A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Fitch-AMR: (Refer: Asset Manager ratings)
Fonds Commun de Placement (FCP) (Unit trust): unincorporated collective investment scheme for securities that may be diversified or specialised in a particular sector. The investor as unit-holder has none of the rights of a shareholder, unlike the SICAV (UCITS). The FCP has no separate legal personality, its minimum assets are 381,000 Euros and its management is handled by a management company.
Fractional units: in order to make the security more easily negotiable fund units may be fractioned into tenths, hundredths, thousandths or ten thousandths of a unit.
FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange): This is a share index updated daily that groups together the 100 companies with the largest capitalisations on the London Stock Exchange. The FTSE 100 is an index weighted by market capitalisations. The base value is 1000 from its inception on 3 January 1984.
Fund of fund: this is a UCITS whose assets do not comprise any securities (equities or bonds) but units in other collective investment vehicles (unit trust or open-end fund). The negative feature of fund of funds lies in the accumulation of fees. Unit trusts or open-end funds’ role is to be able to invest at least 5% and up to all of their assets in other UCITS. In France UCITS fund of funds may invest up to 35% of their assets in the same UCITS.
Funds eligible for a PEA (Plan d’Epargne Actions) (equities savings plan): to be eligible for inclusion within the framework of a PEA, a fund must respect certain management constraints. The portfolio of a PEA SICAV must include at least 60% equities of companies whose registered office is located in a member state of the European Union; for a FCP the corresponding figure is at least 75%. Once these rules have been applied, the managers may invest the balance of their portfolio (40% for SICAVs, 25% for FCPs) in investments of their choice. The main attraction of PEA funds is their tax treatment. Income that they distribute as capital gains generated for the benefit of their investors is not subject to tax and tax credits attached to the dividends are paid into a cash account, with the attached tax credit. However, this is conditional on the plan having been open for at least five years. After this the income earned is only subject to CSG And CRDS (French social security taxes) and then only on realisation of the capital gains, in other words when the amounts frozen in the PEA are withdrawn.
Futures exchanges: are generally speaking, in contrast to physical markets, markets in which the settlement of transactions does not take place immediately, but at a certain time in the future. A position may therefore be taken without physically putting up the securities.
Examples of futures exchanges: MATIF in Paris, LIFFE in London.
Futures funds: this type of fund is involved with derivative products and uses futures and options markets. It offers investors a diversification of their securities portfolio because the investment supports may just as readily be stock and bond indices as currencies and commodities. Positions may equally be “buy” or “sell”. These funds, even if open to anyone, remain relatively unknown because their managers are not allowed to promote them. FCIMT are intended more particularly to informed investors because of the impact of gearing that may be high.
