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Cash Forward Contract
Categories: Futures,
A cash market transaction in which a seller agrees to deliver a specific cash commodity to a buyer at some point in the future. Unlike futures contracts (which occur through a clearing firm), cash forward contracts are privately negotiated and are not standardized. Further, the two parties must bear each other's credit risk, which is not the case with a futures contract. Also, since the contracts are not exchange traded, there is no marking to market requirement, which allows a buyer to avoid almost all capital outflow initially (though some counterparties might set collateral requirements). Given the lack of standardization in these contracts, there is very little scope for a secondary market in forwards. The price specified in a cash forward contract for a specific commodity. The forward price makes the forward contract have no value when the contract is written. However, if the value of the underlying commodity changes, the value of the forward contract becomes positive or negative, depending on the position held. Forwards are priced in a manner similar to futures. Like in the case of a futures contract, the first step in pricing a forward is to add the spot price to the cost of carry (interest forgone, convenience yield, storage costs and interest/dividend received on the underlying). Unlike a futures contract though, the price may also include a premium for counterparty credit risk, and the fact that there is not daily marking to market process to minimize default risk. If there is no allowance for these credit risks, then the forward price will equal the futures price. also called forward contract.
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Definition / Meaning of
Relative Strength
Categories: Investing and Trading,
A stock's price change over a period of time relative to that of a market index, such as the s&p 500. The relative strength of a stock is calculated by taking the percentage price change of a stock over a set period of time and ranking it on a scale of 1 to 100 against all other stocks on the market, with 1 being worst and 100 being best. For example, a stock with a relative strength of 90 has experienced a greater increase in its price over the last year than the price increases experienced by 90% of all other stocks on the market. Some technical analysts, especially momentum investors, like stocks with high relative strength rankings, believing that stocks which have recently gone up are more likely to continue going up. Other technical analysts believe that a very high relative strength can be an indication that the stock is overbought and is ready to fall. Relative strength is really a "rear view mirror" metric, measuring only how the stock has done in the past, not how it will do in the future.
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