Secondary market
The secondary market called the aftermarket and follow on public offering is the financial market in which issued financial instruments such as stock, bonds and futures are bought and sold. Another frequent usage of "secondary market" is to refer to loans which are sold by a mortgage bank to investors such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the term "secondary market" is used to refer to the market for any used goods or assets, or an alternative use for an existing product or asset where the customer base is the second market. With primary issuances of securities or financial instruments, or the primary market, investors purchase these securities directly from issuers such as corporations issuing shares in an IPO or private placement, or directly from the federal government in the case of treasuries. After the initial issuance, investors can purchase from other investors in the secondary market; the secondary market for a variety of assets can vary from loans to stocks, from fragmented to centralized, from illiquid to liquid.
The major stock exchanges are the most visible example of liquid secondary markets - in this case, for stocks of publicly traded companies. Exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq provide a centralized, liquid secondary market for the investors who own stocks that trade on those exchanges. Most bonds and structured products trade “over the counter,” or by phoning the bond desk of one’s broker-dealer. Loans sometimes trade online using a Loan Exchange. In the secondary market, securities are sold by and transferred from one investor or speculator to another, it is therefore important that the secondary market be liquid. As a general rule, the greater the number of investors that participate in a given marketplace, the greater the centralization of that marketplace, the more liquid the market. Fundamentally, secondary markets mesh the investor's preference for liquidity with the capital user's preference to be able to use the capital for an extended period of time.
Accurate share price allocates scarce capital more efficiently when new projects are financed through a new primary market offering, but accuracy may matter in the secondary market because: 1) price accuracy can reduce the agency costs of management, make hostile takeover a less risky proposition and thus move capital into the hands of better managers, 2) accurate share price aids the efficient allocation of debt finance whether debt offerings or institutional borrowing. The term may refer to markets in things of value other than securities. For example, the ability to buy and sell intellectual property such as patents, or rights to musical compositions, is considered a secondary market because it allows the owner to resell property entitlements issued by the government. Secondary markets can be said to exist in some real estate contexts as well; these have similar functions as secondary stock and bond markets in allowing for speculation, providing liquidity, financing through securitization.
It facilitates marketability of the long term instrument. It provides instant valuation of securities caused by changes in the environment. Private equity secondary market refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private equity funds. Sellers of private equity investments sell not only the investments in the fund but their remaining unfunded commitments to the funds. Due to the increased compliance and reporting obligations enacted in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, private secondary markets began to emerge, such as SecondMarket and SecondaryLink; these markets are only available to institutional or accredited investors and allow trading of unregistered and private company securities. Digital currency exchanges are being regarded as secondary markets. Aftermarket Clean Energy Bank Grey market Primary market Third market Fourth market Original equipment manufacturer Private equity secondary market Reseller
Insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss. An entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, insurance carrier or underwriter. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as a policyholder; the insurance transaction involves the insured assuming a guaranteed and known small loss in the form of payment to the insurer in exchange for the insurer's promise to compensate the insured in the event of a covered loss. The loss may or may not be financial, but it must be reducible to financial terms, involves something in which the insured has an insurable interest established by ownership, possession, or pre-existing relationship; the insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insurer will compensate the insured. The amount of money charged by the insurer to the Policyholder for the coverage set forth in the insurance policy is called the premium.
If the insured experiences a loss, covered by the insurance policy, the insured submits a claim to the insurer for processing by a claims adjuster. The insurer may hedge its own risk by taking out reinsurance, whereby another insurance company agrees to carry some of the risk if the primary insurer deems the risk too large for it to carry. Methods for transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively. Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing; the Babylonians developed a system, recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen, or lost at sea. Circa 800 BC, the inhabitants of Rhodes created the'general average'.
This allowed groups of merchants to pay to insure their goods being shipped together. The collected premiums would be used to reimburse any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during transport, whether due to storm or sinkage. Separate insurance contracts were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates; the first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, in the next century maritime insurance developed and premiums were intuitively varied with risks. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance. Insurance became far more sophisticated in Enlightenment era Europe, specialized varieties developed. Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured more than 13,000 houses; the devastating effects of the fire converted the development of insurance "from a matter of convenience into one of urgency, a change of opinion reflected in Sir Christopher Wren's inclusion of a site for'the Insurance Office' in his new plan for London in 1667."
A number of attempted fire insurance schemes came to nothing, but in 1681, economist Nicholas Barbon and eleven associates established the first fire insurance company, the "Insurance Office for Houses," at the back of the Royal Exchange to insure brick and frame homes. 5,000 homes were insured by his Insurance Office. At the same time, the first insurance schemes for the underwriting of business ventures became available. By the end of the seventeenth century, London's growing importance as a center for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house, which became the meeting place for parties in the shipping industry wishing to insure cargoes and ships, those willing to underwrite such ventures; these informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London and several related shipping and insurance businesses. The first life insurance policies were taken out in the early 18th century; the first company to offer life insurance was the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office, founded in London in 1706 by William Talbot and Sir Thomas Allen.
Edward Rowe Mores established the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorship in 1762. It was the world's first mutual insurer and it pioneered age based premiums based on mortality rate laying "the framework for scientific insurance practice and development" and "the basis of modern life assurance upon which all life assurance schemes were subsequently based."In the late 19th century "accident insurance" began to become available. The first company to offer accident insurance was the Railway Passengers Assurance Company, formed in 1848 in England to insure against the rising number of fatalities on the nascent railway system. By the late 19th century governments began to initiate national insurance programs against sickness and old age. Germany built on a tradition of welfare programs in Prussia and Saxony that began as early as in the 1840s. In the 1880s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced old age pensions, accident insurance and medical care that formed the basis for Germany's welfare state.
In Britain more extensive legislation was introduced by the Liberal government in the 1911 National Insurance Act. This gave the British working classes the first contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment; this system was expanded after the Second World War under the inf
Real estate
Real estate is "property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water. Also: the business of real estate, it is a legal term used in jurisdictions whose legal system is derived from English common law, such as India, Wales, Northern Ireland, United States, Pakistan and New Zealand. Residential real estate may contain either a single family or multifamily structure, available for occupation or for non-business purposes. Residences can be classified by. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residences might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns. Major categoriesAttached / multi-unit dwellings Apartment or Flat – An individual unit in a multi-unit building; the boundaries of the apartment are defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit. Terraced house – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space. Condominium – A building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals. Common grounds and common areas within the complex are shared jointly. In North America, there are rowhouse style condominiums as well; the British equivalent is a block of flats. Cooperative – A type of multiple ownership in which the residents of a multi-unit housing complex own shares in the cooperative corporation that owns the property, giving each resident the right to occupy a specific apartment or unit. Semi-detached dwellings Duplex – Two units with one shared wall. Detached dwellings Detached house or single-family detached house Portable dwellings Mobile homes or residential caravans – A full-time residence that can be movable on wheels. Houseboats – A floating home Tents – Usually temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.
The size of an apartment or house can be described in square meters. In the United States, this includes the area of "living space", excluding the garage and other non-living spaces; the "square meters" figure of a house in Europe may report the total area of the walls enclosing the home, thus including any attached garage and non-living spaces, which makes it important to inquire what kind of surface area definition has been used. It can be described more by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a single bedroom with no living room. A one-bedroom apartment has a dining room separate from the bedroom. Two bedroom, three bedroom, larger units are common. Other categoriesChawls Villas HavelisThe size of these is measured in Gaz, Marla and acre. See List of house types for a complete listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market, house or home for more general information, it is common practice for an intermediary to provide real estate owners with dedicated sales and marketing support in exchange for commission.
In North America, this intermediary is referred to as a real estate broker, or a real estate agent in everyday conversation, whilst in the United Kingdom, the intermediary would be referred to as an estate agent. In Australia the intermediary is referred to as a real estate agent or real estate representative or the agent
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University is a private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford is known for its academic strength, proximity to Silicon Valley, ranking as one of the world's top universities; the university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr. who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford was a U. S. Senator and former Governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon; the school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would be known as Silicon Valley; the university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.
The university is organized around three traditional schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate and graduate level and four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in Law, Medicine and Business. Stanford's undergraduate program is the most selective in the United States by acceptance rate. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference, it has gained the most for a university. Stanford athletes have won 512 individual championships, Stanford has won the NACDA Directors' Cup for 24 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995. In addition, Stanford students and alumni have won 270 Olympic medals including 139 gold medals; as of October 2018, 83 Nobel laureates, 27 Turing Award laureates, 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, faculty or staff. In addition, Stanford University is noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups.
Stanford alumni have founded a large number of companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created 5.4 million jobs as of 2011 equivalent to the 10th largest economy in the world. Stanford is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires and 17 astronauts, is one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child; the institution opened in 1891 on Stanford's previous Palo Alto farm. Despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I; the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, established in 1962, performs research in particle physics. Jane and Leland Stanford modeled their university after the great eastern universities, most Cornell University and Harvard University.
Stanford opened being called the "Cornell of the West" in 1891 due to faculty being former Cornell affiliates including its first president, David Starr Jordan. Both Cornell and Stanford were among the first to have higher education be accessible and open to women as well as to men. Cornell is credited as one of the first American universities to adopt this radical departure from traditional education, Stanford became an early adopter as well. Most of Stanford University is on one of the largest in the United States, it is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, in the northwest part of the Santa Clara Valley 37 miles southeast of San Francisco and 20 miles northwest of San Jose. In 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Stanford's main campus includes a census-designated place within unincorporated Santa Clara County, although some of the university land is within the city limits of Palo Alto; the campus includes much land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park and Portola Valley.
The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, Sand Hill Road. The United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP Codes: 94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail. It lies within area code 650. Stanford operates or intends to operate in various locations outside of its central campus. On the founding grant: Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 1,200-acre natural reserve south of the central campus owned by the university and used by wildlife biologists for research. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a facility west of the central campus operated by the university for the Department of Energy, it contains the longest linear particle accelerator in the world, 2 miles on 426 acres of land. Golf course and a seasonal lake: The university has its own golf course and a seasonal lake, both home to the vulnerable California tiger salamander; as of 2012 Lake Laguni
Municipality
A municipality is a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. It is to be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory or numerous small communities such as towns and hamlets; the term municipality may mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district; the term is derived from French Latin municipalis. The English word municipality derives from the Latin social contract municipium, referring to the Latin communities that supplied Rome with troops in exchange for their own incorporation into the Roman state while permitting the communities to retain their own local governments. A municipality can be any political jurisdiction from a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, to a small village, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York.
The territory over which a municipality has jurisdiction may encompass only one populated place such as a city, town, or village several of such places only parts of such places, sometimes boroughs of a city such as the 34 municipalities of Santiago, Chile. Powers of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state. Municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, corporate income tax, but may receive substantial funding from the state. In various countries, municipalities are referred to as "communes", notably in Romance languages such as French commune, Italian comune, Romanian comună, Spanish comuna, in Germanic languages such as German Kommune, Swedish kommun, Faroese kommuna, Norwegian, Danish kommune. However, in Moldova and Romania exist both municipalities and communes, a commune may be part of a municipality. Similar terms include Spanish ayuntamiento called municipalidad, Polish gmina, Dutch/Flemish Gemeente and Luxembourgish Gemeng.
In Australia, the term local government area is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the "LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia. Incorporated areas are designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility." In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation within general municipal statutes. Types of municipalities within Canada include cities, district municipalities, municipal districts, parishes, rural municipalities, townships and villes among others; the Province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include regional municipalities. Nova Scotia has regional municipalities, which include cities, districts, or towns as municipal units. In India, a Municipality or Nagar Palika is an urban local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. However, there are exceptions to that, as Municipality were constituted in urban centers with population over 20,000, so all the urban bodies which were classified as Municipality were reclassified as Municipality if their population was under 100,000.
Under the Panchayati Raj system, it interacts directly with the state government, though it is administratively part of the district it is located in. Smaller district cities and bigger towns have a Municipality. Municipality are a form of local self-government entrusted with some duties and responsibilities, as enshrined in the Constitutional Act,1992. In the United Kingdom, the term was used until the 1972 Local Government Act came into effect in 1974 in England and Wales, until 1975 in Scotland and 1976 in Northern Ireland, "both for a city or town, organized for self-government under a municipal corporation, for the governing body itself; such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, of superior members, as aldermen and councillors". Since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, in Scotland as a council area. A district can retain its district title. In Jersey, a municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each of the 12 parishes into which it is subdivided.
This is the highest level of regional government in this jurisdiction. In Trinidad and Tobago, "municipality" is understood as a city, town, or other local government unit, formed by municipal charter from the state as a municipal corporation. A town may be awarded borough status and on may be upgraded to city status. Chaguanas, San Fernando, Port of Spain and Point Fortin are the 5 current municipalities in Trinidad and Tobago. In the United States, "municipality" is understood as a city, village, or other local government unit, formed by municipal charter from the state as a municipal corporation. In a state law contex
Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC is an American financial services company. It is a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and commodities. S&P is known for its stock market indices such as the U. S.-based S&P 500, the Canadian S&P/TSX, the Australian S&P/ASX 200. S&P is considered one of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, which include Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, its head office is located on 55 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company traces its history back to 1860, with the publication by Henry Varnum Poor of History of Railroads and Canals in the United States; this book compiled comprehensive information about the financial and operational state of U. S. railroad companies. In 1868, Henry Varnum Poor established H. V. and H. W. Poor Co. with his son, Henry William Poor, published two annually updated hardback guidebooks, Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States and Poor's Directory of Railway Officials.
In 1906, Luther Lee Blake founded the Standard Statistics Bureau, with the view to providing financial information on non-railroad companies. Instead of an annually published book, Standard Statistics would use 5-by-7-inch cards, allowing for more frequent updates. In 1941, Paul Talbot Babson purchased Poor's Publishing and merged it with Standard Statistics to become Standard & Poor's Corp. In 1966, the company was acquired by The McGraw-Hill Companies, extending McGraw-Hill into the field of financial information services; as a credit-rating agency, the company issues credit ratings for the debt of public and private companies, other public borrowers such as governments and governmental entities. It is one of several CRAs that have been designated a nationally recognized statistical rating organization by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. S&P issues both short-term and long-term credit ratings. Below is a partial list; the company rates borrowers on a scale from AAA to D. Intermediate ratings are offered at each level between AA and CCC.
For some borrowers, the company may offer guidance as to whether it is to be upgraded, downgraded or uncertain. Investment Grade AAA: An obligor rated'AAA' has strong capacity to meet its financial commitments.'AAA' is the highest issuer credit rating assigned by Standard & Poor's. AA: An obligor rated'AA' has strong capacity to meet its financial commitments, it differs from the highest-rated obligors only to a small degree. Includes: AA+: equivalent to Moody's Aa1 AA: equivalent to Aa2 AA−: equivalent to Aa3 A: An obligor rated'A' has strong capacity to meet its financial commitments but is somewhat more susceptible to the adverse effects of changes in circumstances and economic conditions than obligors in higher-rated categories. A+: equivalent to A1 A: equivalent to A2 BBB: An obligor rated'BBB' has adequate capacity to meet its financial commitments. However, adverse economic conditions or changing circumstances are more to lead to a weakened capacity of the obligor to meet its financial commitments.
Non-Investment Grade BB: An obligor rated'BB' is less vulnerable in the near term than other lower-rated obligors. However, it faces major ongoing uncertainties and exposure to adverse business, financial, or economic conditions, which could lead to the obligor's inadequate capacity to meet its financial commitments. B: An obligor rated'B' is more vulnerable than the obligors rated'BB', but the obligor has the capacity to meet its financial commitments. Adverse business, financial, or economic conditions will impair the obligor's capacity or willingness to meet its financial commitments. CCC: An obligor rated'CCC' is vulnerable, is dependent upon favorable business and economic conditions to meet its financial commitments. CC: An obligor rated'CC' is highly vulnerable. C: vulnerable in bankruptcy or in arrears but still continuing to pay out on obligations R: An obligor rated'R' is under regulatory supervision owing to its financial condition. During the pendency of the regulatory supervision, the regulators may have the power to favor one class of obligations over others or pay some obligations and not others.
SD: has selectively defaulted on some obligations D: has defaulted on obligations and S&P believes that it will default on most or all obligations NR: not rated The company rates specific issues on a scale from A-1 to D. Within the A-1 category it can be designated with a plus sign; this indicates that the issuer's commitment to meet its obligation is strong. Country risk and currency of repayment of the obligor to meet the issue obligation are factored into the credit analysis and reflected in the issue rating. A-1: obligor's capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligation is strong A-2: is susceptible to adverse economic conditions however the obligor's capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligation is satisfactory A-3: adverse economic conditions are to weaken the obligor's capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligation B: has significant speculative characteristics; the obligor has the capacity to meet its financial obligation but faces major ongoing uncertainties that could impact its financial commitment on the obligation C: vulnerable to nonpayment and is dependent upon favorable business and economic conditions for the obligor to meet its financial commitment on the obligation D: is in payment default.
Obli
