| Haircut | |
| The difference in price between market value and the value of the collateral used in repurchasing agreements. (see repurchasing agreements). | |
| Hammering | |
| The expulsion of a member of the stock exchange because he is unable to meet his commitments. | |
| Hang Seng Index | |
| the index for the thirty three largest companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. | |
| Head and shoulders | |
| a sideways price formation at the top or bottom of the market that indicates a major market reversal. | |
| Heavyweights | |
| Used in sports. Performance horsracing market of racecard numbers ones in all the races at a particular meeting. Scored 25 for winning a race, 10 for second and 5 for a third. | |
| Hedge | |
| A strategy to reduce risk by betting against an adverse movement in share prices, commodity prices or currencies. For example, if you hold dollar-denominated investments (or shares in companies whose earnings are in dollars), a spread bet that the dollar will fall will compensate you for the negative affect on these investments. | |
| Hedge Fund | |
| A fund which uses aggressive investment strategies to increase the funds value including shorting, leveraged investments and derivatives. A hedge fund is a pooled investment vehicle that is privately organized, administered by a professional investment manager and not widely available to the public. Investment vehicles that attempt make above-average returns. Often bet on currency markets or mergers and takeovers. They borrow heavily sometimes to double up their bets. As such a hedge fund is an investment fund, usually only open to wealthy clients, that seeks to produce high returns from short-term markets. The assets, investment strategies and risk profiles of funds that meet this broad definition are quite diverse... They use a broad range of strategies but aim absolute returns, rather than returns benchmarked to an index or asset class. Some hedge funds are highly leveraged while others use little or no leverage. | |
| Hedger | |
| a person or firm who uses the futures market to offset price risk when intending to sell or buy the actual commodity. | |
| Hedging | |
| Opening up another trade(s) to offset the risk of an existing trade going against you. A strategy whereby investors seek to minimize risk. Hedging often involves buying assets in one market to offset potential losses in another. | |
| High Yielding Shares | |
| High yielding shares are those shares which offer a high rate of return or dividend. For those buying shares, they are less risky than growth stocks (see definition) because they are not expected to grow so quickly and so any setbacks will have less of an impact on share prices. This advantage is, however, turned into a disadvantage for those betting on individual share prices because any fluctuation in the price is usually minor and tendency to buck the trend modest. | |
| Hit | |
| Jargon for the acceptance of an offer to buy or sell a security. | |
| Hong Kong Stock Exchange | |
| The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is ranked third-largest in Asia and ninth in the world by market capitalisation, with the key index being the Hang Seng. It has recovered strongly since its low in 2003 and has since more than doubled in value to reach an all-time high, with its next major target being the 19,000 mark.
The 34 constituents are made up of nine stocks from mainland China, with the biggest, China Mobile, making up a fifth of the index. All of the others are listed in Hong Kong with the largest among them being HSBC Holdings, which is worth more than a quarter of the index. The Hang Seng index futures are only traded while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is actually open, namely from 2am to 4.30am and from 6.30am to 8am UK time. Outside of these hours, however, it is usually possible to spread bet on the index, although the dominance of China Mobile and HSBC makes it less attractive from a trading perspective. [Source: Shares Magazine] |
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