The fee a mutual fund pays to its investment advisors. This fee is expressed as a percentage of fund assets, and is paid by the mutual fund's shareholders.

Margin

The use of borrowed money to purchase securities.

Market Capitalization

The number of common stock shares outstanding times the share price. Provides a measure of firm size.

Market Order

An order placed with a broker to buy or sell a security at whatever the price is when the order is executed.

Market Risk

The volatility of a stock price relative to the overall market or index, as indicated by beta.

Market Sentiment

The feeling, sentiment or tone of a market. This is usually shown by the activity or price movement of the securities represented within the market. For example, a bullish market sentiment would be indicated by rising prices and a strong demand for securities, while a bearish sentiment would be indicated by falling prices and a lack of demand for securities.

Market Timing

An investment strategy based on predicting market trends. The main philosophy behind it, is to "buy low, sell high", therefore making the most money.

Master Plan

A retirement plan sponsored by a financial institution that an employer can adopt by simply executing a participation agreement. Its plan documents have been examined and approved by the IRS.

Master Trust

A trust that incorporates a number of pension plans, with several managers participating in a single investment pool. The master trust provides central custodianship of assets, allocation of monies among various money managers, analytical and consulting services, and centralized management.

Maturity

A bond maturity is the length of time it takes to repay investors' principal.

Minimum Participation Requirement

Defined benefit plans are required to meet certain minimum participation requirements. On each day of the plan year, a defined benefit plan must cover the lesser of 50 employees or the greater of: 40% of all employees; or two employees. This test is commonly known as the 50/40 test. If a company employs only one person, that person's participation would meet the minimum participation requirement.

Money Market Fund

A mutual fund that invests in the very short-term IOUs of the government and highly rated corporations. Money market funds pay a fluctuating interest rate, but maintain a fixed $1 per share value.

Money Purchase Pension Plan

A qualified defined contribution plan in which the employer is required to contribute a percentage of covered payroll (up to 25%) to the plan each year.

Mortality and Expense Ratio

An insurance company will deduct a percentage of a sub-account's assets in order to cover costs involved with its obligation to pay guaranteed annuity benefits.

Mutual Fund

An investment company that pools the money of many individual investors and uses it to buy stocks, bonds, money market instruments and other assets.Provides a method of investing in many different types of stocks or fixed income securities through a single investment in one fund.