Investors Glossary by Managed Account Research Incorporated Advisor Analysis and Brokerage - Financial Terms, Investment Jargon, Terms, Vocabulary, Industry Terms

C & F	"Cost and Freight" paid to a point of destination and included in the price quoted. Same as C.A.F.
C.I.F.	Cost, insurance and freight paid to a point of destination and included in the price quoted.
Cable	Trader jargon for the British Pound Sterling referring to the Sterling/US Dollar exchange rate. Term began due to the fact that the rate was originally transmitted via a transatlantic cable starting in the mid 1800`s.
Calendar - Spread "Time Spread"	An option spread consisting of the purchase of an option and the simultaneous sale of a different option on the same instrument with a nearer expiration date. The purpose of a calendar spread is to profit from the accelerated loss in time value of the option that is written relative to the option that is purchased. Calendar spreading is often a neutral strategy, but it can also be bullish or bearish, depending upon the options involved
Call	(1) A period in which the price for each futures contract is established, i.e. an opening or closing call; (2) Buyer's Call-A purchase of a specified quantity of a specific grade of a commodity at a fixed number of points above or below a specified delivery month in futures, with the buyer being allowed a certain period of time within which to fix the price by either purchasing a futures contract for the account of the seller, or indicating to the seller when he wishes to fix price; (3) Seller's Call-Same as the buyer's call except that the seller has the right to determine the time to fix price.
Call (Option)	An option that permits the owner to buy a contracted amount of underlying security at a set price (strike or exercise) for a predetermined period of time (up to the expiration date).
Call Cotton	Cotton bought or sold on call. See Call.
Call Date	Date upon which issuer can exercise a call feature. See also Call Feature.
Call Feature	An option on the part of the issuer to redeem a bond issue prior to maturity at a predetermined price.
Call Option	A contract that entitles the buyer/taker to buy a fixed quantity of commodity at a stipulated basis or striking price at any time up to the expiration of the option. The buyer pays a premium to the seller/grantor for this contract. A call option is bought with the expectation of a rise in prices. See Put Option.
Call Price	Price at which a bond issue can be called, usually at par or a slight premium.
Call Protection	The degree of security that an investor has against a bond being redeemed. Practically, the number of years between today and the call date.
Call Rule	An exchange regulation under which an official bid price for a cash commodity is competitively established at the close of each day's trading. It holds until the next opening of the exchange.
Call Spread	Client buys a call and sells a call on the same security but with different expiration dates, different exercise prices, or both.
Callable	A securities feature that allows the issuer to retire the issue when desired. Should the issue be called, the issuer usually pays a premium.
Callable Bonds	Treasury bonds that can be redeemed by Uncle Sam five years before maturity.
Called	Another term for "exercised" when the option is a call. The writer of a call must deliver the indicated underlying commodity when the option is exercised or called.
Called Away	The process whereby a call option writer is obligated to surrender the underlying instrument (futures contract) to the option buyer at a price equal to the striking price of the call written.
Candlestick Charts	A chart that indicates the trading ranges for the day as well as the opening and closing price. If the close price is lower than the open price, the rectangle is shaded or filled. If the open price is higher than the close price, the rectangle is not filled.
Capital Gain	A trading profit. Trading gains that occur in one year or less are short-term capital gains; those that occur in periods longer than one year are long-term capital gains. Short-term and long-term capital gains are treated differently for tax purposes.
Capital Loss	A trading loss. Losses are long or short-term as are gains. See Capital Gain.
Capital Markets	Markets for medium to long term investment (usually over 1 year). These tradable instruments are more international than the ‘money market’ (i.e. Government Bonds and Eurobonds).
Capital Stock	The common and preferred stock of a company.
Capitalization	The total dollar value of all common stock, preferred stock, and bonds issued by a corporation.
Capping	Effecting commodity or security transactions shortly prior to an option's expiration date depressing or preventing a rise in the price of the commodity or security so that previously written call options will expire worthless and the premium the writer received will be protected.
Carry	The cost of financing (borrowing to buy) a position in financial instruments.
Carry (Negative)	The condition in which the cost of financing (the short-term rate of interest) is more than the return on the instrument.
Carry (Positive)	The condition in which the cost of financing (the short-term rate of interest) is less than the return on the instrument.
Carrying Broker	A member of a commodity exchange, usually a futures commission merchant, through whom another broker or customer elects to clear all or part of its trades.
Carrying Charges	Cost of storing a physical commodity or holding a financial instrument over a period of time. Includes insurance, storage, and interest on the invested funds as well as other incidental costs. It is a carrying charge market when there are higher futures prices for each successive contract maturity. If the carrying charge is adequate to reimburse the holder, it is called a "full charge." Also see Negative Carry, Positive Carry and Contango.
Carry-Over	That part of current supplies of a commodity comprised of stocks from previous production/marketing seasons.
Cash (Commodity)	The physical commodity as distinguished from Futures Contracts based upon the physical commodity; The commodity as acquired through a cash market.
Cash Account	A customer account in which all securities purchased must be paid for in full.
Cash Dividend	Dividends that corporations pay on a per-share basis to stockholders from their earnings.
Cash Flow	Amount of total payments, interest and occasionally principal received as current income from Treasury and agency securities.
Cash Forward Sale	See Forward Contracting.
Cash Market	A market in which transactions for purchase and sale of the physical commodity are made under whatever terms are agreeable to buyer and seller and are legal under law and the rules of the market organization, if such exist. Cash Market can refer to an organized, self-regulated central market, such as the cash grain sections of commodity exchanges that also have futures contract trading, or such as the central stockyards in the livestock industry. It can also refer to an over-the-counter type of market, in which buyers, sellers, and/or dealers compete in decentralized locations, possibly under rules of an organized association. In still other uses, the term may refer to other methods of purchasing and selling the physical commodity as are prevalent in the industries using that commodity. For example, an elevator company in town and neighboring farmers who feed livestock may comprise a corn grower's cash market, even though no close organized relationship exists between them. See also Spot and Forward Contract.
Cash Price	The price in the marketplace for actual cash or spot commodities to be delivered via customary market channels.
Cash Settlement	A method of settling certain futures or option contracts whereby the seller (or short) pays the buyer (or long) the cash value of the commodity traded according to a procedure specified in the contract.
Cash Settlement Option	An option through which exercise is accomplished by a payment in cash, rather than by the delivery of the underlying futures contract or instrument. The amount of cash settlement is determined by the difference between the option striking price and the price of the underlying instrument.
Cash Transaction	A settlement on the same day as the trade date.
Cashiering Department	Brokerage firm department that is responsible for receiving and delivering securities and money to and from other firms and clients.
CBOE	See Chicago Board Options Exchange.
CBT	See Chicago Board of Trade.
CCC	See Commodity Credit Corporation.
CD	See Certificate of Deposit.
CEA	See Commodity Exchange Authority.
Central Bank	A government or quasi-governmental organization that manages a country’s monetary policy a prints a nation’s currency. For example, the US central bank is the Federal Reserve, others include the ECB, BOE, BOJ.
Certificate	The physical document evidencing ownership (a share of stock) or debt (a bond).
Certificate of Deposit (CD)	A time deposit with a specific maturity evidenced by a certificate. Large-denomination CDs are typically negotiable.
Certificated or Certified Stocks	Stocks of a commodity that have been inspected and found to be of a quality deliverable against futures contracts, stored at the delivery points designated as regular or acceptable for delivery by a commodity exchange. In grain, called "stocks in deliverable position." See Deliverable Stocks.
CFO	Cancel Former Order.
CFTC	See Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Changer	A clearing member of both the Mid-America Commodity Exchange (MCE) and another futures exchange who, for a fee, will assume the opposite side of a transaction on the MCE by taking a spread position between the MCE and another futures exchange which trades an identical, but larger, contract. Through this service, the changer provides liquidity for the MCE and an economical mechanism for arbitrage between the two markets.
Charting	The use of graphs and charts in the technical analysis of futures markets to plot price movements, volume, open interest or other statistical indicators of price movement. See also Technical Analysis.
Chartist	An individual who uses charts and graphs and interprets historical data to find trends and predict future movements, as well as, aid in technical analysis.
Cheap	Colloquialism implying that a security is under priced.
Cheapest-to-Deliver	Usually refers to the selection of bonds deliverable against an expiring bond futures contract.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBT)	A major commodity exchange located 141 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago IL.
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)	Listed option trading was originated by this marketplace on April 26, 1973.
Chooser Option	An option which is transacted in the present but which at some prespecified future date is chosen to be either a put or a call option.
Churning	Excessive trading of an account by a broker with control of the account for the purpose of generating commissions while disregarding the interests of the customer.
Circuit Breakers	A system of trading halts and price limits on equities and derivative markets designed to provide a cooling-off period during large, intraday market movements. The first known use of the term circuit breaker in this context was in the Report of the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms (January 1988), which recommended that circuit breakers be adopted following the market break of October 1987.
Class	Options of the same type — all calls or all puts on the same security.
Class of Options	All call options, or all put options, exercisable for the same underlying futures contract and which expire on the same expiration date.
Clearing	The procedure through which the clearing house or association becomes the buyer to each seller of a futures contract, and the seller to each buyer, and assumes responsibility for protecting buyers and sellers from financial loss by assuring performance on each contract.
Clearing Corporations	A central reception and distribution center operated for its members who are made up of various brokerage firms. Many offer automated systems that expedite comparison procedures. Among these are NSCC (National Securities Clearing Corp.) and OCC (Options Clearing Corporation).
Clearing House	An adjunct to, or division of, a commodity exchange through which transactions executed on the floor of the exchange are settled. Also charged with assuring the proper conduct of the exchange's delivery procedures and the adequate financing of the trading.
Clearing House Comparison (CHC)	A form used to submit trades to NSCC that have missed the normal entry methods. Such trades enter the system on the third business day of the trade cycle.
Clearing Member	A member of the Clearing House or Association. All trades of a non-clearing member must be registered and eventually settled through a clearing member.
Clearing Price	See Settlement Price.
Clearinghouse	An agency connected with a commodity exchange through which all futures contracts are reconciled, settled, guaranteed and later either offset, or fulfilled through delivery of the commodity and through which financial settlement is made. It may be a fully chartered separate corporation, rather than a division of the exchange itself.
Cliffing	A strategy for arranging bonds so that they all mature in the same year.
Close a Position (Position Squaring)	To eliminate an investment from one’s portfolio by either buying back a short position or selling a long position.
Close, The	The period at the end of the trading session, officially designated by the exchange, during which all transactions are considered made "at the close." Also see Call.
Closed End Fund	A fund whose offering of shares is closed. That is, once the initial offering is completed, the fund stops offering its shares. The value of the shares is then determined by supply and demand, rather than by calculation of net asset value.
Closing Price	The price of a instrument (or option) at the last transaction of the day.
Closing Price (or Range)	The price (or price range) recorded during trading that takes place in the final moments of a day's activity that is officially designated as the "close."
Closing Purchase	A transaction in which a speculator who had previously written an option intends to liquidate the position as a writer by buying, in a closing purchase transaction, an option having the same terms as the option previously written.
Closing Range	A Range of closely related prices at which transactions took place at the closing of the market; buying and selling orders at the closing might have been filled at any point within such a range.
Closing Sale	A transaction in which a speculator who had previously purchased an option intends to liquidate the position as a holder by selling in a closing sale transaction an option having the same terms as the option previously purchased.
Closing Transaction	A purchase or sale that liquidates (offsets) an existing position. That is, selling an option that was previously purchased or buying back an option which was previously sold.
Closing-Out	Liquidating an existing long or short futures or option position with an equal and opposite transaction. Also known as Offset.
CME	The Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Collateral	An asset pledged to support a loan.
Collateral Trust Bond	A debt instrument issued by one corporation and backed by the securities of another corporation.
Combination	Puts and calls held either long or short with different strike prices and expirations.
Combination Order	In listed options trading, an order to simultaneously buy a call and sell a put or to buy a put and sell a call on the same underlying security. Also called a Combo Order.
Commercial	An entity involved in the production, processing, or merchandising of a commodity.
Commercial Grain Stocks	Domestic grain in store in public and private elevators at important markets and grain afloat in vessels or barges in lake and seaboard ports.
Commercial Paper	Short-term promissory notes issued in bearer form by large corporations, with maturities ranging from 5 to 270 days. Since the notes are unsecured, the commercial papers market generally is dominated by large corporations with impeccable credit ratings.
Commission	Fees paid to the broker for execution of an order.
Commission house	See Futures Commission Merchant.
Commission House Broker	A floor broker who is employed by a brokerage house to execute orders on the exchange floor for the firm and its customers.
Commission Merchant	One who makes a trade, either for another member of the exchange or for a non-member client, but who makes the trade in his own name and becomes liable as principal to the other.
Commitment	An agreement to lend money at a future date to a borrower.
Commitments	See Open Interest.
Commodity (as defined by CFTC)	Specifically enumerated agricultural commodities-all other goods and articles (except onions)
Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)	A wholly government-owned corporation established in 1933 to assist U.S. agriculture. The major operations are price support programs in which the CCC purchases excess supplies of commodities and provides assistance in foreign exports of agricultural commodities.
Commodity Exchange Act	The federal act that provides for federal regulation of futures trading.
Commodity Exchange Authority	A regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture established to administer the Commodity Exchange Act prior to 1975; the predecessor of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Commodity Exchange Center (CEC)	The location of five New York futures exchanges: Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the New York Cotton Exchange, the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange (CSC), and the New York Futures Exchange (NYFE).
Commodity Exchange Commission	A commission consisting of the Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, and the Attorney General, responsible for administering the Commodity Exchange Act prior to 1975.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)	A federal regulatory agency charged and empowered under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 with regulation of futures trading in all commodities. The commission is comprised of five commissioners, one of whom is designated as chairman, all appointed by the President subject to Senate confirmation, and is independent of all cabinet departments.
Commodity Option	See Option, Puts and Calls.
Commodity Pool	An investment trust, syndicate or similar form of enterprise operated for the purpose of trading commodity futures or option contracts.
Commodity Pool Operator (CPO)	Individuals or firms in businesses similar to investment trusts or syndicates that solicit or accept funds, securities or property for the purpose of trading commodity futures contracts or commodity options.
Commodity Price Index	Index or average, which may be weighted, of selected commodity prices, intended to be representative of the markets in general or a specific subset of commodities (for example, grains or livestock).
Commodity Representative	See Registered Commodity Representative.
Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA)	A person who, for compensation or profit, directly or indirectly advises others as the value of or advisability of buying or selling futures contracts or commodity options. Providing advice indirectly includes exercising trading authority over a customer's account. Registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is generally required.
Commodity-Linked Bond	A bond in which payment to the investor is dependent on the price level of such commodities as crude oil, gold, or silver at maturity.
Common Stock	A security, issued in shares, that represents ownership of a corporation. Common stockholders may vote for the management and receive dividends after all other obligations of the corporation are satisfied.
Comparison	The process by which two contra brokerage firms in a trade agree to the terms of the transaction. Comparison can be either through a clearing corporation or on a trade-for-trade basis (that is, ex the clearing corporation).
Competitive Tender	A method of purchasing new issues of Treasury bills, notes, and bonds in which the investor specifies the yield, and accordingly the price, he or she requires to purchase the security.
Concession	The fee paid to certain dealers who are members of the selling group of a securities underwriting syndicate.
Confirmation	A trade notice, issued to customers of brokerage firms, that serves as written notice of the trade, giving price, security description, settlement money, trade and settlement dates, plus other pertinent information.
Confirmation Statement	A statement sent by a Futures Commission Merchant to a customer when a futures or options position has been initiated. The statement shows the number of contracts bought or sold and the prices at which the contracts were bought or sold. Sometimes combined with a Purchase and sale statement.
Congestion	(1) A market situation in which shorts attempting to cover their positions are unable to find an adequate supply of contracts provided by longs willing to liquidate or by new sellers willing to enter the market, except at sharply higher prices; (2) in technical analysis, a period of time characterized by repetitious and limited price fluctuations.
Consent to Loan Agreement	An agreement margin customers must sign to authorize the brokerage firm to lend the customer’s securities to itself or other firms.
Consideration	The money value of a transaction (number of shares multiplied by the price) before adding commission.
Consignment	A shipment made by a producer or dealer to an agent elsewhere with the understanding that the commodities in question will be cared for or sold at the highest obtainable price. Title to the merchandise shipped on consignment rests with the shipper until the goods are disposed of according to agreement.
Constant-Dollar Investment	Securities such as savings accounts and money market funds that do not fluctuate in price.
Contagion	The tendency of an economic crisis to spread from one market to another. In 1997, financial instability in Thailand caused high volatility in its domestic currency, the Baht, which triggered a contagion into other East Asian emerging currencies, and then to Latin America. It is now referred to as the Asian Contagion.
Contango	Market situation in which prices in succeeding delivery months are progressively higher than in the nearest delivery month; the opposite of "backwardation."
Contract	(1) A term of reference describing a unit of trading for a commodity future or option; (2) An agreement to buy or sell a specified commodity, detailing the amount and grade of the product and the date on which the contract will mature and become deliverable.
Contract (Unit or Lot)	The standard unit of trading on certain exchanges.
Contract Grades	Standards or grades of commodities listed in the rules of the exchanges that must be met when delivering cash commodities against futures contracts. Grades are often accompanied by a schedule of discounts and premiums allowable for delivery of commodities of lesser or greater quality than the contract grade.
Contract Market	(1) A board of trade or exchange designated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to trade futures or options under the Commodity Exchange Act; (2) Sometimes the futures contract itself (e.g., corn is a contract market).
Contract Month	The month in which delivery is to be made in accordance with a futures contract.
Contract Unit	The actual amount of a commodity stipulated for delivery against a given futures contract.
Contractual Plan	A type of accumulation plan in which an investor in mutual funds makes a firm commitment to invest a given amount of money over a given time.
Control Persons	A director, officer or other affiliate of the issuer or a stockholder who owns at least 10% of any class of outstanding stock.
Control Securities	Securities owned by one of those parties mentioned in Control Person
Controlled Account	Any account for which trading is directed by someone other than the owner. Also called a Managed Account or a Discretionary Account.
Conventional Loan	Mortgage loan without a government guarantee or insurance.
Convergence	The tendency for prices of physicals and futures to approach one another, usually during the delivery month. Also called a "narrowing of the basis."
Conversion	When trading options on futures contracts, a position created by selling a call option, buying a put option, and buying the underlying futures contract, where the options have the same strike price and the same expiration.
Conversion Premium	Refers to the percentage above parity at which the convertible security is trading. Conversion Premium is calculated as follows: (Convertible Price – Conversion Value) divided by Conversion Value
Conversion Ratio	Issue price of the convertible divided by the conversion price.
Conversion Value or Parity	Number of common shares per convertible (conversion ratio) multiplied by the current price of the common stock.
Convertible Currency	A currency which can be exchanged freely for other currencies at market rates, or gold.
Convertible Issue (Bond)	A securities feature that permits the issue holder to convert to another issue, usually common stock. This privilege can be used only once. The preferred stock or bond holder can convert from that issue to another, but not back.
Convertible Preferred Stock	A preferred stock that may be converted into common stock of the same company at specific prices or rates.
Convertible Zero	As it applies to the Treasury sector, a stripped Treasury zero that converts into a current income obligation five years before maturity.
Convexity	Measure of the curvature of the price-yield relationship of a fixed-income security. Any fixed-income security with known cash flows has positive convexity.
Cooling-Off Period	The period, usually 20 days, between the filing of the registration statement on a new issue with the SEC and the effective date of the offering.
Co-Partnership Account	An account in which the individuals may act on behalf of the partnership as a whole.
Corner	(1) Securing such relative control of a commodity or security that its price can be manipulated; (2) In the extreme situation, obtaining contracts requiring the delivery of more commodities or securities than are available for delivery.
Corn-Hog Ratio	See Feed Ratio.
Corporate Resolution	A document stating that the corporation’s board of directors has authorized a particular individual to act on behalf of the corporation. This document is necessary when the corporation opens a cash or margin account.
Corporation	A business organization under the law with certain rights and responsibilities in which the worth is divided into shares of stock.
Cost of Carry	The cost associated with borrowing money in order to maintain a position. It is based on the interest parity, which determines the forward price.
Cost of Tender	Total of various charges incurred when a commodity is certified and delivered on a futures contract.
Counter party	The participant, either a bank or customer, with whom the financial transaction is made.
Counter-Trend Trading	In technical analysis, the method by which a trader takes a position contrary to the current market direction in anticipation of a change in that direction.
Country Risk	The risk associated with government intervention (does not include central bank intervention). Examples are legal and political events such as war, or civil unrest.
Coupon	(1) On Bearer Stocks, the detachable part of the certificate exchangeable for dividends. (2) Denotes the rate of interest on a fixed interest security-a 10% coupon pays interest of 10% a year on the nominal value of the stock.
Coupon Yield	Also called nominal yield. A bond’s coupon payment divided by par value.
Cover	To offset a previous futures transaction with an equal and opposite transaction. "Short-Covering" is a purchase of futures contracts to cover an earlier sale of an equal number of the same delivery month; "Liquidation" is the sale of futures contracts to offset the obligation to take delivery of an equal number of futures contracts of the same delivery month purchased earlier.
Covered Call	A call option that is sold against stock owned by the writer of the call.
Covered Option	A short call or put option position which is covered by the sale or purchase of the underlying futures contract or physical commodity. For example, in the case of options on futures contracts, a covered call is a short call position combined with a long futures position. A covered put is a short put position combined with a short futures position.
Covered Put	A put option that is sold by the owner of a put of the same class with an equal or longer expiration date and an equal or higher exercise price.
Covered Writing	A form of option writing in which the writer (hedger) owns a quantity of the underlying instrument equivalent to the number of option contracts written. It is less risky than outright long instrument positions with commensurately lower margin requirements.
Cox-Ross-Rubinstein Option Pricing Model	An option pricing logarithm developed by J. Cox, S. Ross and M. Rubinstein which can be adopted to include effects not included in the Black-Scholes model (e.g., early exercise and price supports).
CPO	See Commodity Pool Operator.
Crack	In energy futures, the simultaneous purchase of crude oil futures and the sale of petroleum product futures to establish a refining margin. See Gross Processing Margin.
Credit Agreement	Outlines the conditions of credit arrangement between the broker and customer concerning a margin account.
Credit Balance	The funds available to a client in a cash or margin account. In a short sale, this balance represents the customer’s liability.
Credit Checking	Due to the large size of certain financial transactions that change hands, it is essential to check that that the counter parties have room for the trade. Once the price has been agreed the credit is checked. If the credit is bad then no trade takes place. Credit is very important when trading, both in the Inter-bank market and between banks and their customers.
Credit Netting	Arrangements that exist to maximize free credit and speed the dealing process by reducing the need to constantly re-check credit. Large banks and trading institutions may have agreements to net outstanding deals.
Crop Year	The time period from one harvest to the next, varying according to the commodity (i.e., July 1 to June 30 for wheat; September 1 to August 31 for soybeans).
Cross Rates	An exchange rate between two currencies. The cross rate is said to be non-standard in the country where the currency pair is quoted. For example, in the US, a GBP/CHF quote would be considered a cross rate, whereas in the UK or Switzerland it would be one of the primary currency pairs traded
Cross Trading	Offsetting or noncompetitive match of the buy order of one customer against the sell order of another, a practice that is permissible only when executed in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act, CFTC regulations, and rules of the contract market.
Cross-Hedge	Hedging a cash market position in a futures contract for a different but price-related commodity.
Cross-Margining	A procedure for margining related securities, options, and futures contracts jointly when different clearing houses clear each side of the position.
Cross-Rate	In foreign exchange, the price of one currency in terms of another currency in the market of a third country. For example, a London dollar cross-rate could be the price of one U.S. dollar in terms of deutsche marks on the London market.
Crush Spread	In the soybean futures market, the simultaneous purchase of soybean futures and the sale of soybean meal and soybean oil futures to establish a processing margin. See Gross Processing Margin.
CTA	See Commodity Trading Advisor.
CTI Codes	Customer Type Indicator codes. These consist of four identifiers which describe transactions by the type of customer for which a trade is effected.. The four codes are
Cumulative Preferred	A preferred stock feature that entitles the holder to the later payment of dividends that were not paid when due. The dividends are, in this sense, "cumulative." The dividends accumulate and must be paid (along with present dividends) before common stockholders may receive any dividends.
Curb Trading	Trading by telephone or by other means that takes place after the official market has closed. Originally it took place in the street on the curb outside the market. Under CFTC rules, curb trading is illegal. Also known as kerb trading.
Currency	A country’s unit of exchange issued by their government or central bank whose value is the basis for trade.
Currency Risk	The risk of incurring losses resulting from an adverse change in exchange rates.
Current Delivery (Month)	The futures contract that will come to maturity and become deliverable during the current month; also called a Spot Month.
Current Income	Cash-in-hand payments received from interest and dividends.
Current Maturity	The number of years until a bond matures, regardless of its original maturity when issued.
Current Yield	The amount of money received (currently) divided by the instrument purchase price.
CUSIP (The Committee on Uniform Security Identific	An inter-industry security coding service. Each type of security has its own unique CUSIP number.
Custodian	The person or institution responsible for protecting the property of another.
Customer (Account) Statement	Sometimes referred to as month-end statement. This is a statement of the customer’s positions and activity. It must be sent out quarterly, but if there is monthly activity in the account, it is sent out monthly.
Customer Segregated Funds	See Segregated Account.