Definition
The nominal dollar amount assigned to a security by the issuer. For an equity security, par is usually a very small amount that bears no relationship to its market price, except for preferred stock, in which case par is used to calculate dividend payments. For a debt security, par is the amount repaid to the investor when the bond matures (usually, corporate bonds have a par value of $1000, municipal bonds $5000, and federal bonds $10,000). In the secondary market, a bond's price fluctuates with interest rates. If interest rates are higher than the coupon rate on a bond, the bond will be sold below par (at a "discount"). If interest rates have fallen, the price will be sold above par. here also called face value or par value.
This content can be found on the following page:
http://www.investorwords.com/cgi-bin/getword.cgi?id=3583&term=par
email to a friend
print this definition
cite this definition
link to this page
Copy and paste this HTML in your website to link to this page
'par' appears in the definitions of these other terms on BusinessDictionary.com: Accord European Relatif au Transport International du Merchandis Dangereuses par Route (ADR), CIM, CMR, discount share, discount yield, and 
Related Articles from the InvestorGuide.com University
Introduction to Mutual Funds
An explanation of mutual funds, with specific emphasis on advantages and disadvantages of this type of investment. If you were thinking of investing in a mutual fund, read this article!
Prospectuses, Annual Reports, and Other Documents
In order to evaluate a mutual fund, you should read its prospectus and annual report, which describe the fund's investment objective, strategy, fees and expenses, past performance, risks, and largest holdings. Click here to learn more about each of these topics.
Basic Mutual Fund Concepts
Describes some of the terminology necessary to understand mutual fund investments, including open-end, closed-end, net asset value, public offering price, dividends and capital gains distributions, family, share classes, and dual-purpose fund.
Related Resources from InvestorGuide.com
Mutual Fund Research Tool
Use our research tool to find in-depth data about mutual fund quotes, news, data, and profile information. Click here to view our mutual fund list or enter a mutual fund ticker here:
|
|
|
