S&P futures

Managed Futures
S&P Futures are financial futures which allow an investor to hedge with or speculate on the future value of various components of the S&P 500 Index market index. The futures instruments are derived from the S&P 500 Index is E-mini S&P Futures. S&P 500 futures contracts were first introduced by the CME in 1982. The CME added the e-mini option in 1997. The bundle of stocks in the S&P… Read More

Pension fund

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A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about $6 trillion in assets. In January… Read More

Stock market index future

options investing
In finance, a stock market index future is a cash-settled futures contract on the value of a particular stock market index, such as the S&P 500. The turnover for the global market in exchange-traded equity index futures is notionally valued, for 2008, by the Bank for International Settlements at USD 130 trillion. Uses Stock index futures are used for hedging, trading, and investments. Index futures are also used as leading indicators to… Read More

Qualified institutional buyer

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A qualified institutional buyer (QIB), in United States law and finance, is a purchaser of securities that is deemed financially sophisticated and is legally recognized by securities market regulators to need less protection from issuers than most public investors. Typically, the qualifications for this designation are based on an investor’s total assets under management and specific legal conditions in the country where the fund is located. Rule… Read More

Commodity market

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A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Investors access about 50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Futures are secured by physical assets.Commodity markets can include… Read More

Corporate governance

Corporate governance is the collection of mechanisms, processes and relations by which corporations are controlled and operated. Governance structures and principles identify the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation (such as the board of directors, managers, shareholders, creditors, auditors, regulators, and other stakeholders) and include the rules and procedures for making decisions in corporate affairs. Corporate governance is necessary because of… Read More

Internal control

Alpha Z Advisors
Internal control, as defined by accounting and auditing, is a process for assuring of an organization’s objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad concept, internal control involves everything that controls risks to an organization. It is a means by which an organization’s resources are directed, monitored, and measured. It plays an important role in detecting… Read More

European Securities and Markets Authority

Alpha Z Advisors
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is a European Union financial regulatory agency and European Supervisory Authority, located in Paris. ESMA replaced the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) on 1 January 2011. It is one of the three new European Supervisory Authorities set up within the European System of Financial Supervisors. Overview ESMA works in the field of securities legislation and regulation to improve the functioning of financial… Read More

Family office

Alpha Z Advisors
The term family office can refer to a family controlled investment group, and also the two major terms: single family office (SFO) or multi-family office (MFO). The distinction is important since, despite the similar names, they provide significantly different services. This article refers principally to single family offices, which are the predominant forms of family offices today. An SFO is a private company that manages investments and trusts for a single family. The… Read More

CME Group

CME Group Inc. (Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade) is a global markets company. It owns large derivatives, options and futures exchanges in Chicago and New York City using its CME Globex trading platforms. It also owns CME Clearing which provides settlement and clearing of exchange trades. CME Group offers the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy,… Read More