See: Municipal Bond Insurance

Medium Term Bond
A bond that has a maturity of 2 to 10 years.

See: Intermediate Term; Long Term Debt; Maturity Date; Short Term Debt

Member Firm
A brokerage firm that has at least one general partner, officer, or employee who is a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Although it is technically the employee who is a member, the firm enjoys the privileges of membership as well as the obligations of membership.

See: Broker-Dealer; New York Stock Exchange

Member Short Sales Ratio
The ratio of the total shares sold short for the accounts of NYSE members in one week divided by the total short sales for the same week. The ratio is considered an indicator of market trends. A ratio of 68% or lower is considered bullish and a ratio of 82% or higher is considered bearish. The member short ratio is issued in the Monday edition of "The Wall Street Journal".

See: Selling Short; Trend

Merger
Two or more companies combined to achieve greater efficiencies of scale and productivity. This is accomplished through the elimination of duplicated plant, equipment, and staff, and the reallocation of capital assets to increase sales and profits in the enlarged company.

See: Capital Asset; Takeover

Microeconomics
Analysis of the behavior of economic units such as companies, industries, or households.

See: Macroeconomics

Minimum Maintenance Requirement
As required by the NYSE, the NASD, and brokerage firms, the amount of equity that must be maintained in brokerage clients' margin accounts. Regulation T of the Federal Reserve Board requires $2,000 in cash or eligible securities to be deposited in margin accounts before brokers can extend credit. Additionally, upon a margin transaction, an initial margin requirement must be met, presently 50% of the market value of eligible securities long or short in customers' accounts. The NYSE and NASD require a margin account's equity to equal at least 25% of the market value of securities in margin accounts. Brokerage firm requirements are usually a more conservative 30%. When the market value of margined securities falls below these minimums, margin calls are issued to clients requesting additional equity to be delivered by a specified date. If customers fail to comply, brokers may sell margined securities or close out short positions (from short sales).

See: Close A Position; Equity; DeMinimus Exception; Initial Margin Requirement; Long Position; Maintenance Call; Margin Account; Margin Call; Margin Requirement; Margin Security; Mark To Market; Market Price; Regulation T; Sell Out Procedures; Selling Short; Short Position

Minority Interest
Shareholders who own less than half the shares in a corporation.

See: Majority Shareholder

Minus Tick
See: Downtick; Zero-Minus Tick

Missing The Market
Said when a broker, acting as agent, fails to execute a transaction at a price that was available, and the resultant transaction is unfavorable to the client. The agent is required to make the client whole by reimbursing the amount lost.

See: Agency Transaction

Mixed Account
A brokerage account in which some securities are long positions and some are short positions.

See: Long Position; Short Position

Money Market
The market for short term debt instruments maturing in one year or less. Examples of money market instruments include Treasury bills, commercial paper, and certificate of deposits.

See: Cash Equivalent; Certificate Of Deposit; Commercial Paper; Debt Instrument; Maturity Date; Money Market Fund; Short Term Debt; Treasury Bill

Money Market Fund
A mutual fund investing in short term money market instruments, such as certificates of deposit, treasury bills and commercial paper. The fund's net asset value is usually $1 a share and its interest rate goes up or down. Most money market funds offer checkwriting privileges.

See: Certificate Of Deposit; Commercial Paper; Donoghue's Money Fund Average; Money Market; Mutual Fund; Net Asset Value; Tax Exempt Money Market Fund; Treasury Bill

Money Supply
The total amount of money in the economy as defined by M1 or M2 measurements. If there is too much money in the economy, interest rates tend to go down while inflation tends to rise. Conversely, if there is too little money in the economy, interest rates tend to go up, and prices and production tend to go down This can cause unemployment and idle plant capacity.

See: Inflation; Interest; M1; M2; Macroeconomics; Tight Money

Monthly Investment Plan
Investment technique whereby an investor puts a fixed dollar amount into a particular investment every month.

See: Dollar Cost Averaging; Letter Of Intent

Moody's Investment Grade
Rating assigned to investment grade or bank quality municipal short-term debt securities. The debt securities are classified as MIG-1, 2, 3, 4 to signify best, high, favorable, and adequate quality, respectively.

See: Debt Security; Investment Grade; Moody's Investors Service; Municipal Bond; Rating; Risk; Short Term Debt

Moody's Investors Service
One of the two best known bond rating services, the other being Standard & Poor's. Moody's also rates commercial paper, preferred and common stocks, and municipal short-term issues. It publishes six manuals annually that provide information on issuers and securities. The manuals are updated weekly. It also publishes Moody's Handbook of Common Stocks on a quarterly basis. The handbook follows over 500 companies and provides an analysis of the company's financial background, recent financial results, and its future outlook.

See: Commercial Paper; Issuer; Fundamental Analysis; Moody's Investment Grade; Rating; Risk; Risk/Reward Ratio; Standard & Poor's Corporation

Mortage Bond
A bond secured by a lien or mortage on property owned by the issuer.

Most Active List
Stocks with the heaviest trading volume for a given day. If a stock's trading volume is much greater than its normal volume, it may be caused by a release of earnings figures, institutional trading, bad news, and other factors.

See: Institutional Investor; Volume

Moving Average
An average that is based on security or commodity prices over a period of time (few days to few years) that shows trends for the latest period. It is a rolling average when the latest day's figures are included in the average and the oldest day's figures are not included.

See: Commodities; Index; Trend

MSRB (Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board)
A self-regulatory organization of the municipal securities industry that was created in 1975 under an amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Its primary responsibility is to develop rules and regulations to govern the activities of municipal securities dealers, and to provide arbitration facilities to broker-dealers and bank dealers in municipal securities.

See: Arbitration; Broker-Dealer; Securities Exchange Act of 1934