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Pacific Clearing Corporation (PCC) - The clearing corporation of the Pacific Stock Exchange.
Pacific Stock Exchange (PSE) - This exchange operates in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Par - Face value; the nominal value of a security.
Partial Delivery - Term used when a seller does not deliver the full amount of shares sold. Partial delivery would occur, for example, if 500 shares were sold and the seller only delivers 400.
Participating Preferred - Preferred stock whose holders may "participate" with the common shareholders in any dividends paid over and above those normally paid to common and preferred stockholders.
Partnership - Business conducted by two or more individuals who pool their money and talent, and together share the profits and losses.
Par Value - A value that a corporation assigns to its security for bookkeeping purposes.
Pass-Through Security - Instrument representing an interest in a pool of mortgages. Pass-throughs pay interest and principal on a monthly basis.
Past Performance - All performance quotations and rankings should include mention that past performance is no guarantee of future results, and quotes assume that dividends and capital gains have been reinvested.
Payable Date - The date on which a declared distribution is scheduled to be paid to shareholders of record. The payment date is often two or more weeks after the record date and is set by the Board of Directors.
Payee - A person or business who receives a payment. For instance, a landlord who receives a rent check or a stockholder who earns a dividend.
Payment Date - Date on which a declared stock dividend or a bond interest payment is scheduled to be made.
Penny Stocks - Extremely low-priced securities that trade over the counter.
Pension Fund - A fund established for the payment of retirement benefits.
Pension Plan - Retirement plan, normally related to an employee's salary, in which the employer contributes periodically to a trust to pay benefits to employees or their beneficiaries after retirement.
PEPS (Personal Equity Plans) - These allow investment in a number of shares and carry various tax benefits, including the receipt of dividends without paying income tax on the income and sales free from capital gains tax on the profit.
P/E Ratio Equation - Assume XYZ Co. sells for $17.50 per share and has earned $1.75 per share this year. The XYZ stock price of $17.50 is equal to 10 times the per share earned amount of $1.75, therefore XYZ stock sells for 10 times earnings.
Performance Fund - A mutual fund whose goal is to achieve maximum growth of capital--sometimes called "aggressive growth funds". The fund invests in companies that are in high growth cycles. Such companies typically do not pay dividends as its earnings are plowed back into the firm for expansion. Although these funds have a higher risk than a growth or balance fund, it is not considered to be speculative.
Phantom Interest - The yearly accreted interest that a zero-coupon security is presumed to pay each year you hold it even though payment of interest isn’t made until the zero matures.
Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) - An equities and options exchange located in Philadelphia.
Phone Switching - In mutual funds, the ability to transfer shares among funds in the same family by telephone request. There may be a charge associated with these transfers.
Physical Shares - Actual stock certificates held by clients or brokers representing ownership of a specific number of shares.
P & I - Principal & Interest. Monthly payment to registered holders of mortgage-backed securities.
PIN - A personal identification number, like the number used at your ATM to access an account. PINs are designed to give the individual access into an account, and keep everyone else out.
Pink Sheets - Daily publication providing dealer names and quotes on penny stocks. It is actually printed on pink paper.
Pit - The area on a trading floor, where futures and options are bought and sold. Usually octagonal in shape, these platforms with steps descending on the inside permit buyers and sellers to see each other. Often there are multiple pits on a trading floor each dedicated to a specific contract.
Pivot - Price level established as being significant by market's failure to penetrate or as being significant when a sudden increase in volume accompanies the move through the price level.
Plan Shares - Client stock certificates which have never been detached from the certificate book or unissued client shares which are held by the system.
Pledge - Transfer of property, such as securities or the cash surrender value of life insurance, to a lender or creditor as collateral for an obligation.
Plus-Tick Rule - SEC rule that states that no short sale may be made when the last trade on the security was a minus tick.
Point - A price movement of one full increment. For example, a stock rises one point when its price goes from 23 to 24.
Point and Figure Chart - A price-only chart that takes into account only whole integer changes in price; e.g., a two-point change. Point and figure charting disregards the element of time and is solely used to record changes in price.
POP - Public Offering Price. Cost of individual shares of a mutual fund equal to the net asset value plus sales charge. Also known as Ask Price.
Portfolio - The different securities owned in an account of client.
Portfolio Insurance - Municipal bonds can carry insurance against default to protect principal; insurance does not extend to bond's market value or to mutual fund shares.
Portfolio Manager - Handles the assets of a securities portfolio of a mutual fund, an individual, or an institutional investor. Usually, this individual is responsible for deciding which securities to buy, hold, or sell.
Portfolio Turnover - The percentage of a fund's portfolio that is sold in any given year.
Portfolio Turnover Rate - Volume of shares traded in a year as a percentage of total shares outstanding for an individual or professionally managed portfolio.
Position Limits - The maximum number of option contracts that may be held on the same side of the market for a particular security. The number may vary depending on the security.
Positive Yield Curve - On debt securities of similar quality, a condition in which the yields on long term securities are higher than the yields on short term securities. Typically, short term interest rates are lower than long term rates--those who invest their money for longer periods are taking more risk.
Preemptive Right - A right, sometimes required by the issuer's corporate charter, by which current owners must be given the opportunity to maintain their percentage ownership if additional shares of the same class are issued. Additional shares of the soon-to-be issued security are offered to current owners in proportion to their holders before the issue can be offered to others. Usually one right is issued for each outstanding share. The rights are used to subscribe to the additional shares at a predetermined cash amount.
Preference Shares - These are normally fixed-income shares whose holders have the right to receive dividends before ordinary shareholders but after debenture and loan stockholders have received their interest.
Preferred Stock - Stock that represents ownership in the issuing corporation and that has prior claim on dividends. In the case of bankruptcy, preferred stock has a claim on assets ahead of common stockholders. The expected dividend is part of the issue’s description.
Premium - If the market price of a new security is higher than the issue price, the difference is the premium. If it is lower, the difference is called the Discount. 
Premium Bond - A note or bond selling at a price above par.
Premium Redemption - The redemption of a bond at a dollar amount above par value, or the redemption of a bond by the issuer prior to its maturity date.
Pre-Refunding - The process of issuing new bonds to refinance an outstanding municipal bond issue prior to its maturity or call date. The proceeds from the new bonds are generally invested in U.S. government securities. Pre-refunding typically occurs when interest rates decline and an issuer replaces its higher-yielding bonds with current lower-yielding issues.
Price/Book Value (P/BV) Ratio - The ratio of the sum of the market values of the companies whose shares are held in a portfolio to their aggregate book value.
Price/Cash Flow (P/CF) Ratio - The ratio of the sum of the market values of the companies whose shares are held in a portfolio to their aggregate reported cash flow.
Price/Earnings (P/E) Ratio - The current share price divided by the last published earnings per share, where earnings per share is net profit divided by the number of ordinary shares.
Price/Equity (P/E) - The "multiple" of earnings at which a stock is selling. The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing a stock’s current price by its current earnings per share.
Price/Free Cash Flow (P/FCF) Ratio - The ratio of the sum of the market values of the companies whose shares are held in a portfolio to their aggregate report free cash flow. Free cash flow is defined as a company's operating cash flow less the maintenance level of its capital expenditure.
Price/Sales Ratio - Determined by dividing a stock's current price by revenue per share (adjusted for stock splits). Revenue per share for the P/S ratio is determined by dividing revenue for the past 12 months by number of shares outstanding.
Price Spread - A spread in which the two options have the same expiration date but have different exercise or strike price.
Price-Weighted Index - An index using calculations of stock prices added together to compute a figure that indicates the general state of the market. The Dow Jones Index would be an example.
Primary Dealer - Any of 40 firms recognized by the Treasury Department as eligible to bid on Treasury and agency securities when they are initially issued and to make a market for secondary buyers.
Primary Market - (1) The initial offering of certain debt issues. (2) The main exchanges for equity trading.
Prime Rate - Interest rate that banks charge to their most creditworthy customers.
Principal - A brokerage firm when it acts as a dealer and marks up a purchase price or marks down a sale price when reporting the execution.
Principal Transaction Revenues - Revenues primarily comprised of net gains from market-making activities in OTC securities and specialist transactions in exchange-listed securities.
Principal Value - Represents an investment's original invested amount.
Private Banking Services - Services offered by U.S.Trust Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as U.S.Trust) to individual or institutional clients including mortgage and personal loans, and various deposit-taking products.
Private Company - A company which is not a public company and does not offer its shares to the general public.
Private Placement - An issue that is offered to a single or a few investors as opposed to being publicly offered.
Privatization - Conversion of a state run company to public limited company status often accompanied by a sale of its shares to the public.
Probate Price - The price used to assess the value of shares for inheritance tax purposes. Calculated on the "quarter up" principle. That is, instead of taking the Mid Price in the Official List, the difference between the two prices (bid and offer) given under "quotation" is divided by four, and the result added to the lower of the two prices.
Producer Price Index (PPI) - This index measures changes in wholesale prices. Because the producers of goods pay for items that consumers will eventually buy, this index is considered an important indicator of future consumer prices. Investors and economists use the PPI to gauge inflation rates months in advance. The data for the PPI is reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Profitability Margins - Numerical term found on an income statement calculated by dividing numbers such as Cash Flow, Operating Income, Gross Income or Net Income by the Revenues of the Company.
Profit Margin - A measure of a company's efficiency, determined by dividing net income by net sales during the past 12 months.
Profit-Sharing Plan - Kind of retirement plan in which an employer contributes to a trust to provide benefits to employees or their beneficiaries after retirement.
Program Trading - Trades based on signals from computer programs, usually entered directly from the trader's computer to the market's computer system and executed automatically.
Proprietary Funds - Schwab’s mutual funds that are administered and managed by Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. (CSIM) (see SchwabFunds), and U.S.Trust-advised Excelsior Funds family of mutual funds.
Proprietary Software - Software for which a company has exclusive rights. Some companies will only allow the investor to transact business with them through the use of their proprietary software, while others simply offer its use for one's convenience.
Proprietorship - Common form of business organization which is owned and managed by one individual.
Prospectus - A document that explains the terms of a new security offering — the officers, the outside public accounting firms, the legal opinion, and so on. Must be given to any customer who purchases new corporate and certain muni issues.
Proxy - A form and a process for voting via the mail, permitting stockholders to vote on key corporate issues without having to attend the actual meeting.
Proxy Fight - An attempt by a dissident group to take over the management of a corporation. The group sends proxies electing them to the board; the current management sends proxies favoring them. The shareholders cast their votes by selecting one proxy or the other.
Proxy Statement - Disclosure document delivered to shareholders required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that must be issued to provide information on matters in which a proxy vote is being solicited.
Public Limited Company (PLC) - A public company limited by shares and having a share capital, and which may offer shares for purchase by the general public. Only PLC’s may qualify for listing or trading on the USM on the London Stock Exchange.
Public Market - The listed exchanges through which zero-coupon investments can be purchased and sold.
Public Offering - An offering of new securities to the investing public at a public offering price that has been agreed upon by the issuer and the investment bankers. This can only be done after the issue has been registered with the SEC. The term is also used when referring to a secondary distribution of securities previously issued.
Public Offering Date - The first day the new issue is offered to the public, on or shortly after the effective date.
Public Offering Price - The price at which a new issue is offered to the public by underwriters.
Purchase Price - The amount paid to purchase a Treasury or agency obligation.