Investment and Finance

A Graduated Repayment option is a repayment option that allows for interest only payments for the first couple of years, usually two or up to four years. It can lower initial monthly payments by as much as 35 to 45 percent.

Negative Amortization is a situation in which the borrower is paying less interest than what is actually being charged for a mortgage loan. The unpaid interest is added to the loan's principal. The borrower may end up owing more than the original amount of the mortgage.

If you sell mutual fund shares that were acquired at different times, you must know the corresponding basis to determine your gain or loss. One method is the specific identification method where you specifically identify the shares sold. Another choice is the Average cost method which takes an average of all shares in the fund. Another method is the First in First out FIFO method in which the shares sold are from the earliest to the latest owned. If you have documentation of the history of the share ownership, you have an option to any of the methods to calculate either a lower or higher gain or loss on your sale. Speak to your local CPA about these tax savings strategies.

If you sell mutual fund shares that were acquired at different times, you must know the corresponding basis to determine your gain or loss.
One method is the specific identification method where you specifically identify the shares sold.
Another choice is the Average cost method which takes an average of all shares in the fund.
Another method is the First in First out FIFO method in which the shares sold are from the earliest to the latest owned.
If you have documentation of the history of the share ownership, you have an option to any of the methods to calculate either a lower or higher gain or loss on your sale.
Speak to your local CPA about these tax savings strategies.

"Cap" refers to a company's stock market capitalization. This is a gauge of what the market or investors believes the entire company to be worth.
Capitalization is the company's stock price per share multiplied by the total number of shares outstanding. Market "caps" can change daily if there is a change in the stock price. Small cap is less than $1.5 billion, Mid cap is between $1.5 billion and $10 billion and Large cap is over $10 billion.
Different index's are used to report on large-cap stocks. The most well known and widely used is the Standard and Poors 500. Other large-cap index's are the Russell 1000 and the Wilshire Large Cap 750 Index.
The majority of large-cap stocks are in the financial services, technology and healthcare industries.

Ex-Dividend translates to "without dividend" date. It is a date set by the Uniform Practice Committee or by the specific Stock Exchange. It is a date upon which a given stock will begin trading in the marketplace without the value of a upcoming dividend included in the contract price. It is closely related to and dependent on the date of record. It is often displaced as "X" in the stock listing tables in the newspapers.

The U.S. market indexes include the Dow Jones Industrials, NYSE Composite, Amex,Nasdaq Composite, Standard & Poor's 500, Standard & Poor's Mid-Cap, Russell 2000 and the Wilshire 5000.

"Cap" refers to a company's stock market capitalization. This is a gauge of what the market or investors believes the entire company to be worth.
Capitalization is the company's stock price per share multiplied by the total number of shares outstanding.
Market "caps" can change daily if there is a change in the stock price. Small cap is less than $1.5 billion, Mid cap is between $1.5 billion and $10 billion and Large cap is over $10 billion.
Different index's are used to report on large-cap stocks.
The most well-known and widely used is the Standard and Poors 500. Other large-cap index's are the Russell 1000 and the Wilshire Large Cap 750 Index.
The majority of large-cap stocks are in the financial services, technology and healthcare industries.

Generally, there are 4 types of Mutual Funds. The four general mutual fund types are Stock funds that buy stocks. Their investment objective is usually specific to a certain stock type such as small cap, large cap, international. Bond funds hold only bonds. As with stock funds, they can be designed to purchase particular grades of bonds. Balanced funds invest in a mix of stocks and bonds. Money market funds usually stick with safe, short-term debt instruments such as commercial paper, banker's acceptances, repurchase agreements and certificates of deposit. They have low risk. They typically provide the lowest returns among mutual funds. Their main uses are to hold money between investments, hold emergency savings and to save for short-term goals. As of 10/2000, the U.S. has over 7,000 mutual funds.