Sallie Mae to Street Name

Sallie Mae. Acronym for the Student Loan Marketing Association, which buys student loans from colleges, universities and other lenders and packages them into units to be sold to investors. Sallie Mae thus infuses the student-loan market with new money in much the same way that
Ginnie Mae infuses the mortgage market with new money.
Secondary market. The general name given to stock exchanges, the over-the-counter market and other marketplaces in which stocks, bonds, mortgages and other investments are sold after they have been issued and sold initially. Original issues are sold in the primary market; subsequent sales take place in the secondary market. For example, the primary market for a new issue of stock is the team of underwriters; the secondary market is one of the stock exchanges or the over-the-counter market. The prim ary market for a mortgage is the lender, which may then sell it to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac in the secondary mortgage market.
SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pensions). Features the same annual contribution limits as the Keogh plans, and is covered by many of the same rules governing regular IRAs. As with Keogh plans, if you have full-time employees, you must make contributions for them as well as yourself. Designed as an easy-to-administer retirement plan, it can also be opened if you have self-employment income from a sideline business or free-lance work. Your contributions can be much higher than regular IRA plans allow. For more information see IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements.
Share classes (class A, class B, etc.). Represent ownership in the same mutual fund, but with different fee structures.
Short selling. A technique used to take advantage of an anticipated decline in the price of a stock or other security by reversing the usual order of buying and selling. In a short sale, the investor (1) borrows stock from the broker and (2) immediately sells it. Then, if the investor guessed right and the price of the stock does indeed decline, he can replace the borrowed shares by (3) buying them at the cheaper price. The profit is the difference between the price at which he sells the shares and the price at which he buys them later on. Of course, if the price of the shares rises, the investor will suffer a loss.
Sinking fund. Financial reserves set aside to be used exclusively to redeem a bond or preferred stock issue and thus reassure investors that the company will be able to meet that obligation.
Specialist. A member of the stock exchange who serves as a market maker for a number of different stock issues. A specialist maintains an inventory of certain stocks and buys and sells shares as necessary to maintain an orderly market for those stocks.
Spread. The difference between the bid and asked prices of a security, which may also be called the broker's markup. In options and futures trading, a spread is the practice of simultaneously buying a contract for the delivery of a commodity in one month and selling a contract for delivery of the same commodity in another month. The aim is to offset possible losses in one contract with possible gains in the other.
Stop-loss order. Instructions to a broker to sell a particular stock if its price ever dips to a specified level.
Street name. The description given to securities held in the name of a brokerage firm but belonging to the firm's customers. Holding stocks in street name facilitates trading because there is no need for the customer to pick up or deliver the certificates.