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Trading basics

Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre

Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) in Karachi, Pakistan was run by Dr. Ruth Pfau, who was also a Roman Catholic religious sister of the Society of Daughters of the Heart of Mary, originally of German descent. Mervyn Lobo is the current chief executive officer of MALC.

Trading basics

Market neutral

An investment strategy or portfolio is considered market-neutral if it seeks to avoid some form of market risk entirely, typically by hedging. To evaluate market neutrality requires specifying the risk to avoid. For example, convertible arbitrage attempts to fully hedge fluctuations in the price of the underlying common stock. A portfolio is truly market-neutral if it exhibits zero corre

Trading basics

Marketing failure

Marketing failure is when a commercial marketing effort by a business fails to accomplish anything positive, or alternately when a commercial product is either totally or mostly rejected by its potential customers.

Banking

Merchant bank

A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage, it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodities, particularly cloth merchants. Historically, merchant banks' purpose was to facilitate or finance the production and trade of commodities,

Banking

Merck family

The Merck family is a German noble family of industrialists and bankers, known for establishing the world's oldest pharmaceutical company Merck, its American former subsidiary Merck & Co. (MSD), which is now an independent company, as well as the Hamburg merchant bank H. J. Merck & Co. The family still owns the majority of the pharmaceutical company Merck, making them one of the richest

Trading basics

Mezzanine capital

Mezzanine capital is a type of financing that sits between senior debt and equity in a company's capital structure. It is typically used to fund growth, acquisitions, or buyouts. Technically, mezzanine capital can be either a debt or equity instrument with a repayment priority between senior debt and common stock equity. Mezzanine debt is subordinated debt that represents a claim on a co

Securities & exchanges

Microcap stock fraud

Microcap stock fraud is a form of securities fraud involving stocks of "microcap" companies, generally defined in the United States as those with a market capitalization of under $250 million. Its prevalence has been estimated to run into the billions of dollars a year. Many microcap stocks are penny stocks, which the SEC defines as a security that trades at less than $5 per share, is no

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Croatia)

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Ministarstvo financija) is the ministry in the Government of Croatia which is in charge of state finances and the budget.

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Denmark)

The Ministry of Finance of Denmark (Danish: Finansministeriet) is a ministry in the Government of Denmark. Among other things, it is in charge of the government budget (subject to approval by the Danish parliament, Folketinget), paying government employees and improving efficiency in government administration. The current Finance Minister of Denmark is Nicolai Wammen.

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Kuwait)

Ministry of Finance is one of the governmental bodies of Kuwait and part of the cabinet. It is concerned with the executive general administration of public financial affairs in the State of Kuwait. As of August 2025 the Acting minister is Dr. Sabeeh Al-Mukhaizeem.

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Mauritius)

The Ministry of Finance of Mauritius is a ministerial department found in the Cabinet of the Government of the Republic. It is considered as the most executive and important ministry in the cabinet after the Prime Minister's Office. The minister of finance is the most desirable position in the cabinet of the country except of the prime minister. Most of the time being the Deputy Prime Mi

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Singapore)

The Ministry of Finance (MOF; Malay: Kementerian Kewangan; Chinese: 财政部; Tamil: நிதி அமைச்சு) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for managing the fiscal policies and the structure of the economy of Singapore.

Finance

Ministry of Finance and Economy (South Korea)

The Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE; Korean: 재정경제부) oversees the financial policies of the Government of the Republic of Korea. It publishes a monthly report on the national economy, known as the "Green Book." The current minister is Koo Yun-cheol. The headquarters is in the Sejong Government Complex in Sejong City.

Finance

Money disorder

Money disorders refer to problematic financial beliefs and behaviors that can cause significant distress and hinder one's social or occupational well-being. These issues often stem from financial stress or an inability to effectively utilize one's financial resources, leading to clinically significant challenges. Money disorders refer to enduring and often unchanging patterns of self-des

Finance

Multi-manager investment

A multi-manager fund is an investment product that consists of multiple specialized funds. Each specialized fund may invest across different sectors and markets, or in the same asset class but have different investment styles. For example, large cap value fund versus large cap growth fund.

Banking

Murashu family

The house of Murashu were a family of businessmen and moneylenders based at Nippur in Babylonia in the fifth century BCE. They left an archive of hundreds of cuneiform texts called the Murashu Archive which is often used to understand business and society in the Achaemenid Empire.

Trading basics

NAV lending

NAV (Net Asset Value) lending is a form of fund-level financing where loans are secured by the value of a private equity fund’s investments rather than the uncalled capital commitments of limited partners (LPs). NAV-based credit facilities provide liquidity to private equity funds by allowing them to borrow against the underlying portfolio. These facilities differ from subscription line

Assets

Neptune's Brood

Neptune's Brood is a science fiction novel by British author Charles Stross, set in the same universe as Saturn's Children, but thousands of years later and with all new characters.

Finance

New Zealand Treasury

The New Zealand Treasury (Māori: Te Tai Ōhanga) is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with advising the Government on economic policy, assisting with improving the performance of New Zealand's economy, and managing financial resources. The minister responsible for the Treasury is the Minister of Finance of New Zealand; however, from 1996 to 2002, there existed a

Finance

Operating partner

An operating partner is a title used by venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms to describe a role dedicated to working with privately held companies to increase value. The role was created by large-capitalization private equity groups when the importance of driving corporate change to add value increased as sellers became more sophisticated and financial engineering less cent

Finance

Option style

In finance, the style or family of an option is the class into which the option falls, usually defined by the dates on which the option may be exercised. The vast majority of options are either European or American (style) options. These options—as well as others where the payoff is calculated similarly—are referred to as "vanilla options". Options where the payoff is calculated differe

Fiat currencies

Ouroboros (protocol)

Ouroboros is a family of proof-of-stake consensus protocols used in the Cardano and Polkadot blockchains. It can run both permissionless and permissioned blockchains.

Finance

Panama Papers

The Panama Papers (Spanish: Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (2.6 terabytes of data) published from April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, the former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mo

Securities & exchanges

Penny stock

In American economics, penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than $5 per share.

Finance

Personal finance

Personal finance is the financial management that an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources in a controlled manner, taking into account various financial risks and future life events.

Trading basics

Peruzzi

The Peruzzi family were bankers of Florence, among the leading families of the city in the 14th century, before the rise to prominence of the Medici. Their modest antecedents stretched back to the mid 11th century, according to the family's genealogist Luigi Passerini, but a restructuring of the Peruzzi company in the 1340's, with an infusion of outside capital, marked the start of a qua

Banking

Pet banks

Pet banks is a derogatory term for state banks selected by the U.S. Department of Treasury to receive surplus Treasury funds in 1833. Pet banks are sometimes confused with wildcat banks. Although the two are distinct types of institutions that arose concomitantly, some pet banks were known to also engage in practices of wildcat banking. They were chosen among the big U.S. banks when Pre

Finance

Pooled income fund

The Pooled Income Fund (PIF) is a type of charitable mutual fund or charitable trust that pools the securities or cash separately donated by an individual, a family or a corporation to a charity, which is then invested to provide dividends for both the donor's beneficiary and charity. The donations are irrevocable and tax-deductible and must be from personal assets. Capital gains taxes d

Trading basics

Post-money valuation

Post-money valuation is a way of expressing the value of a company after an investment has been made. This value is equal to the sum of the pre-money valuation and the amount of new equity.

Trading basics

Pre-money valuation

"Pre-money valuation" is a term widely used in the private equity and venture capital industries. It refers to the valuation of a company or asset prior to an investment or financing. If an investment adds cash to a company, the company will have a valuation after the investment that is equal to the pre-money valuation plus the cash amount. That is, the pre-money valuation refers to the

Trading basics

Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See

The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See was a dicastery of the Roman Curia, erected on 15 August 1967, and entrusted with overseeing all the offices of the Holy See that managed finances, regardless of their degree of autonomy.

Banking

Private banking

Private banking is a general description for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial assets. Private banking is presented by those who provide such services as an exclusive subset of wealth management services, provided to particularly af

Finance

Private equity fund

A private equity fund (PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. Private equity funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years (often with one- or two-year extensions). At inception, institutional inv

Banking

Private equity in the 1990s

Private equity in the 1990s relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital, experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.

Banking

Private equity in the 2000s

Private equity in the 2000s represents one of the major growth periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital, expanded along parallel and interrelated tracks.

Banking

Private equity in the 2010s

Private equity (PE) expanded throughout the 2010s. As of 2019, there were nearly 7,000 PE firms within the United States, nearly $2.5 trillion globally in unspent cash (known as dry powder), and deal-making in private equity accounted for 13% of global acquisitions.

Banking

Private equity in the 2020s

In the 2020s private equity (PE) firms responded to the COVID-19 recession with a surge in funding.

Trading basics

Private investment in public equity

A private investment in public equity, commonly known as a PIPE deal, involves selling of publicly traded common shares or some form of preferred stock or convertible security to private investors. It is an allocation of shares in a public company not through a public offering in a stock exchange. PIPE deals are part of the primary market. In the U.S., a PIPE offering may be registered w

Securities & exchanges

Private placement

Private placement or non-public offering is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. Generally, these investors include friends and family, accredited investors, and institutional investors. Placement agents help find investors.

Trading basics

Private placement agent

A private placement agent or placement agent is a firm assisting fund managers in the alternative asset class (e.g., private equity, infrastructure, real estate, hedge funds, and venture capital) and entrepreneurs/private companies (e.g., start-ups and growth capital companies) seeking to raise private financing through a so-called private placement.

Trading basics

Private sector involvement

In the context of sovereign debt crisis, private sector involvement (PSI) is, broadly speaking, the forced contribution of private sector creditors to a financial crisis resolution process, and, specifically, to the private sector incurring outright reductions ("haircuts") on the value of its debt holdings.

Trading basics

Private student loan (United States)

A private student loan is a financing option for higher education in the United States that can supplement, but should not replace, federal loans, such as Stafford loans, Perkins loans and PLUS loans. Private loans, which are heavily advertised, do not have the forbearance and deferral options available with federal loans (which are never advertised). In contrast with federal subsidized

Finance

Privy Purse

The Privy Purse is the British sovereign's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster. This amounted to £24.2 million in net income for 2024/25.

Finance

Proprietary trading

Proprietary trading (also known as prop trading) occurs when a trader trades stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, their derivatives, or other financial instruments with the firm's own money (instead of using customer funds) to make a profit for itself.

Trading basics

Public Market Equivalent

The public market equivalent (PME) is a collection of performance measures developed to assess private equity funds and to overcome the limitations of the internal rate of return and multiple on invested capital measurements. While the calculations differ, they all attempt to measure the return from deploying a private equity fund's cash flows into a stock market index.

Banking

Publix

Publix Super Markets, Inc., doing business as Publix, is an employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, Publix is a private corporation that is wholly owned by present and past employees and members of the Jenkins family. Publix operates throughout the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida (897), Geor

Banking

Qard al-Hasan

Qardh al-hasan (Arabic: قرض الحسن, transl. benevolent lending) is an Islamic concept of interest-free lending. It is based on the principle of helping others without expecting a financial gain. However some Ulama deem it a form of interest-free loan (fungible, marketable wealth) that is extended by a lender to a borrower on the basis of benevolence (ihsan). Al-qardh, from a shari’a point

Trading basics

Remittances to India

Remittances to India are money transfers from non-resident Indians (NRIs) employed outside the country to family, friends, or relatives residing in India. India is the world's top receiver of remittances, claiming more than 12% of the world's remittances in 2015. Remittances to India stood at US$125 billion in 2023, up from US$69 billion in 2017. Remittances from India to other countries

Trading basics

Remittances to Nepal

Remittances to Nepal are money transfers from Nepalese workers employed outside the country to friends or relatives in Nepal and form part of the wider global remittance transfers by migrant workers back to their home countries. Remittances constitute a substantial economic pillar for Nepal. In 2023, these inward transfers were valued at an estimated US$11 billion, contributing a signifi

Finance

Resource allocation

In economics, resource allocation is the assignment of available resources to various uses. In the context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means, such as markets, or planning.

Finance

Risk arbitrage

Risk arbitrage, also known as merger arbitrage, is an investment strategy that speculates on the successful completion of mergers and acquisitions. An investor that employs this strategy is known as an arbitrageur. Risk arbitrage is a type of event-driven investing in that it attempts to exploit pricing inefficiencies caused by a corporate event.

Trading basics

Rollup

A rollup (also "roll-up" or "roll up") is a process used by investors (commonly private equity firms) where multiple small companies in the same market are acquired and merged.

Banking

Rothschild family

The Rothschild family (Hebrew: משפחת רוטשילד) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt, Germany. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567. The family rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court

Trading basics

Rothschild loans to the Holy See

Rothschild loans to the Holy See refers to a series of major financial loans arranged between the Rothschild family and the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The first loan, which occurred in 1832, took place in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XVI (involving James Mayer de Rothschild and Carl Mayer von Rothschild). This loan agreed on was for a

Trading basics

Security characteristic line

Security characteristic line (SCL) is a regression line, plotting performance of a particular security or portfolio against that of the market portfolio at every point in time. The SCL is plotted on a graph where the Y-axis is the excess return on a security over the risk-free return and the X-axis is the excess return of the market in general. The slope of the SCL is the security's beta

Trading basics

Seed money

Seed money is the earliest financial support a new project receives, often arriving at a point when an idea exists but nothing concrete has been built yet. This first backing helps a venture take its initial steps and gives people working on it enough stability to continue developing their work. An investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible

Trading basics

Silver Thursday

Silver Thursday refers to the sharp collapse in the United States silver and silver futures markets on Thursday, March 27, 1980. The crisis followed a rapid rise in silver prices and the accumulation of a large long position by members of the Hunt family, principally Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt, with Lamar Hunt involved to a lesser extent. The term is used both for the tr

Finance

Simple agreement for future equity

A simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) is an agreement between an investor and a company that provides rights to the investor for future equity in the company similar to a warrant, except without determining a specific price per share at the time of the initial investment. The SAFE investor receives the future shares when a priced round of investment or liquidity event occurs. SAFEs

Banking

Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet

Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (18 April 1740 – 11 September 1810) was a British merchant, banker and politician. A member of the Baring family, he became the first of the Baring baronets.

Trading basics

Special Administration of the Holy See

The Special Administration of the Holy See (Italian: Amministrazione Speciale della Santa Sede, nicknamed La Speciale, abbreviated ASSS) was a dicastery of the Roman Curia from 1929 to 1967. It was established motu proprio by Pope Pius XI on 7 June 1929 to manage the ₤750 million in cash and 1,000 million in Italian government bonds transferred to the Holy See in implementation of the Fi

Securities & exchanges

Squarepoint Capital

Squarepoint Capital ("Squarepoint") is a global investment management firm headquartered in New York City & London. The firm is known for its quantitative finance approach to investing. Squarepoint has additional offices in Bangalore, Boston, Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, Houston, Jersey, London, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, Singapore, and Zug.

Trading basics

Statistical arbitrage

In finance, statistical arbitrage (Stat Arb or StatArb) is a class of short-term financial trading strategies that employ mean reversion models involving broadly diversified portfolios of securities (hundreds to thousands) held for short periods of time (generally seconds to days). These strategies are supported by substantial mathematical, computational, and trading platforms.

Banking

Stern family

The Stern family is a Jewish banking family originally from Frankfurt. It traces back to Samuel Hayum Stern (1760–1819), who in the 1780s became a wine merchant in Frankfurt. In 1805, his son, Jacob Samuel Heyum Stern, converted the family business into a bank called Jacob S.H. Stern & Co., which became one of the most prominent banking institutions in Germany.

Finance

Supply chain finance

Supply chain finance (SCF), also known as supplier finance or reverse factoring, comprises a suite of financial solutions that aim to manage working capital and liquidity for businesses within a supply chain. These arrangements are typically initiated by a buyer to allow their suppliers to access funding for their accounts receivable at interest rates based on the buyer's credit rating,

Trading basics

Swazi lilangeni

The lilangeni (plural: emalangeni, ISO 4217 code: SZL) is the currency of Eswatini and is subdivided into 100 cents. It is issued by the Central Bank of Eswatini (in swazi Umntsholi Wemaswati) and is authorised by the king and his family. The South African rand is also accepted in Eswatini. Similar to the Lesotho loti, there are singular and plural abbreviations, namely L and E, so where

Trading basics

Taxation of private equity and hedge funds

Private equity funds and hedge funds are private investment vehicles used to pool investment capital, usually for a small group of large institutional or wealthy individual investors. They are subject to favorable regulatory treatment in most jurisdictions from which they are managed, which allows them to engage in financial activities that are off-limits for more regulated companies.

Networks

The Sandbox (company)

TSB Gaming (formerly known as Pixowl), doing business and commonly known as The Sandbox, is a metaverse platform developer. Founded in 2011, the company is now a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. The company's chief product is The Sandbox, a 3D blockchain game platform released in 2021 as a sequel to the 2D world-building mobile game developed by the company in 2012.

Trading basics

Toy library

A toy library is a type of library that lends or hires out toys, puzzles, and games. They can function as either as a rental shop, part of a public library, or family resource program. Some toy libraries offer play sessions for families. Toy libraries are internationally federated by the International Toy Library Association (ITLA).

Trading basics

Undercapitalization

Under-capitalization refers to any situation where a business cannot acquire the funds they need. An under-capitalized business may be one that cannot afford current operational expenses due to a lack of capital, which can trigger bankruptcy, may be one that is over-exposed to risk, or may be one that is financially sound but does not have the funds required to expand to meet market dema

Trading basics

Venture capital trust

A venture capital trust or VCT is a tax efficient UK closed-end collective investment scheme designed to provide venture capital for small expanding companies, and income (in the form of dividend distributions) and/or capital gains for investors. VCTs are a form of publicly traded private equity, comparable to investment trusts in the UK or business development companies in the United St

Trading basics

Vix pervenit

Vix pervenit (lit. 'It has hardly reached') is an encyclical, promulgated by Pope Benedict XIV on 1 November 1745, which condemned the practice of charging interest on loans as usury. Because the encyclical was addressed to the bishops of Italy, it is generally not considered ex cathedra. The Holy Office applied the encyclical to the whole of the Roman Catholic Church on 29 July 1836, du

Trading basics

Vulture fund

A vulture fund is a hedge fund or private-equity fund that invests in debt considered to be very weak or in default, known as distressed debt. Investors in the fund profit by buying debt at a discounted price on a secondary market and then using numerous methods to sell the debt for more than the purchasing price. Debtors include companies, countries, and individuals.

Banking

Warburg family

The Warburg family is a prominent German and American banking family. They are noted for their varied accomplishments in biochemistry, botany, political activism, economics, investment banking, law, physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy.

Trading basics

World Business Angels Association

The World Business Angels Association (WBAA) was an international, not-for-profit organization whose mission was to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in the field of global angel capital financing for high-growth and innovative startups. It was closed around 2017.

Finance

World Liberty Financial

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a decentralized finance protocol developed by its namesake company. It was founded in 2024 by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, Alex Witkoff, Zach Witkoff, and Trump family members. It is a business venture of the Trump family. The Trump family receives 75% of net proceeds when WLFI sells tokens, as well as gets a cut of stablecoin profits. By December 2025,

Trading basics

York Capital Management

York Capital Management (York Capital) is an American investment management company, founded by James Dinan and headquartered in New York City.

Banking

You Can't Take It with You (film)

You Can't Take It with You is a 1938 American screwball romantic comedy film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, and Edward Arnold. Adapted by Robert Riskin from the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman from a

Trading basics

Youth Off The Streets

Youth Off The Streets is an Australian non-denominational not-for-profit youth organisation. The organisation works with young people and their families and communities in an endeavour to create safety, offer support and provide opportunities to build a positive future.