Galla: Cutting in rates. It is the practice of depriving a client of a higher rate while selling or the lowest rate while buying over and above the brokerage.
Gap (TA): A price range on a chart in which no trading takes place. When a gap occurs in an uptrend, the current period's low is higher than the previous period's high. In a downtrend, a gap occurs when the current period's high is lower than the previous period's low.
Garage (U.S): One of the small trading areas just off the main trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Gearing: (1) From an accounting point of view, the amount of a company’s total borrowings is divided by its share capital. High gearing means a proportionately large amount of debt, which may be considered riskier for equity holders. (2) In investment analysis, a highly geared company is one where small changes in underlying conditions produce big swings in profits. Gearing can be financial or operational, if, for example, a company has large fixed overheads.
General Partner (private equity): Manager of the limited partnership — typically the investment manager.
Gilt Edged: A term used to describe a bond, generally issued by the Government or issued with a Government Guarantee so much so that there are no doubts about the ability of the issuer to pay regular interest and the principal amount to the bondholders.
Gilt Fund: Fund that invests exclusively in government securities.
GLOBEX: A global after-hours electronic trading system.
Global Depository Receipts: Any instrument in the form of a depository receipt or certificate (by whatever name it is called) created by the Overseas Depository Bank outside India and issued to non-resident investors against the issue of ordinary shares or Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds of issuing company.
Golden Handcuffs (U.S): A contract between a broker and brokerage house, offering lucrative commissions, bonuses, and other benefits as long as the broker stays with the firm. Upon leaving, the broker must return much of the compensation.
Golden Parachute (U.S.): A generous compensation contract awarded by the management to themselves in the anticipation of a takeover.
Golden Share: A share with special voting rights that give it peculiar power vis-a-vis other shares. The term applies particularly to shares retained by a government after privatization. If a government wishes to sell off a company in a sensitive industry (defense, say) and yet retain control, it can hold on to a golden share. This might give it the right to veto any takeover bid.
Good Delivery: Proper delivery by a seller to the buyer of the securities without any defect so that they can be transferred without any additional documentation.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product): Total market value of finished goods and services produced in a country in a given year.
Going Long: Buying a share for speculation, opposite of going short, where the operation is that of selling. Speculators who take long or short positions do not actually buy or sell shares, nor do they have any intention of doing so.
Going Short: Selling a share that the seller does not actually possess, but hopes to pick up when the price has gone further down, and so make a profit.
Goodwill: The part of the value of a business that is based on good customer relations, high employee morale, and other factors.
Grave Dancer: An acquirer who searches for bargains often among companies in dire financial straits or in bankruptcy.
Greenmail: Common practice in the United States in the merger-mad 1980s. Somebody buys a larger chunk of share in a company and threatens to make a hostile bid for the company. To buy him off the company buys back the shares at a much higher price than the greenmailer paid for them. So disgusted were ordinary Americans with this practice that they passed legislation that imposed an onerous tax on any profit made from greenmail.
Greeks: Set of financial ratios pertaining to derivative valuation, designated by the Greek letters delta (∆), gamma (γ), rho (ρ), theta (θ), and vega (ν). They are used to represent the factors that result in changes in the value of a derivative contract.
Greenback: Colloquial term for the US dollar.
Green Shoe Option: Green Shoe option means an option of allocating shares in excess of the shares included in the public issue and operating a post-listing price stabilizing mechanism in accordance with the specific provisions in DIP Guidelines, which are granted to a company to be exercised through a stabilizing Agent.
Gross National Product (GNP): Gross domestic product with the addition of income from abroad by domestic residents, minus income earned in the domestic markets accruing to foreigners abroad.
Growth Fund: Fund that has the aim of achieving capital appreciation, typically an equity portfolio that has the aim of achieving capital appreciation by investing in growth stocks.
Growth Stock: Stock that is expected to achieve above-average earnings growth. Growth stocks normally have a high P/E ratio relative to the market as a whole, as investors anticipate that earnings will increase in the future.
Growth Style: Investment style focussing on growth stocks.
Grey Knight: One who offers to buy shares of the bidding company as an aid to the defense.
Gross: When used in connection with dividend or interest implies amount without any deduction of tax etc.
Gross Spread: The difference (spread) between a security’s public offering price and the price paid to the issuer by an underwriter. Growth Fund Unit trusts or Mutual Funds invest with the objective of achieving mostly capital growth rather than income. Growth funds are mostly more volatile than conservative income or money market funds because managers invest in shares or property that are subject to larger price movements.
Guaranteed Coupon (GTD): Bonds issued by a subsidiary corporation and guaranteed as to principal and /or interest by the parent corporation.
Grey Market: Unofficial premium market, in which new, not-yet listed shares are bought and sold. Although it gives some indication of share’s demand and the likely premium at which it will sell when listed, it is by no means completely reliable.
Gross Profit: Net sales minus the cost of production, but without deduction of interest, depreciation, and taxes.
Gun Jumping: Trading in shares on the information before it is made public e.g., information that a large, successful company has decided to take over a company that has been sick and closed for a long time. Also, securing orders for a company’s shares not yet registered. Illegal.
Stock Market Reference (A-Z)