered at the present time by customers or the specialist. |
| No Protest | Instructions given to a collecting bank not to protest a specific item in the event of non payment or non acceptance. |
| No Substitution | Within the text on a proxy card are the words: "The shareholder appoints certain people (collectively, the proxy committee) with full power of substitution to vote the shares." If the security holder strikes out this phrase, the proxy cannot be voted if there is a change in the designated proxy committee. |
| No-action letter | A letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission agreeing that the commission will take no civil or criminal action against a party, regarding a specific activity. |
| Noah Effect | The tendency of persistent time series (0.50<H<1.00) to have abrupt, and discontinuous changes. The normal distribution assumes continuous changes in a system. However, a time series which exhibits Hurst statistics may abruptly change levels, skipping values either up or down. Mandelbrot coined the term "Noah effect" after the biblical story of the deluge. See: Joseph Effect, Hurst Exponent, Persistence, Anti-persistence. |
| NOB spread | Notes over bondsspread. This is the difference in yield between Treasury notes (maturing in 2 to 10 years) and Treasury bonds (maturing in 15 or more years), which is traded using Treasury note and bond futures. |
| NOBO (Non-Objecting Beneficial Owner) | A beneficial ("street") security holder who has not objected to his or her name being released to the Corporation, if the Corporation so requests. |
| No-brainer | A market in which it does not take very complex analysis to figure out how securities are going to perform, such as a strong bull market. |
| Noise | Price and volumefluctuations that can confuse interpretation of market direction. Used in the context of general equities. Stock market activity caused by program trades, dividend rolls, and other phenomena not reflective of general sentiment. Antithesis of real. |
| Noisy Chaos | A chaotic dynamical system with either observational or system noise added. See: Chaos, Dynamical Systems, Observational Noise, System Noise. |
| NOK | The ISO 4217 currency code for the Norwegian Krone. |
| No-load fund | A mutual fund that does not impose a salescommission. Related: Load fund, no-load mutual fund. |
| No-load mutual fund | An open-end investment company whose shares are sold without a sales charge. There can be other distribution charges, however, such as Article 12B-1 fees. A true no-load fund has neither a sales charge nor a distribution fee. |
| No-load stock | Shares that can be purchased from the issuingcompanies themselves, so that broker fees and commissions can be avoided. |
| Nominal | In name only. Differences in compounding cause the nominal rate to differ from the effective interest rate. Inflation causes the purchasing power of money to differ from one time to another. |
| Nominal annual rate | An effective rate per period multiplied by the number of periods in a year. Same as annual percentage rate. |
| Nominal cash flow | A cash flow expressed in nominalterms if the actual dollars to be received or paid out are given. |
| Nominal dollars | Dollars that are not adjusted for inflation. |
| Nominal exchange rate | The actual foreign exchangequotation in contrast to the realexchange rate, which has been adjusted for changes in purchasing power. |
| Nominal exercise price | The exercise price of a GNMAoptioncontract, which equals the unpaid principal balance multiplied by the adjusted exercise price. |
| Nominal income | Income that has not been adjusted for inflation and decreasing purchasing power. |
| Nominal interest rate | The interest rate unadjusted for inflation. |
| Nominal price | Price quotations on futures for a period in which no actual trading took place. |
| Nominal quotation | Used in the context of general equities. Bid and offer prices given by a market maker for the purpose of valuation, not as an invitation to trade; must be specifically identified as such by prefixing the quotes FYI (for your information) or FVO (for valuation only). |
| Nominal yield | The income received from a fixed income security in one year divided by its par value. See also: Coupon rate. |
| Nomination agreement | An agreement entered into between a housing association and a local authority which provides for the local authority to nominate the occupiers of the housing association’s units at a particular scheme. |
| Nominee | A person who merely holds title to an asset on behalf of the true owner. Often used to hide the identity of the true owner. |
| Nominee | A person or firm to whom securities or other properties are transferred to facilitate transactions, while leaving the customer as the actual owner. |
| Nominee Name | A name that is used by the corporation as a generic registered owner on a stock or bondcertificate. The use of nominee names makes the processing of security transfers easier. |
| Non est factum | A defence to the enforcement of security based on a mistake by the mortgagor going to the very root of the transaction. Usually this will only succeed where there is some other mitigating factor such as illiteracy. |
| Non recourse loan | A loan where the lender relies only on the value of property charged by the borrower to the lender. The lender cannot recover any shortfall from the borrower or a guarantor. |
| Non Vessel Operating Common Carriers (NVOCC) | An ocean carrier that does not own or operate their own vessels. They use less than full containerloads which they ship on actual ship lines. They issue their own bills of lading which are backed up by actual on board ocean bills of lading issued to them by the other carrier. |
| Nonaccredited investor | Wealthy, sophisticated investors who do not meet SECnet worth requirements. These investors require less protection because of large financial resources, but only 35 nonaccredited investor can be included per investment. |
| Noncallable | A preferred stock or bond that cannot be redeemed whenever desired by the issuer. |
| Noncash charge | A cost, such as depreciation, depletion, and amortization, that does not involve any cash outflow. That is, this is treated as an accounting expense -- not a real expense that demands cash. |
| Nonclearing member | An exchange memberfirm that is not able to clear transactions, and must pay another member firm to carry out its clearing operations. |
| Noncompete | A provision in a number of employment contracts that prohibits an employee from working for a competing firm for a specified number of years after the employee leaves the firm. |
| Noncompetitive bid | In a Treasury auction, bidding for a specific amount of securities at the price, whatever it may turn out to be, equal to the average price of the accepted competitive bids. |
| Noncompetitive tender | Offer by an investor to purchase Treasury securities at a price equivalent to the weighted averagediscount rate or yield of accepted competitive bids in a Treasury auction. Noncompetitive tenders are always accepted in full. |
| Noncontributory pension plan | A pension plan that is fully paid for by the employer, requiring no employee contributions. |
| Noncumulative | Applies mainly to convertible securities. Type of preferred stock on which unpaid or Omitted dividends do not accrue. Omitted dividends are, as a rule, gone forever. |
| Noncumulative preferred stock | Preferred stock whose holders must forgo dividend payments when the company misses a dividend payment. Related: Cumulative preferred stock. |
| Noncurrent asset | Any asset that is expected to be held for the whole year, not sold or exchanged, such as real estate, machinery, or a patent. |
| Noncurrent liability | A liability due in one year. |
| Nondeductible contribution | A contribution to either a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Income tax is due on the contribution in the tax year for which the contribution is made. |
| Nondeliverable Forward Contracts (NDF) | Agreement regarding a position in a specified currency, a specified exchange rate, and a specified future settlement date, that does not result in delivery of currencies. Rather one party in the agreement makes a payment to the other party on the basis of the exchange rate at the future date. |
| Non-Discretionary Proposal | A proposition on a proxy card requiring a response from the beneficial owner which does not fall under the Ten Day Rule. Therefore, the broker cannot vote on behalf of the beneficial owner, it can only vote after specific instructions have been received from the beneficial owner. |
| Nondiscretionary trust | A personal trust whose trustee has no discretion in deciding how income will be distributed to the beneficiary. |
| Nondiversifiability of human capital | The difficulty of hedging one's human capital (the unique capabilities and expertise of individuals) and employment effort. |
| Nondiversifiable risk | Risk that cannot be eliminated by having a large portfolio of many assets. |
| Non-Equity Option | An option whose underlying entity is not common stock; typically refers to options on physical commodities and index options. |
| Nonfinancial assets | Physical assets such as real estate and machinery. |
| Nonfinancial services | Such things as freight, insurance, passenger services, and travel. |
| Noninsured plans | Defined benefit pension plans that are not guaranteed by life insurance products. Related: Insured plans. |
| Noninterest-bearing note | A note without periodic interest payment, but selling at a discount and maturing at face value. See: Zero-coupon bond. |
| Nonintermediated debt market | A financial market in which borrowers (government and large corporations) appeal directly to savers for debt capital through the securities markets without using a financial institution as intermediary. |
| Nonmarketable security | Securities that cannot be easily bought and sold. |
| Nonmarketed claims | Claims that cannot be easily bought and sold in the financial markets, such as those of the government and litigants in lawsuits. |
| Nonmember bank | Depository institution that is not a member of the Federal Reserve System. Specifically, a state-chartered commercial bank that has elected not to join the System. |
| Nonmember firm | Used for listed equity securities. Brokerage firm that is not a member of an organized exchange (NYSE). Such firmsexecutetrades either through member firms, or on regional exchanges where they are members, or in the third market. |
| Nonmonetary assets and liabilities | Assets and liabilities with noncontractual payoffs. |
| Nonparallel shift in the yield curve | A shift in the yield curve in which yields do not change by the same number of basis points for every maturity. Related: Parallel shift in the yield curve. |
| Nonparticipating life insurance policy | Life insurance policy whose policyholders do not receive dividends, because they are not participants in the interest, dividends, and capital gains earned by the insurer on premiums paid. |
| Nonperforming asset | An asset that is not effectively producing income, such as an overdue loan. |
| Nonproductive loan | A loan that increases spending power, but is used in business that does not directly increase the economy's output, such as a leveraged buyout loan. |
| Nonpublic information | Information about a company that is not known by the general public, which will have a definite impact on the stock price when released. See: Insider trading. |
| Nonpurpose loan | A loan with securities pledged as collateral, but which is not to be used in securities trading or transactions. |
| Nonqualified plan | A retirement plan that does not meet the IRS requirements for favorable tax treatment. |
| Nonqualifying annuity | An annuity that does not fall under an IRS-approved pension plan. Contributions are made with after-tax dollars, but earnings can accumulatetax-deferred until withdrawal. |
| Nonqualifying stock option | An employee stock option that does not satisfy IRS qualifying rules and therefore is liable for taxation upon exercise . |
| Nonrated | A bond that has not been rated by a large rating agency, usually because the issue is too small. |
| Nonrecourse | In the case of default, the lender has no ability to claim assets over and above what the limited partners contributed. |
| Nonrecourse loan | A loan for which no partner or related person bears the economic risk of loss. For example, if a partnership fails to repay a nonrecourse loan, the lender has no recourse against any partner except to foreclose of the assets used to secure the loan. |
| Nonrecurring charge | A one-time expense or credit shown in a company'sfinancial statement. |
| Nonredeemable | Not permitted, under the terms of an indenture, to be redeemed. |
| Nonrefundable | Not permitted, under the terms of an indenture, to be refundable. |
| Nonreproducible assets | A tangible asset with unique physical properties, like a parcel of land, a mine, or a work of art. |
| Nonsterilized intervention | Taking an action in the foreign exchange market without adjusting for changes in money supply. |
| Nonsystematic risk | Nonmarket or firm-specificrisk factors that can be eliminated by diversification. Also called unique risk or diversifiable risk. Systematic risk refers to risk factors common to the entire economy. |
| No |