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Once every quarter - on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December - stock options, stock index options, stock index futures contracts, and single stock futures expire on the same day in the United States.
In the past, when all contracts expired at the same hour of the day, trading could be extremely volatile as professional investors attempted to capitalize on pricing differences.
But in recent years, various adjustments in the trading schedule have helped to reduce the pace.
- Browse Related Terms: American-style option, Base Price, Dealer Sticker Price, European style option, Expiration cycle, Expiration date, Last trading day, Long-term equity anticipation securities (LEAPS), Options class, Options series, Quadruple witching day
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A court order that recognizes or creates a spouse’s or a former spouse’s right to a portion of a member’s retirement annuity. Commonly referred to as QDRO. This individual cannot receive his or her share of the member’s retirement annuity until the member retires, withdraws the contributions, or dies. A divorce decree that assigns this portion to an ex-spouse is not necessarily a valid QDRO. Direct payment by the Retirement Systems is not possible unless the court enters an order that the Retirement Systems determines is acceptable under its guidelines pursuant to S.C. Code Ann. 9-18-10 (supp. 2000).
- Browse Related Terms: 401(k) Savings Plan and 457 Savings Plan, Average Final Compensation (AFC), Defined Contribution Plan, Direct Rollover, IRC Section 401(a), Lump-Sum Distribution, Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), Qualified Plan, Rollover, Roth 401(k) Savings Plan, Single-Sum Distribution, Tax-Deferred
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If your spouse isn't a US citizen and your estate is large enough to risk being vulnerable to estate taxes, you can use a qualified domestic trust (QDOT) to allow your spouse to enjoy the benefit of the marital deduction until his or her own death.
In short, the marital deduction means that one spouse can leave the other all of his or her assets free of estate tax. The inherited assets become part of the estate of the surviving spouse, and unless the combined value is less than the exempt amount, estate tax could be due at the death of that spouse.
The difference, with a QDOT, is that at the death of the surviving, non-citizen spouse, the assets in the trust don't become part of his or her estate, but are taxed as if they were still part of the estate of the first spouse to die. Income distributions from the trust are subject to income tax alone, but distributions of principal may be subject to estate tax.
- Browse Related Terms: Back-up withholding, Custodial account, Estate, Estate tax, Gift tax, Income, Income in respect of a decedent, Income stock, National debt, Qualified domestic trust (QDOT), Revocable trust, Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA), Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA)
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The South Carolina Retirement Systems’ retirement plans are qualified plans under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. The term also refers to other retirement plans that are qualified by the IRS.
- Browse Related Terms: 401(k) Savings Plan and 457 Savings Plan, Average Final Compensation (AFC), Defined Contribution Plan, Direct Rollover, IRC Section 401(a), Lump-Sum Distribution, Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), Qualified Plan, Rollover, Roth 401(k) Savings Plan, Single-Sum Distribution, Tax-Deferred
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A qualified retirement plan is an employer sponsored plan that meets the requirements established by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the US Congress.
Pensions, profit-sharing plans, money purchase plans, cash balance plans, SEP-IRAs, SIMPLEs, and 401(k)s are all examples of qualified plans, though each type works a little differently.
Employers may take a tax deduction for contributions to qualified plans, and in some plans employees may make tax-deferred contributions.
Among the other requirements, a qualified plan must provide for all eligible employees equivalently. That means the plan can't treat highly paid employees more generously than it does less-well paid employees, though one group of employees, such as those within five years of the official retirement age, may receive different treatment than another group.
In contrast, a nonqualified plan may be available to some employees and not others. In some plans, nonqualified contributions are made with after-tax dollars, either by the employer or the employee, although any earnings in the plan are tax deferred.
In other plans, future benefits are promised but contributions are not actually deposited in an account established for the employee.
Mandatory federal withdrawal rules that apply to qualified plans do not apply in the same way to nonqualified plans, though nonqualified plans are subject to stringent regulation as well.
- Browse Related Terms: Cafeteria plan, Cash balance plan, Defined Benefit Pension Plan, Defined benefit plan, Defined Contribution Pension Plan, Defined Contribution Plan, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Employer sponsored retirement plan, Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Flexible spending account, Integrated pension plan, Nondiscrimination rule, Pension, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Plan participant, Portable benefits, Qualified retirement plan, Retirement Accounts, Self-directed retirement plan, Social Security, Vesting, Withholding
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Blind or diversified trusts authorized by the Ethics in Government Act as a means of avoiding conflicts of interest for employees with extensive financial holdings. A qualified blind or diversified trust will insulate an employee from the criminal provisions of 18 U.S.C. 208. Qualified trusts require approval by the Office of Government Ethics and must follow specific statutory guidelines.
- Browse Related Terms: Blind trust, Certificate of Divestiture, Ethics Agreement, Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Prohibited Source, Qualified Trusts, Recusal, Senior Legal Counsel (SLC), Waiver
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To be a qualifying child, the dependent must meet eight tests: (1) relationship, (2) age, (3) residence, (4) support, (5) citizenship or residency, (6) joint return, (7) qualifying child of more than one person, and (8) dependent taxpayer.
- Browse Related Terms: adjusted gross income (AGI), Citizen or Resident Test, dependency exemption, dependent, exemptions, filing status, foster child, Head of Household filing status, Married Filing Joint filing status, Married Filing Separate filing status, personal exemption, qualifying child, qualifying relative, Qualifying Widow(er) filing status, single filing status, standard deduction, tax deduction, tax-exempt interest income
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There are tests that must be met to be a qualifying relative, they are: (1) not a qualifying child, (2) member of household or relationship, (3) citizenship or residency, (4) gross income, (5) support, (6) joint return, and (7) dependent taxpayer.
- Browse Related Terms: adjusted gross income (AGI), Citizen or Resident Test, dependency exemption, dependent, exemptions, filing status, foster child, Head of Household filing status, Married Filing Joint filing status, Married Filing Separate filing status, personal exemption, qualifying child, qualifying relative, Qualifying Widow(er) filing status, single filing status, standard deduction, tax deduction, tax-exempt interest income
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If your spouse died in 2010, you can use married filing jointly as your filing status for 2010 if you otherwise qualify to use that status. The year of death is the last year for which you can file jointly with your deceased spouse. You may be eligible to use qualifying widow(er) with dependent child as your filing status for two years following the year of death of your spouse. For example, if your spouse died in 2010, and you have not remarried, you may be able to use this filing status for 2011 and 2012. This filing status entitles you to use joint return tax rates and the highest standard deduction amount (if you do not itemize deductions). This status does not entitle you to file a joint return.
- Browse Related Terms: adjusted gross income (AGI), Citizen or Resident Test, dependency exemption, dependent, exemptions, filing status, foster child, Head of Household filing status, Married Filing Joint filing status, Married Filing Separate filing status, personal exemption, qualifying child, qualifying relative, Qualifying Widow(er) filing status, single filing status, standard deduction, tax deduction, tax-exempt interest income
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When a securities analyst evaluates intangible factors, such as the integrity and experience of a company's management, the positioning of its products and services, or the appeal of its marketing campaign, that seem likely to influence future performance, the approach is described as qualitative analysis.
While this type of evaluation is more subjective than quantitative analysis - which looks at statistical data - advocates of this approach believe that success or failure in the corporate world is often driven as much by qualitative factors as by financial data.
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The data in question do not agree with an expected standard (value). Review for correctness and change only if erroneous data has been reported. An example is reported income that is less than or equal to $9 thousand. The letter 'Q' precedes the error numbers.
(It is important that you do an initial review of the data containing quality edits. If, after the review, you find that the data are reported correctly or you change the data because the data are reported incorrectly and the quality edit still remains on the data, those quality edit(s) will remain on succeeding edit reports).
- Browse Related Terms: Activity Year, Census Tract, County Code, Geocode, Metropolitan Division (MD), Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) / Metropolitan Division (MD), Quality Edits, State Code, Syntactical Edits, Validity Edits
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When a securities analyst focuses on a corporation's financial data in order to project potential future performance, the process is called quantitative analysis.
This methodology involves looking at profit-and-loss statements, sales and earnings histories, and the statistical state of the economy rather than at more subjective factors such as management experience, employee attitudes, and brand recognition.
While some people feel that quantitative analysis by itself gives an incomplete picture of a company's prospects, advocates tend to believe that numbers tell the whole story.
- Browse Related Terms: Bottom-up investing, Fundamental analysis, Good will, intrinsic value, Present value, Qualitative analysis, Quantitative analysis, Ranking
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The financial world splits up its calendar into four quarters, each three months long.
If January to March is the first quarter, April to June is the second quarter, and so on, though a company's first quarter does not have to begin in January.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires all publicly held US companies to publish a quarterly report, officially known as Form 10-Q, describing their financial results for the quarter. These reports and the predictions that market analysts make about them often have an impact on a company's stock price.
For example, if analysts predict that a certain company will have earnings of 55 cents a share in a quarter, and the results beat those expectations, the price of the company's stock may increase. But if the earnings are less than expected, even by a penny or two, the stock price may drop, at least for a time.
However, this pattern doesn't always hold true, and other forces may influence investor sentiment about the stock.
- Browse Related Terms: Alpha, Book value, Dividend yield, Earnings estimate, Earnings momentum, Earnings surprise, Forward price-to-earnings ratio, Multiple, Outstanding shares, Price-to-book ratio, Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), Price-to-sales ratio, Quarter, risk ratio, Special situation, Undervaluation, valuation, Value stock, Whisper number, Zacks Investment Research
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In the United States, quasi-public corporations have links to the federal government although they are technically in the private sector.
This means that their managers and executives work for the corporation, not the government. And, in many cases, you can buy stock in a quasi-public corporation, expecting to share in its profits.
Many quasi-public corporations were originally federal agencies that have been privatized. Among the best known are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Sallie Mae. They securitize consumer loans and sell them in the secondary market.
The US Postal Service is also a quasi-public corporation, as is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
- Browse Related Terms: Agency bond, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Government bond, Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), Quasi-public corporation, Sallie Mae, Scripophily
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The NASDAQ Stock Market sells shares in a unit investment trust (UIT) that tracks the NASDAQ 100 Stock Index.
This market capitalization weighted index includes the largest 100 companies trading on the NASDAQ and is adjusted quarterly to keep it focused on the strongest performers.
The name Qubes comes from the UIT's trading symbol: QQQQ.
Qubes resemble Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts (SPDR), which reflect the performance of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock Index (S&P 500) and the DIAMOND (DIA), which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).
These investments are also decribed as exchange traded funds.
- Browse Related Terms: Average, Breakout, Dogs of the Dow, Dow Jones 65 Composite Average, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones Transportation Average, Dow Jones Utility Average, Dow theory, Efficient market theory, Logarithmic scale, NASDAQ Composite Index, New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, Qubes, Value Line Composite Index, volume, Weighted stock index
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On a stock market, a quotation combines the highest bid to buy and the lowest offer to sell a stock.
For example, if the quotation on DaveCo stock is "20 to 20.07," it means that the highest price that any buyer wants to pay is $20, and the lowest price that any seller wants to take is $20.07.
How that spread is resolved depends on whether the stock is traded on an auction market, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), or on a dealer market, such as the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq), where the price is negotiated by market makers.
- Browse Related Terms: Ask, BID, bid and ask, Dealer, Firm quote, Make a market, Market maker, Pink Sheets, Quotation (Quote), Trading floor