Financing that is not shown as a liability on a company's balance sheet.

A wholly owned affiliate incorporated overseas, usually in a tax haven country, whose function is to issue securities abroad for use in either the parent's domestic or foreign business.

Oligopoly market is where the combined Market share of the top three companies is greater than 73.9% of the total Market and where the combined share of the second and third companies is greater than that of the market leader.

Purchase or sale of government securities by the monetary authorities to increase or decrease the domestic money supply.

Earnings before depreciation minus taxes. Measures the cash generated from operations, not counting capital spending or working capital requirements.

The average time between the acquisition of materials or services and the final cash realization from that acquisition.

Operating gearing refers to the proportion of a company’s operating costs that are fixed as opposed to variable. The higher the proportion of fixed costs, the higher the operating gearing. Companies with high operating gearing tend to have volatile operating profits. This is because fixed costs remain the same, no matter the volume of sales. Thus, if sales increase, operating profit increases by a larger percentage. But if sales volume falls, operating profit falls by a larger percentage. Generally, it is a high-risk policy to combine high financial gearing with high operating gearing. High operating gearing is common in many service industries where many operating costs are fixed.

Revenue from a firm's regular activities less costs and expenses and before income deductions.

The inherent or fundamental risk of a firm, without regard to financial risk. The risk that is created by operating leverage. Also called business risk.

Market in which investors can obtain transactions services that reflect the true costs associated with furnishing those services.

Expected return that is forgone by investing in a project rather than in comparable financial securities.

The difference in the performance of an actual investment and a desired investment adjusted for fixed costs and execution costs. When not all desired trades can be implemented. Most valuable alternative that is given up.

The possible expected return and standard deviation pairs of all portfolios that can be constructed from a given set of assets.