What Is a Short Sale? A short sale is the sale of an asset or stock the seller does not own. It is generally a transaction in which an investor sells borrowed securities in anticipation of a price decline; the seller is then required to return an equal number of shares at some point in the
What Is Short Selling? Short selling is an investment or trading strategy that speculates on the decline in a stock or other security’s price. It is an advanced strategy that should only be undertaken by experienced traders and investors. Traders may use short selling as speculation, and investors or portfolio managers may use it as
What Is a Short Tax Year? A short tax year is a fiscal or calendar tax year that is less than 12 months in length. Individual taxpayers usually file on a calendar-year basis, so the short tax year applies primarily to businesses. It may occur when a business starts up in mid-year or changes its
What Are Short-Term Assets? Short-term assets or securities in investments refer to assets that are held for less than one year. In accounting, the term “current” refers to a short-term asset, which means, expected to be converted into cash in less than one year, or a liability, coming due in less than one year. The
What Is Short-Term Debt? Short-term debt, also called current liabilities, is a firm’s financial obligations that are expected to be paid off within a year. It is listed under the current liabilities portion of the total liabilities section of a company’s balance sheet. VIDEO: What’s Short-Term Debt? Understanding Short-Term Debt There are usually two types
What Is a Short-Term Gain? A short-term gain is a profit realized from the sale of personal or investment property, a capital asset, that has been held for one year or less. These gains are taxed as ordinary income, which is your personal income tax rate. Key Takeaways A short-term gain is a profit realized
What Is Short-Term Paper? Short-term paper refers broadly to fixed-income securities that typically have original maturities of less than nine months. Short-term paper is usually issued at a discount and provides a relatively low-risk financing alternative for companies, governments, or other organizations to fund normal operations. Key Takeaways Short-term paper is a broad category of
What Is Showrooming? The term showrooming refers to the practice of visiting brick-and-mortar retail stores to research merchandise before purchasing it online for a lower price. The practice allows individuals to look, touch, and test products before they spend their money, especially for higher-priced products. Showrooming became more frequent with the rise of smartphones and
What Is Shrinkage? Shrinkage is the loss of inventory that can be attributed to factors such as employee theft, shoplifting, administrative error, vendor fraud, damage, and cashier error. Shrinkage is the difference between recorded inventory on a company’s balance sheet and its actual inventory. This concept is a key problem for retailers, as it results in
What Is a Share Premium Account? A share premium account is typically listed on a company’s balance sheet. This account is credited for money paid, or promised to be paid, by a shareholder for a share, but only when the shareholder pays more than the cost of a share. This account can be used to write off
