All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
HUD is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government. HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business.
Also listed in:
- All > Healthcare > Medicine > HIV/AIDS
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
DOJ is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice. DOJ’s mission is to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
- Browse Related Terms: Agency, Dependent Child, Fair Housing Act, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Minor Child, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Value
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
A portion of a deposit balance that has not yet been collected by the depository financial institution.
- Browse Related Terms: Availability date, Availability policy, Cut-off time, Deposit slip, Derogatory Information, Disclosures (Deposit), Escrow Analysis, Exception Hold, Float, Inactive Account, Uncollected funds
Also listed in:
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
An uncovered option, also known as a naked option, is an option that is not backed by another position.
For example, if you sell a call option without owning the stock that you would have to deliver if the option holder exercised, the call is uncovered.
Similarly, if you sell an uncovered put, you don't have adequate cash in reserve to fulfill your obligation to purchase the underlying instrument at exercise.
Writing uncovered contracts can put you at significant risk despite the premium you collect when you open the position.
For example, if a naked call option were exercised and assigned to you, you would have to buy the underlying instrument at its market price to be able to meet the terms of the contract. Because of the potential risk, your brokerage firm may restrict your right to write uncovered positions or may require you to trade these options in a margin account.
- Browse Related Terms: assignment, At-the-money, Automatic exercise, Call, Call option, Covered option, Exercise, Go short, Green shoe clause, In-the-money, Incentive stock option (ISO), Long position, Naked option, offset, Option, Option premium, Put option, Short position, Stock option, Strike price, Uncovered option, Writer
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
The review status of a financial disclosure report after the filer has eSigned and submitted their report for review.
- Browse Related Terms: Amended, Amended Date, Amendment in Progress, Complete, End Review, Filing Date, Review Chain, Review Date, Reviewer, Self Registration, Signature Date, Submitted, Submitted Date, Under Review, Wrap up
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance > Income Tax
Money-making activities that people don't report to the government, including both illegal and legal activities.
- Browse Related Terms: ability to pay, benefits received, Earned Income Credit (EIC), financial records, Gross Income, horizontal equity, underground economy, vertical equity
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
Assets that are held in another investment vehicle in which a filer has a financial interest. For example, a filers underlying assets may include the portfolio holdings of a partnership, a trust, or an investment fund. Full disclosure often requires a filer to report both the investment vehicle itself and the underlying assets that it holds, unless the investment vehicle is an Excepted Investment Fund (EIF). For example, if Trust X holds Stocks 1, 2, and 3, you should report both Trust X and Stocks 1, 2, and 3 because the stocks are the underlying assets of the trust.
- Browse Related Terms: American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), Excepted Investment Fund (EIF), Investment Club, Lipper, Inc, Morningstar, Inc., Separate account, Separate account fund, Subaccount, Underlying Assets, Value Line, Inc., Widely Diversified
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
An underlying instrument is a security, such as a stock, a commodity, or other type of financial product, such as a stock index, whose value determines the value of a derivative investment or product.
For example, if you own a stock option, the stock you have the right to buy or sell according to the terms of that option is the option's underlying instrument.
Underlying instruments may also be called underlying products, underlying interest, or sometimes the underlying investment.
- Browse Related Terms: Bear spread, Bull spread, Delta, Exercise price, Hedging, Index option, Leverage, Options chain, Out-of-the-money, Straddle, Strangle, Underlying instrument, Underwater
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
The investments a variable annuity's separate account fund, a mutual fund, or other fund makes are considered the fund's underlying investments.
The value of a single share or unit of the fund is based on the combined value of all of its underlying investments, minus fees and expenses, divided by the number of outstanding shares or units.
In some cases, when the item underlying a derivative investment is a security, such as the individual stock underlying an equity options contract, it is also called an underlying investment.
However, when the underlying item is a consumable commodity, such as corn, or a financial product, such as an equity index, it is called the underlying product, the underlying instrument, or sometimes simply the underlying.
- Browse Related Terms: American depositary receipt (ADR), Annuity unit, Block trade, Capital appreciation, Exchange-traded fund (ETF), expense ratio, Institutional fund, Mark to the market, Net asset value (NAV), Offshore fund, Open-end mutual fund, Proprietary fund, share, Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt (SPDR), Underlying investment, Unit investment trust (UIT), Unit trust
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
Any stock that trades at a lower price than the issuing company's reputation, earnings outlook, or financial situation would seem to merit is considered undervalued.
Undervaluation may occur when investors lose interest in a company perhaps because it hasn't kept pace with its competitors, or if there are management problems.
Some investors concentrate on identifying and investing in undervalued stocks, sometimes called simply value stocks, drawn by their bargain prices and the expectation of recovery.
- 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
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
You're underwater when your employee stock options are out-of-the-money and so currently worthless.
For example, if you have options to buy your company stock at a strike price of $50, and the stock is currently trading at $30, you're $20 underwater on each option. You can see how the next step may be drowning - financially speaking, of course.
The term underwater is also used to describe situations where the principals are unable to meet their financial obligations.
For example, if an investor is unable to meet margin calls on a margin account that has lost a considerable amount of money, the account is said to be underwater. Similarly a firm that is having financial difficulty is described as underwater.
- Browse Related Terms: Bear spread, Bull spread, Delta, Exercise price, Hedging, Index option, Leverage, Options chain, Out-of-the-money, Straddle, Strangle, Underlying instrument, Underwater
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
When you own less of a security, an asset class, or a subclass than your target asset allocation calls for, you are said to be underweighted in that security, asset class, or subclass.
For example, if you have decided to invest 30% of your portfolio in fixed-income investments, but your fixed-income holdings account for only 10% of your portfolio, you are underweighted in fixed income.
In another use of the term, a securities analyst might recommend underweighting a particular security, which you might reasonably interpret as advice to sell.
- Browse Related Terms: Asset allocation, Asset class, Balanced fund, diversification, Family of funds, Financial plan, Fund of funds (FOF), Lifecycle fund, Modern portfolio theory, Nonsystematic risk, Overweighted, portfolio, subclass, Synthetic investment, Target date fund, Target risk fund, Underweighted, White knight
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
An underwriter, typically an investment banker, buys an entire new securities issue from the company or government offering it, and resells the issue as individual stocks or bonds to the public.
Part of the underwriter's job is to weigh the risks involved in taking on the financial responsibility of finding buyers against the profit to be made on the difference between the price paid for the issue and the amount it will generate.
Typically, a number of bankers join forces as a purchase group, or syndicate, to spread the risk around and to reach the widest possible market.
Insurance policies also need an underwriter. In this case, the term refers to a company that is willing to take the risk of insuring your life, property, income, or health in return for a premium, or payment.
- Browse Related Terms: Capital, Capital markets, Initial public offering (IPO), Investment bank, Issuer, Lead underwriter, Private placement, Red herring, Syndicate, Underwriter, Underwriting
Also listed in:
- All > Business > Finance > Insurance > Auto Insurance
- All > Business > Finance > Insurance > Homeowners Insurance
- All > Business > Real Estate
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
Underwriting means insuring.
An insurance company underwrites your policy when it agrees to take the risk of insuring your life or covering your medical expenses in exchange for the premium you pay.
An investment bank underwrites an initial public offering (IPO) or a bond issue when it buys the shares or bonds from the issuer and takes the risk of having to sell them to individual or institutional investors to recover its investment.
- Browse Related Terms: Capital, Capital markets, Initial public offering (IPO), Investment bank, Issuer, Lead underwriter, Private placement, Red herring, Syndicate, Underwriter, Underwriting
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance > Consumer Credit
The analysis of the risk involved in making a mortgage loan to determine whether the risk is acceptable to the mortgage company. Underwriting involves the evaluation of the property as outlined in the appraisal, the borrower's ability to repay the loan, the borrower's creditworthiness and the application of criteria specified by investors to whom the mortgage company might sell or transfer mortgages.
State of Maine, Department of Professional and Financial Regulation - Cite This Source - This Definition- Browse Related Terms: Balloon Payment, Conventional Mortgage, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Federal Housing Authority (FHA), floating, Loan Term, Locking, Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA), Pest Inspection, Rate Lock, Rescission, Rural Development (RD), Underwriting
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance > Mortgage
process of examining all the data about a homeowner's property and income documentation to determine whether the mortgage modification should be issued. The person who does this is called an underwriter.
Departments of the Treasury & Housing and Urban Development, Making Home Affordable Program - Cite This Source - This Definition- Browse Related Terms: Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Debt-to-income (DTI), Escrow, Escrow Account, Escrow Analysis, Forbearance, Home Affordable Unemployment Program (UP), Housing expense, Monthly Gross Income (MGI), Mortgage Payment, Mortgage Payment Guideline, Pricipal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowners association dues (PITIA), Primary or Principal Residence, Repayment Plan, Servicer, Underwriting
Also listed in:
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
A set of statutes enacted by the various States to provide consistency among the States' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading.
- Browse Related Terms: Alteration, Draft, Escrow agent, Financial instrument, Forgery, Negotiable, Power of attorney, Return Item, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
Also listed in:
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
Under the UGMA, you as an adult can set up a custodial account for a minor and put assets such as cash, securities, and mutual funds into it.
You pay no fees or charges to set up the account, and there is no limit on the amount you can put into it. To avoid owing potential gift tax, however, you may want to limit what you add each year to an amount that qualifies for the annual gift tax exclusion.
One advantage of an UGMA custodial account is that you can transfer to it assets that you expect to increase in value. That way, any capital gains occur in the account, and you avoid potential estate taxes that might have been due had you owned the asset at your death.
If you sell an asset in the account, taxable capital gains are calculated at the beneficiary's capital gains tax rate provided he or she is 18 or older. Taxable capital gains are calculated at the parents' rate if the child is younger than 18.
One potential disadvantage of a custodial account is that any gift to the account is irrevocable.
The assets become the property of the beneficiary from the moment they go into the account, even though as a minor he or she cannot legally control activity in the account or take money out. At majority, which occurs at 18 or 21 depending on the state, the beneficiary may use the assets as he or she wishes.
In addition, if you are both the donor and the custodian, and die while the beneficiary is still a minor, the assets are considered part of your estate. That could make your estate's value large enough to be vulnerable to estate taxes.
- 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)
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
The UTMA allows you as an adult to set up a custodial account for a minor, who owns any assets placed in the account, although he or she can't legally control the account until reaching the age of majority.
The UTMA is similar to the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) in many respects, but you can use an UTMA to gift assets in addition to cash and securities, including real estate, fine art, antiques, patents, and royalties.
You may choose to transfer assets that you expect to increase in value into the UTMA account. That way, any capital gains occur in the account, and you avoid potential estate taxes that might have been due had you owned the asset at your death.
If you sell an asset in the account, taxable gain is figured at the beneficiary's capital gains tax rate provided he or she is 18 or older. Taxable capital gains above a certain limit that Congress sets each year are calculated at the parents' rate if the child is younger than 18.
One potential disadvantage of a custodial account is that any gift to the account is irrevocable. The assets become the property of the beneficiary from the moment they go into the account, even though as a minor he or she cannot legally control activity in the account or take money out.
At majority, which occurs at 18, 21, or 25 depending on the state, the beneficiary may use the assets as he or she wishes. To avoid owing potential gift tax, you may want to limit what you add each year to an amount that qualifies for the annual gift tax exclusion.
In addition, if you are both the donor and the custodian, and die while the beneficiary is still a minor, the assets are considered part of your estate. That could make your estate's value large enough to be vulnerable to estate taxes.
- 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)
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
A UIT may be a fixed portfolio of bonds with specific maturity dates, a portfolio of income-producing stocks, or a portfolio of all of the securities included in a particular index.
Examples of the latter include the DIAMONDs Trust (DIA), which mirrors the composition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), and Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts (SPDR), which mirrors the Standard & Poor's 500-stock Index (S&P 500). Index UITs are also described as exchange traded funds (ETFs).
UITs resemble mutual funds in the sense that they offer the opportunity to diversify your portfolio without having to purchase a number of separate securities. You buy units, rather than shares, of the trust, usually through a broker.
However, UITs trade more like stocks than mutual funds in the sense that you sell in the secondary market rather than redeeming your holding by selling your units back to the issuing fund.
Further, the price of a UIT fluctuates constantly throughout the trading day, just as the price of an individual stock does, rather than being repriced only once a day, after the close of trading. As a result some UITs, though not index-based UITs such as DIAMONDS or SPDRs, trade at prices higher or lower than their net asset value (NAV).
One additional difference is that many UITs have maturity dates, when the trust expires, while mutual funds do not. A fund may be closed for other reasons, but not because of a predetermined expiration date.
- Browse Related Terms: American depositary receipt (ADR), Annuity unit, Block trade, Capital appreciation, Exchange-traded fund (ETF), expense ratio, Institutional fund, Mark to the market, Net asset value (NAV), Offshore fund, Open-end mutual fund, Proprietary fund, share, Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt (SPDR), Underlying investment, Unit investment trust (UIT), Unit trust
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
When you buy stocks, bonds, options and commodities futures, it's typical to buy in a particular volume or a particular dollar value, called a round lot or a unit of trading.
For example, stocks are usually traded in lots of 100 shares, or multiples of 100 shares, and bonds in multiples of $1,000. For some preferred stocks, known as ten-share traders, the unit of trading is ten shares.
Any variation from the standard unit of trading is known as an odd lot.
- Browse Related Terms: Cash settlement, Clearinghouse, Closing price, Commodity, Daily trading limit, derivative, Financial future, Fungible, Futures contract, Go long, Hedger, Open interest, Speculator, Trade date, Trading volume, Unit of trading, Weather derivative, Zero sum
All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance
The category of investment known as a mutual fund in the US is called a unit trust in other parts of the world.
- Browse Related Terms: American depositary receipt (ADR), Annuity unit, Block trade, Capital appreciation, Exchange-traded fund (ETF), expense ratio, Institutional fund, Mark to the market, Net asset value (NAV), Offshore fund, Open-end mutual fund, Proprietary fund, share, Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt (SPDR), Underlying investment, Unit investment trust (UIT), Unit trust