The risk you run, however, is that someone will exercise the option, and you'll have to buy the investment at market price in order to meet your obligation to sell. If that price has moved in the opposite direction from the one you expected-gone up instead of down-buying the investment could cost you a substantial amount of money, and you'd have an overall loss.

Market value, or capitalization, is computed by multiplying the most recent sales price times the total number of outstanding shares. So, for example, if a stock with 1 million outstanding shares increased $3 in value, it would have a greater impact on the index than a stock that also increased $3 in value but had only 500,000 outstanding shares. The index is updated throughout the trading day.

One of the most important and active markets in the nation, the Nasdaq specializes in emerging companies, and is especially strong in technology and telecommunications. With the soaring value of many Internet stocks, however, many of which are traded on the Nasdaq, a growing number of Nasdaq companies have large market capitalizations. The Nasdaq Small-Cap Market lists smaller, emerging companies.

NASD also has the authority to discipline members who violate those standards. Among NASD's other responsibilities are reviewing and approving sales and marketing literature that its members use to promote their products. The goal is to protect investors from misleading information on the risks and rewards of investing.

The US's dual banking system of federally- and state-chartered banks was established by the National Banking Act of 1863, which created the new system of federally chartered banks in an attempt to put state-chartered banks out of business. State banks have survived, however, and the two banking systems co-exist.

The national debt is not the same as the federal budget deficit, which is any federal spending that exceeds federal income in a fiscal year.

The Bureau gathers its information from market makers in these securities and prints the stock data on distinctively colored paper: pink sheets for stocks and yellow sheets for bonds. The same information, updated continuously throughout the trading day, is available electronically on the NQB website.

In most periods, the yield curve is positive because investors demand more for tying up their money for a longer period. But there are times, such as when interest rates seem to be on the upswing, that the pattern is reversed and the yield curve is negative.

With no-load funds, the NAV and the offering price, or what you pay to buy a share, are the same. With front-load funds, the offering price is the sum of the NAV and the sales charge per share. The NAV is also the price per share the fund pays when you sell back, or redeem, your shares.

NET ASSET VALUE (NAV)
Value of fund holdings
	= Net asset value
Outstanding shares

To figure your own net worth, you first add up the value of the things, or assets, you own (securities, personal property, real estate) and then subtract your liabilities, or what you owe in loans and other obligations. If your assets are larger than your liabilities, you have a positive net worth. But if your liabilities outweigh your assets, you have a negative net worth.

NET WORTH
	Value of assets
–	Liabilities
=	Net worth

You may also be able to buy no-load funds through a mutual fund network, sometimes known as a mutual fund supermarket, typically sponsored by a discount brokerage firm. If you have an account with the firm, you can choose among no-load funds sponsored by a number of different investment companies.

While load funds and no-load funds with similar investments tend to produce almost equivalent total returns over the long term-say 10 years or more-it can take that long to offset the higher cost of buying load funds.

Many of the nonbanks themselves, however, are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and are subject to the same reserve requirements and examinations as regular banks. Opponents of nonbanks believe they drain financial resources away from small towns to big cities in other states and undermine the nation's decentralized banking system.

In a more general way, the term nonbank bank is also sometimes applied to online banks, which don't operate from brick-and-mortar branches.

The appeal of a noncallable bond is that the issuer will pay interest at the stated coupon rate for the bond's full term. That means you won't unexpectedly find yourself with a lump-sum payment when the bond is called and suddenly have to find another way to invest your principal.

You can invest as little as $1,000 or as much as $1 million through Treasury Direct, a system offered through the Federal Reserve banks that allows you to buy government securities without going through a bank or a brokerage firm. The Treasury sells T-bills, for example, to all buyers whose bids arrive by the weekly deadline, for a price equal to the average of all competitive bids for that week's issue.