Big Biz Show

What Does Vintage Mean?
A slang term used by mortgage-backed securities (MBS) traders and investors to refer to an MBS that is seasoned over some time period. MBSs typically have maturities around 30 years, and a particular issue’s ‘vintage’ will expose the holder to less prepayment and default risk, although this decreased risk also limits price appreciation.
The underlying loans of [...]

What Does Men’s Underwear Index Mean?
An unconventional measure of how well the economy is doing based on sales of men’s underwear. The reasoning behind this measure assumes that men view underwear as a necessity (not a luxury item), so sales of this product should be steady - except during severe economic downturns, when men will wait longer to buy new [...]

What Does Poison Pill Mean?
A strategy used by corporations to discourage hostile takeovers. With a poison pill, the target company attempts to make its stock less attractive to the acquirer. There are two types of poison pills:
1. A “flip-in” allows existing shareholders (except the acquirer) to buy more shares at a discount.
2. A “flip-over” allows stockholders [...]

What Does Enterprise Value – EV Mean?
A measure of a company’s value, often used as an alternative to straightforward market capitalization. Enterprise value is calculated as market cap plus debt, minority interest and preferred shares, minus total cash and cash equivalents.

Think of enterprise value as the theoretical takeover price. In the event of a buyout, an acquirer [...]

What Does Matrix Trading Mean?
A fixed-income trading strategy that looks for discrepancies in the yield curve, which an investor can capitalize upon by instituting a bond swap. Discrepancies come about when current yields on a particular class of bond (corporate, municipal, etc.) don’t match up with the rest of the yield curve or its historical norms.

An investor [...]

What Does Equity Risk Premium Mean?
The excess return that an individual stock or the overall stock market provides over a risk-free rate. This excess return compensates investors for taking on the relatively higher risk of the equity market. The size of the premium will vary as the risk in a particular stock, or in the [...]

What Does Back-End Load Mean?
A fee (sales charge or load) that investors pay when selling mutual fund shares within a specified number of years, usually five to 10 years. The fee amounts to a percentage of the value of the share being sold. The fee percentage is highest in the first year and decreases yearly [...]

What Does Build America Bonds – BABs Mean?
Taxable municipal bonds that feature tax credits and/or federal subsidies for bondholders and state and local government bond issuers. Build America Bonds (BABs) were introduced in 2009 as part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create jobs and stimulate the economy. BABs attempt to achieve this [...]

An index that indicates the state of the economy by measuring the number of attractive people working as waiters/waitresses. According to the hot waitress index, the higher the number of good looking servers, the weaker the current state of the economy. It is assumed that attractive individuals do not tend to have trouble finding high-paying jobs during good economics times. During [...]

What Does Education IRA Mean?
A savings plan for higher education. Parents and guardians are allowed to make nondeductible contributions to an education IRA for a child under the age of 18. The education IRA is now refered to as the Coverdell ESA.

The funds in an education IRA can be withdrawn tax free when they are needed [...]