Investment and Finance

The striking price is the price at which the holder of a call option can buy or the holder of a put option can sell a specified amount of stock at any time before the option's expiration date. It is also known as the exercise price.

Treasury Bills are direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury to finance budgetary needs. Treasury bills are offered in 3 month, 6 month and 12 month maturities. Treasury bills are considered short term IOU's issued by the U.S. Treasury and are commonly considered as the risk free investment asset.
Your return on a Treasury bill is the difference between the discount price you pay for the bill and its face value, if you hold it to maturity or the amount you receive for it on a sale before its maturity.
You may buy Treasury bills directly from the Federal reserve bank without a fee or from a bank or stockbroker who will charge you a handling fee.

CD's are Certificate of Deposits which are a form of short term investments that offers a high degree of safety and negotiability. Negotiable Certificates of Deposits are negotiable instruments representing specific cash deposits in commercial banks having varying maturities and yields based on size maturity and prevailing money market conditions. Yields are generally above those on U.S. Treasury issues and comparable to those on commercial paper with similar maturities.

Preferred stock gives its shareholders certain privileges that make them senior to common shareholders.
Preferred stockholders are promissed a fixed periodic return which is stated as a dollar amount or a percentage.
Preferred stockholders are given preference over common shareholders with respect to distribution of earnings.

Marketable securities are short term debt instruments such as U.S. Treasury bills, commercial paper and negotiable certificates of deposit issued by financial institution, business, or government.

The bid price is the highest price offered by a dealer to purchase a given security. The ask price is the lowest price at which a dealer is willing to sell the security. The dealer adds securities to his or hers inventory by purchasing them at the bid price and sells securities from inventory at the ask price. A profit will occur from the difference between the bid and ask price.

Treasury notes are U.S. Treasury obligations with initial maturities of between 1 and 10 years, They pay interest at a stated rate semiannually. There is low risk of loss and usually a low return yield compared to other securities with similar maturities. They are usually issued in mimimum denominations of $1,000 or $5,000.

Commercial paper is a short term unsecured promissory note issued by a corporation that has a very high credit rating. The yield usually is more than that paid on U.S. Treasury issues and similar to those available on negotiable CD's with similar maturities. The commercial paper notes are usually issued in multiples of $100,000. The commercial paper notes usually have maturities from 3 to 270 days.

A dynasty trust is a trust which avoids estate taxes because the rule of perpetuities does not apply. Most states limit trusts to 100 years. Thirteen states including New Jersey, Wisconsin, Idaho, Rhode Island now allow a trust to span beyond that period.