The Halifax Building Society was a British bank based in the town of the same name in West Yorkshire, England. It was an independent British bank that became a trading division of the Bank of Scotland, which eventually became an entirely owned subsidiary of today’s banking giant Lloyds Banking Group. Even as a subsidiary of a subsidiary, Halifax remains the [...]

Hank Paulson is the nickname for Henry M Paulson, Jr. who served as Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Paulson came to Treasury well prepared for the almost unprecedented economic challenges he would face when he arrived in July of 2006. Before becoming secretary, he worked in finance for 32 years with Goldman Sachs, a leading American based [...]

Hard currency refers to a type of currency which proves to be generally accepted throughout the globe for payments on services and goods. Such currencies are trusted to be reasonably stable over the short term timeframe. They must be extremely liquid on foreign exchange, or forex (FX), markets. Nations with solid economic performances and highly stable political environments typically issue [...]

HARP stands for the Home Affordable Refinance Program. This program that the government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac created and back is unique. It turns out to be the one refinancing program that works with borrowers who are eligible and who have no or little equity in their houses so that they can receive refinancing benefits and lower [...]

A hedge account is an account established with a hedge fund. There are several reasons why a person or business would be interested in setting up a hedge account. These mostly center on the desire for investments that commonly produce higher profits or the wish to hedge, or protect, a business’ operations from certain unpredictable and undesirable swings in market [...]

A hedge fund is an investment fund which are commonly only open to a specific group of investors. These investors pay a large performance fee each year, commonly a certain percent of their funds under management, to the manager of the hedge fund. Hedge funds are very minimally regulated and are therefore are able to participate in a wide array [...]

In the world of finance, hedging is the act of putting together a hedge. Hedging involves building up a position in one market whose goal is try to counteract risk from changes in price in another market’s position that is the opposite. The ultimate goal is to diminish or eliminate the business or person’s possibilities of risk that they wish [...]

Helicopter money is a phrase that economists and market followers employ to describe monetary stimulus on an aggressive level. It involves the ability of the government to print money and distribute it in an effort to create higher inflation. This is a tactic that the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan have both engaged in over the past since [...]

High frequency trading turns out to be a platform for program-based trades. It works with super computers that are able to run huge quantities of trading orders at incredibly rapid speeds. This HFT works with complicated algorithms. These analyze a wide range of markets and then place a number fast-paced orders depending on the conditions in the markets. The secret [...]

High Yield Bonds turn out to be bonds that possess a lower credit rating and higher yield than those corporate, municipal, and sovereign government bonds which are of investment grade. Thanks to the greater risk of them defaulting, such bonds yield a higher return than the bonds which are qualified investment grade issues. Those companies that issue high yielding debt [...]

Preferred stocks are a special type of stocks that many companies issue. These types of stocks provide investors with a different level of ownership in a given company. A preferred stock holder obtains a higher priority on the earnings and assets of a company than a common stock holder would enjoy. These preferred stocks also pay a higher dividend that [...]

HM Treasury stands for Her Majesty’s Treasury. This is the United Kingdom’s finance and economic ministry. It keeps control over the public spending and lays out the direction for the economic policy of Great Britain. Among its important mandates is to work towards a sustainable and strong level of economic growth. The HM Treasury of today dates back to the [...]

Holding Company refers to a parent company, limited partnership, or limited liability company. The firm controls a majority of the voting stock shares in the subsidiary company to dominate its management and corporate decisions. The sole purpose of a holding firm like this is to control other companies. These held firms might also be limited partnerships, corporations, or limited liability [...]

Holdings refer to the asset contents in a given portfolio which an entity or individual possesses. Pension funds and mutual funds are good examples of organizations that have holdings. These positions can include all sorts of different investment assets and classes. Among these are stocks, mutual funds, bonds, futures, options, ETF exchange traded funds, and private equity assets. It is [...]

The Home Affordable Modification Program is also known by its acronym HAMP. This stands for a program created by the United States government. They founded it in order to assist those homeowners who were struggling to keep up with their mortgages. For any homeowners who have watched in dismay as their financial conditions deteriorated since they originally purchased their house, [...]

Home Equity refers to those assets which result from the home owner’s stake in the house itself. Calculating up the equity of the home is not difficult. One simply takes any remaining loan balances and subtracts them off of the market value of the property. It is very possible for the equity in a home to grow with time, in [...]

A home equity line of credit is also known by its acronym HELOC. It represents a viable alternative to the more commonly used home equity loan. Whereas home equity loans provide lump sum amounts, Home Equity Lines of Credit provide cash as and when the borrower needs it. The downside to a HELOC is that a bank can decide to [...]

A home equity loan is a means for home owners to borrow money using the value of their house. Borrowers find these loans appealing because they can usually borrow significant sums of money. Besides this, they are much simpler to get approved for than with many competing kinds of loans. A home owner’s house secures these home equity loans. The [...]

A hostile takeover refers to a type of acquisition which involves a buying company and a takeover target. Technically there is no strict difference between the concepts of friendly acquisition and hostile takeover. Yet the connotation is vastly different between the two. When the word takeover becomes used, it generally means that the target company is not a willing participant [...]

Household Income refers to the total income earned by all family members living in a single house. They must be fifteen years or older for their income to count. An interesting point is that the individuals living together do not have to be related at all to be considered a part of the overall household. This is a crucial measurement [...]

HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation. This largest international bank in the world by balance sheet has over $1.63 trillion in total assets. The British London based banking giant counts more than 47 million customers as part of its international network spanning 71 countries and territories and 6,000 offices around the globe. HSBC was founded by a British [...]

In the field of economics, hyperinflation proves to be inflation, or rising prices over time, that is extremely high and even beyond controlling. This state of the economy exists as the overall levels of pricing in a certain country are rising sharply and quickly at the same time as the actual values of these economic goods remain roughly the same [...]