Margin

A percentage added to the index for an ARM to establish the interest rate on each adjustment date.

The amount a lender adds to the index of an adjustable rate mortgage to establish an adjusted interest rate. For example, a margin of 1.50 added to a 7 percent index establishes an adjusted interest rate of 8.50 percent.

The number of percentage points the lender adds to the index rate to calculate the ARM interest rate at each adjustment.

See Margin, or margin costs

The amount paid by clients when they use credit to buy a security. The remainder is loaned by their brokers.

Margin is the minimum amount of collateral - in either cash or securities - you must have in your margin account to buy on margin, sell short, or invest in certain derivatives.

The initial margin requirement is set by federal law and varies from product to product. For example, to buy stock on margin, you must have at least 50% of the purchase price in your account.

After the initial transaction, maintenance rules set by the self-regulatory organizations, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASD, apply.

Under those rules, you must have a minimum of 25% of the total market value of the margined investments in your account at all times. Individual firms may set their maintenance requirement higher - at 30% or 35%, for example.

If your equity in the account falls below the maintenance level, you'll receive a margin call for additional collateral to bring the account value back above the minimum level.

Percentage added to an index by a loan company to determine the interest rate; often used in conjunction with ARM's.)

The edge or border of the tissue removed in cancer surgery. The margin is described as negative or clean when the pathologist finds no cancer cells at the edge of the tissue, suggesting that all of the cancer has been removed. The margin is described as positive or involved when the pathologist finds cancer cells at the edge of the tissue, suggesting that all of the cancer has not been removed.

In communications systems, the maximum degree of signal distortion that can be tolerated without affecting the restitution, i.e., without its being interpreted incorrectly by the decision circuit. 2. The allowable error rate, deviation from normal, or degradation of the performance of, a system or device.