Skip to main content

abu yahya's definitions

covering risk

(FINANCE) using financial derivatives to guarantee against losses. Typically used by non-traders, such as companies engaged in international commerce, to protect themselves against foreign exchange risk (i.e., the possibility that a customer's currency will decline in value).
BILL: You know, I think that financial derivatives are just a huge sinkhole. The people who trade them are just a bunch of wankers who move bits of paper around but add nothing of value.

ANNA: Well, they do provide some important benefits.

BILL: Name one.

ANNA: Covering risk, for one. If you're an airline, you need those aviation fuel options.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
mugGet the covering riskmug.

finance capital

(ECONOMICS) money that is used by a business to buy fixed capital or circulating capital. For a very new company or a company expanding extremely quickly, finance capital can sometimes be used to pay workers (before revenues overtake operating costs).

Finance capital can be borrowed from a commercial bank, raised by an investment bank (through an issue of stock; see initial public offering) or though a bond issue, commercial paper, or even a repurchase agreement.
The ultimate purpose of stock exchanges like the NYSE is to raise finance capital.
by Abu Yahya September 25, 2010
mugGet the finance capitalmug.

LLP

(US BUSINESS LAW) limited liability partnership; a type of business organization which is a cross between a partnership and a corporation. In a private partnership, all of the partners own all the assets in common and have unlimited liability; in a corporation, the firm assets are owned by a legal "person," and shareholders are liable only for the value of their stake (equity) in the firm.

Partnerships have higher risk for members, but their management can disclose a lot less and the taxes are lower. Limited/limited liability partnerships represent a compromise.

In a limited partnership, one or more of the partners has unlimited liability ("general partners") and the others have liability limited to their equity stake in the firm ("limited partners"). A limited partnership is indicated by the initials "LP" after the name, e.g. Apollo Management, LP.

In a limited liability partnership, all members have limited liability; specifically, the other partners of the LLP are shielded from torts for malpractice against the other partners, BUT they are legally responsible for financial claims against the whole organization. LLP liability varies somewhat by state law (several US states do not permit LLP's at all), and somewhat by the terms of the LLP agreement for that particular partnership.

Apologies to Urban Dictionary for an error in the definition of private equity fund and hedge fund: both types of fund are almost never LLP's; they are often limited partnerships (LP's).
At the first meeting of the law partners, it was decided to adopt an LLP form of business.
by Abu Yahya September 2, 2010
mugGet the LLPmug.

social good

anything of value that a society has, whether it produced the thing or not, and whether the thing is traded commercially or not.

For example the USA has natural gas (which it did not produce), air (which it did not produce), computers (which it did produce) and personal freedom (which it did produce). Air and personal freedom are not tradeable goods; it's not possible to establish ownership rights for air or freedom.

Philosophers believe that the proper distribution of social goods is still an open question, even if the distribution of economic goods (like computers) is not.
An inequality in the basic structure must always be justified to those in the disadvantaged position. This holds whatever the primary social good and especially for liberty.

John Rawls, *A Theory of Justice*, p.201
by Abu Yahya February 14, 2009
mugGet the social goodmug.

squeeze the shorts

(FINANCE) hilarious term used for over a century in the trading of stocks, commodities, etc. A way in which someone who controls much of the outstanding shares of stock can make a lot of money while ruining those who are betting against the stock.

A "short" is traditionally someone with expertise in shorting a stock, i.e., managing to borrow shares and sell them in anticipation of a decline in value. Obviously, if there are many people shorting a particular stock at any given time, and if they are wrong about the future, then a steep rise in value if the share price will not only cause them to lose money, it will force panic purchases of stock as the traders attempt to cover their shorts. If the instigator of the squeeze is successful, he will have a corner, and drive the price of the stock up to absurd levels.

An unsuccessful squeeze of shorts in a copper trust triggered the Crisis of 1907. That, in turn, triggered the Aldrich–Vreeland Act (May 1908).
The brokers, after awhile, commenced to borrow large amounts of the stock. This convinced the insiders that there was a big short interest somewhere, and they got together in order to squeeze the shorts... They never awakened to the fact that the {president of the company} had sold out on them... {and were totally ruined}

Henry Clews, Victor Niederhoffer, *Fifty Years in Wall Street*, p.149
by Abu Yahya April 5, 2010
mugGet the squeeze the shortsmug.

dividends

(FINANCE) a quarterly payment that companies make to owners of their stock. In theory, the source of the company's stock's intrinsic value.

A company's dividends are usually chosen to be as regular as possible; they can be considerably lower than the company's quarterly earnings, provided the company is growing in value. They are important, because they are the direct motivation to buy the stock.
The earnings from stock consist of capital gains and dividends.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
mugGet the dividendsmug.

moral panic

an overwrought public anxiety that evil things are afoot. The term seems to have been coined by Jock Young in 1971.* The most obvious example of an ancient moral panic is the blood libel.

Other famous examples of moral panics include the 1955 Boise scandal, in which three cases of lewd conduct between men and teenaged boys, plus a noxious editorial, triggered a general war against homosexual men. In the early 1930's, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) launched a public relations effort to have federal laws passed banning the use of marijuana; it was driven by a jurisdictional struggle between Harry Anslinger (FBN) and J. Edgar Hoover (FBI). The campaign was a success; it not only achieved the desired legislation, but created a wave of mass hysteria about the "threat" of marijuana.

_____________________________
* Goode & Ben-Yehuda, *Moral Panics* (1994), p.12.
In the movie *Quadrophenia*, set in Brighton, UK in the late 1960's, a recurring theme was the contemporary moral panic over the clash between Mods and Rockers.
by Abu Yahya February 15, 2009
mugGet the moral panicmug.

Share this definition

Sign in to vote

We'll email you a link to sign in instantly.

Or

Check your email

We sent a link to

Open your email