Investment and Finance

The Institutional Brokers' Estimate System abbreviated as "IBES" Service that assembles analyst's estimates of "future earnings" for thousands of publicly traded companies, detailing how many estimates are available for each company and the high, low, and average estimates for each.

An Intercommodity spread in the commodities market is a spread consisting of a long position and a short position in different but related commodities. An investor might be speculating that the price relationship between the two commodities will change for example gold and silver commodities.

The Intermarket Trading System is the electronic communications network linking the trading floors of 7 registered exchanges to permit trading among them in stocks listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or Amex and one or more regional exchanges.
Through the Intermarket Trading System , any broker or market maker on the floor of any participating exchange can reach other participants for an execution whenever the nationwide quote shows a better price available.
A floor broker on the exchange can enter an order to assure execution of all of an Intermarket Trading System offering or bid, instead of splitting it with competing brokers.

The International Monetary Fund also known as the IMF is an organization founded to oversee exchange arrangements of member countries and to lend foreign currency reserves to members with short term balance of payment problems.

An Investment letter is a letter of intent between the issuer of new securities and the buyer, in the private placement of these new securities. The letter of intent establishes that the securities are being bought for a minimum time period and are treated as an investment, not for resale. If no such letter exists, the securities must be registered with Securities and Exchange Commission.

A broker is an individual who is paid a commission for executing customer orders. A floor broker is one who executes orders on the stock exchange floor, or an upstairs broker who handles retail customers and their orders. A broker is also a person who acts as an intermediary between a buyer and seller, usually charging a fee or commission. A broker who specializes in stocks, bonds, commodities, or options acts as an agent and must be registered with the exchange where the securities are traded.

A brokered Certificate of Deposit is a certificate of deposit issued by a bank or thrift institution bought by a brokerage firm in bulk for the purpose of reselling to their brokerage customers. A broker Certificate of Deposit features a higher interest rate, usually 1 percent higher, and is FDIC insured and do not usually have commissions.

Bullion coins are metal coins consisting of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium that are actively traded on exchanges. Some examples include the American eagle and the Canadian maple leaf. Their price is directly connected to the underlying price of their metal.

A bond that is assigned a rating in the top 4 categories by commercial credit rating companies. Standard & Poors classifies investment-grade bonds as BBB or higher, and Moody's classifies investment grade bonds as Ba or higher.