glossary Please select a letter below and then vertically scroll to find the word you are looking for  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H  |  I  |  J  |  K  |  L  |  M   N  |  O  |  P  |  Q  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  U  |  V  |  W  |  X  |  Y  |  Z  face value Nominal value on the face of a certificate or bond; market value is often very different from face value. factor Agent who carries out business for someone on a commission basis; often a sort of debt collector. Federal funds rate Rate at which banks in the US lend reserves to each other. A key short term money rate in New York, often influenced by the Federal Reserve injecting or withdrawing funds to control the price of money. Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) The government-backed residential mortgage agency in the US. Federal Reserve System (fed) Central banking of the US, consisting of 12 Federal Reserve banks controlling 12 districts under the control of the Federal Reserve Board. Fimbra Financial Intermediaries, Managers and Brokers Regulatory Association, the self-regulatory organisation in the UK for independent financial advisers. firm Refers to partnerships: accountants, stockbrokers, etc; and sometimes to small companies, privately owned. Fledgling Index Charts the stock market performance of the 800 or so quoted companies too small to be included in the All-Share index. floating rate note (FRN) Medium term loan stock in a company which pays interest that varies according to money market conditions; FRNs can be medium or long term or perpetual. forex Abbreviation of foreign exchange. forward market Market in forward contracts of a commodity or currency, which are agreements to buy or sell the commodity or currency at a future date. free cashflow Starts with Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and deducts the tax paid and, usually, capital expenditure. front end loading When all or most of the charges and commissions are imposed when a loan or insurance policy is taken out. An insurer can then benefit by persuading the buyer to cash in a policy and take out a new one. See also churning FT & FTSE indices The UK’s first stockmarket index comprised 30 leading shares and was published by the Financial News. It became the FT 30-Share Index when the paper merged with the Financial Times in 1935, and was renamed the Financial Times Ordinary Share Index in 1984, the same year the Financial Times-Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Share Index was introduced to fill the need for a constantly updated index. The more broadly based FT-Actuaries All-Share Index that had been introduced in 1962 was updated only once an hour. In 1992, the FT, the Stock Exchange and the actuarial profession brought most of their indices together into the FTSE Actuaries series. These are calculated by FTSE International, a company jointly owned by the Financial Times and the Stock Exchange. Futher information about the FTSE indices is available here. futures contract Contract which requires the delivery of a commodity at a specified date, if not liquidated before that date. Futures markets exist for many commodities and currencies. back to top