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The rate of a foreign-exchange contract for immediate delivery. Also known as “benchmark rates”, “straightforward rates” or “outright rates”, spot rates represent the price that a buyer expects to pay for a foreign currency in another currency.

Investopedia Says: Though the spot exchange rate is said to be settled immediately, the globally accepted settlement cycle for foreign-exchange contracts is two days. Foreign-exchange contracts are therefore settled on the second day after the day the deal is made.

A measure of total costs associated with managing and operating an investment fund such as a mutual fund. These costs consist primarily of management fees and additional expenses such as trading fees, legal fees, auditor fees and other operational expenses. The total cost of the fund is divided by the fund’s total assets to arrive at a percentage amount, which represents the TER.

Investopedia Says:

The size of the TER is important to investors, as the costs come out of the fund and hurt the returns that investors achieve. For example, if a fund generates a return of 7% for the year but has a TER of 4%, investors’ 7% gain is greatly diminished (to roughly 3%).

The price that a given property or asset would fetch in the marketplace, subject to the following conditions:

1. Prospective buyers and sellers are reasonably knowledgeable about the asset; they are behaving in their own best interests and are free of undue pressure to trade.

2. A reasonable time period is given for the transaction to be completed.

Given these conditions, an asset’s fair market value should represent an accurate valuation or assessment of its worth.

Investopedia Says:

Fair market values are widely used across many areas of commerce. For example, municipal property taxes are often assessed based on the fair market value of the owner’s property. Depending upon how many years the owner has owned the home, the difference between the purchase price and the residence’s fair market value can be substantial.

Fair market values are often used in the insurance industry as well. For example, when an insurance claim is made as a result of a car accident, the insurance company covering the damage to the owner’s vehicle will usually cover damages up to the fair market value of the automobile.

A characteristic of a time series in which the data experiences regular and predictable changes which recur every calendar year. Any predictable change or pattern in a time series that recurs or repeats over a one-year period can be said to be seasonal.

Note that seasonal effects are different from cyclical effects, as seasonal cycles are contained within one calendar year, while cyclical effects (such as boosted sales due to low unemployment rates) can span time periods shorter or longer than one calendar year.

Investopedia Says:

Seasonality can be seen in many time series, and it’s more common than you might think. For example, if you live in a climate with cold winters and warm summers, your home’s heating costs probably rise in the winter and fall in the summer. You would reasonably expect the seasonality of your heating costs to recur every year. Similarly, a company that sells sunscreen and tanning products would see sales jump up in the summer, but drop in the winter. Companies that understand the seasonality of their business can time inventories, staffing and other decisions to coincide with the expected seasonality.

It’s important to remember the effects of seasonality when analyzing stocks from a fundamental point of view. For example, if you assumed a sunscreen company was going to earn as much in the next three quarters as it did during the recent summer quarter, your earnings estimates would likely be way off the mark!