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Sales Load

A mutual fund sales charge that is used to pay commissions to financial representatives. Types of loads include: front-end, back-end, and level.

SEC

Abbreviation for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sector Fund

A mutual fund that invests in a particular sector of the economy, for example the technology industry.

Securities Analysis

The process of evaluating securities and recommending them for: buys, holds, sells.

Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)

A federally chartered corporation that provides financial protection for clients of failed broker/dealers. Protection is aa maximum of $500,000 that includes $100,000 of cash equivalents.

Segregated Account

A investor's assets are custodialized in a separate account and are not commingled or pooled with any other investor's assets. The opposite of a pooled account, for example a mutual fund.

Selling Short

An investor sells a stock that he or she does not own but has borrowed from broker/dealer to make delivery on the sale.

Settlement Date

The date on which a seller of securities must deliver the securities to the broker/dealer and a buyer must pay for them.

Sharpe Ratio

A statistic that relates the return on an investment to an investor's risk of owning the investment.

Soft Dollars

Commission proceeds from the purchase or sale of securities that money managers use to pay for research and other services.

Spiders (SPDRs)

A nickname for a Standard & Poor's 500 depository receipt (SPDR). An investment product that represent a proportionate interest in the stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index.

Stagflation

An economic condition of high inflation, high unemployment, and low growth.

Standard & Poor (S&P)

A leading publisher and provider of investment and credit information.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index

A composite of 425 industrial stocks, 25 railroad stocks, and 50 utility stocks that are compiled by Standard & Poor's Corporation.

Standard Deviation

In securities investing the standard deviation has become the most popular way to measure the risk or price volatility of a group of common stocks that comprise a portfolio, or of the broader market, in the case of a stock index.

Stock Market Indexes

Various composites of securities that reflect the performance of segments of the stock market.

Stock Split

An formula-based increase or decrease in the number of shares of a company's stock. For example, the stock splits two for one doubling the number of shares.

Style of Management

Porfolio managers execute various management styles based on the types of securities they buy. For example, a manager might buy large capitalization, value stocks.

Suitability Rule

Financial advisors are supposed to know their clients well enough to make suitable recommendations based on the investors' circumstances, rate of return objectives, and tolerances for risk.